WHOIS Info Verification - 2013 RAA

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Dear Clients,

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) released a new mandate for the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) which involves verifying the accuracy of the domain name holder's WHOIS information.

Please see below details from our Registrar --

The following extensions fall under the purview of the new RAA:
.COM    .NET    .ORG
.BIZ    .INFO    .NAME
.XXX    .ASIA    .PRO
.MOBI    .TEL

Verifying the Registrant’s contact information

As a part of the Whois Data Accuracy specification, ICANN expects the Registrar to verify the contact information for the Registrant contact of each gTLD domain name, within 15 days of:

* a domain name being registered with unverified contact details,

* a domain name being transferred in, or

* the contact information of the Registrant contact information being modified.

If the domain holder does not verify the contact information within 15 days, the Registrar must suspend the domain name until the verification is completed. This requirement comes into effect from January 1st, 2014 - domain names that are already registered are not subject to such verification unless their contact information is modified.

How we shall comply with this requirement:

To fulfill our obligation, we are developing the capability to verify the email address of the Registrant contact. Starting January 1st, 2014, the Registrant contact of a domain name will receive an email notification to verify the email address. This mail will contain a link that the Registrant must click on, to complete the verification, within 15 days.

If the registrant does not complete the verification in the allotted time, we shall modify the name servers of the domain name to stop its resolution and point the domain name to a white-labeled holding page. This page will simply instruct that the domain name has been disabled due to the Registrant information being verified, and instruct the Registrant to contact their service provider to make it active again.

Some important aspects of this process:

1. The verification email will be sent out as soon as the email address is associated with a domain name. Additional reminders will be sent on the 7th and 14th day, if the verification isn’t done until then.

2. The verification email will be sent out from the Reseller’s email address. It shall be a compulsory system mail, which shall not be customized or turned off.

3. In the 15 day verification notice period, the domain name will continue to resolve. The domain holder will not be obstructed from using their domain name in any way, unless they don’t complete the verification process in the allowed time.

4. Once an email address has been verified, then all subsequent registrations, transfers or contact updates that use this email address will not require any verification.

5. Once a year, we send out a Whois Data Reminder email to the Registrant of the domain name, in accordance with ICANN guidelines. We shall monitor the delivery status of these emails – if the mail sent to a registrant email address of a domain name were to bounce back, our compliance team will review the case and take appropriate action against the domain name.

For a detailed information about the 2013 RAA, please see http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/approved-with-specs-27jun13-en.htm

Thank you.

Web.com.ph Inc.