Unsolicited phone calls from web design companies

I am not sure I would go that far (and they are certainly shady, so let’s not defend them too vigorously). The point I was making was that there are enough jurisdictions where there are insufficient data protections, or where such legislation exists but it is not enforced in practice. You only need a few countries like that to create a flourishing grey-market in boiler-room spam merchants.

That all said, registrars that operate in each country are subject to the data protection legislation of that country. Here in the UK one must give a real name and a valid email address, but Nominet would certainly not publish telephone numbers unless they are explicitly provided for the purpose. I have always given fake or empty numbers for domain purchasing for this exact reason, and have never had it queried.

Unfortunately, US data legislation tends to be thought of as weaker from a consumer protection than most EU equivalents (which is why EU Data Habor was necessary).

OP, perhaps you can modify your registration details with the registrar so that your number is removed, or a fake one put in its place? Just make sure you maintain a valid email address for the hostmaster and other common aliases.

If you, as a UK national, go to the trouble of setting up your business with a US phone number from which to make calls to US phone numbers, THAT portion of your business is subject to US laws.

I seem to have been under the misimpression that 000webhost (dot) com was a DBA of freehosting (dot) com – if they are actually separate companies then I have no idea why I should have signed up for this forum, and this whole thread is moot except for the now-painfully-obvious lesson that putting a real phone number on WHOIS will subject you to dozens of spam phone calls and texts.

1 Like

Maybe, though spammy companies operating from overseas boiler-rooms will usually just rent a US phone number until it is shut down. Same happens with spam-sending servers or “burner” phone cards for SMS spam. I’m not saying it’s right, just that you may be pointing a gun at the wrong people.

1 Like

As put above!

moot :stuck_out_tongue:

Have a great day everyone!

1 Like