
Public Interest Registry, the .org registry, and the American Red Cross have joined together to curtail scammers seeking to take advantage of natural disasters and the Red Cross’ good name. It is the first time any registry operator has established a Trusted Notifier relationship with a major international humanitarian organisation like the American Red Cross.
The partnership between the two not for profits is described as “a first-of-its-kind” aims to weed out domain names that exploit the name and likeness of the Red Cross to deceive unsuspecting donors in the wake of natural disasters or humanitarian crises in the U.S. and around the world.
When people seek to donate to organisations like the Red Cross, particularly in response to natural disasters, there is often a proliferation of individual, online fundraisers – the majority of which are well-intentioned and aim to help those most in need. Unfortunately, there are also bad actors who take advantage of eager donors with the goal of redirecting the funds to themselves, instead of those actually in crisis.
The new partnership creates a “Trusted Notifier” relationship with the Red Cross – whereby the Red Cross will notify PIR of fraudulent activity occurring on PIR-operated domains such as .org and the other ten other top-level domains the organisation operates. Then, PIR will investigate and hold confirmed fraudulent domains accountable for violating their Anti-Abuse Policy.
The Trusted Notifier relationship with PIR builds upon the years long online safety commitment of the American Red Cross to protect the public from fraud and scams.
It is the third Trusted Notifier partnership for PIR. The others are with the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation who identifies and stops child sexual abuse materials, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration relating to the illegal distribution of opioids and narcotics online.
PIR notes that these relationships are not intended to curb any speech, satire, or criticism of the Red Cross. Only domain names that are engaged in fraudulent activities will be referred as part of this programme. Registrants will be offered due process by providing them with an Anti-Abuse Appeals Process in order to challenge determinations PIR makes under their Anti-Abuse Policy.