Verifying the credibility of the U.S. family foundation would have been
done in many different ways too, and is by no means a final check of
approval/credibility. In the same context WHOIS could be used to harass
the (for example) Kenyan NGO and its collaborators during upcoming
Kenyan elections.

On 07/06/2017 09:04 AM, Seun Ojedeji wrote:
> Very good use case which resonates with reasons I have used WHOIS in the
> past. I think it may be a useful exercise to also look at what
> field/data in WHOIS contributes(d) to helping a typical user in their
> quest. It seem some quest almost become impossible to achieve with proxy
> turned on.
> 
> Cheers!
> 
> Sent from my mobile
> Kindly excuse brevity and typos
> 
> On Jul 6, 2017 2:47 AM, "Sam Lanfranco" <[log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
> 
>     If I am not flogging a dead horse here I will share my latest use of
>     WHOIS.
> 
>     I am on the executive of an African organization dedicated to the
>     advancement of science in Africa. (I think I bring "diversity" :-)
>     ). Approached by a U.S. family foundation with an offer of support,
>     follow up was handed to me (as resident elder geek). WHOIS revealed
>     that the domain name was 6 weeks old. From Google and WHOIS the
>     Kenyan group to whom we were supposed to "funnel" partial funding
>     knew nothing. It was a variant of the classic "accounts receivable"
>     scam. WHOIS listed their address as in Brooklyn. When I offered to
>     meet them in Brooklyn there email account and website vanished. I
>     suspect that they guessed that (thanks to Google maps) I knew that
>     their headquarters where a vacant lot in Brooklyn.
> 
>     Could I have done most of that without WHOIS? Probably, with more
>     time and effort, but the domain name WHOIS information was a key
>     ingredient in my "trust and verify" inquiry process,. I favor
>     transparency unless there is an overwhelming reason for the
>     information to not be there. (Of course, I would have had more
>     difficult if they had exercised a privacy proxy option).
> 
>     Sam Lanfranco
> 

-- 
Niels ten Oever
Head of Digital

Article 19
www.article19.org

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