Copied from mr-jordan.net.weebly.com: The scam email that predicted my site going down and why I ignored it: clue gund for ICANN and WHOIS: also, why is web.com sending me emails?

Weebly is absolutely perplexed by my site being down. As I was talking with the rep who promised my site would be back up, I remembered three scam emails I had received threatening to take down my site if I didn't provide my personal information. The representative of Weebly did say that WHOIS is some kind of governing body of the interment. I'd never heard that before so I was like "huh?"

Anyway, here is most of the email I was sent. My comments are in blue.


Dear Registrant, (Omg, how did they know I go by Registrant? Okay, lets repeat with a little less sarcasm. If this is a real thing, Registrant could apply to a lot of people. Vague wording is a scam clue.)

Your domain registration (I have a couple of domains through weebly so again, this smelled of a scam.) has been tentatively scheduled for deactivation on 01-15-2015. (I trusted if this were true, Weebly would contact me directly)  Please note, we’ve (Who is we? Vague, official sounding language is common in scams)  attempted to you reach you via telephone to discuss this matter .  Please read below for more information regarding your domain registration rights and responsibilities.

It has been It has been brought to our attention that some or all of the information associated with your domain registration is outdated or incorrect (This happens to be true... for a lot of reasons but mostly because I move back and forth between South Korea and the USA. Weebly has my credit card information and hasn't requested I update anything. Basically, I figured if there was an issue, Weebly would let me know.)  These types of complaints are brought to our attention in one of two ways:

1. ICANN (Who?)  - The Internet Corporate for Assigned Names and Numbers is responsible for accrediting Domain Registrars. (Huh?) ICANN requires domain registration Customers to keep their public WHOIS domain registration information current (unless you pay to keep your information private which makes this sound like a scam to get buy some kind of privacy package, and Weebly wouldn't be involved in that. No, really, Weebly has it's flaws but they wouldn't be involved in that.)  They (Wait, if "we" is ICANN and WHOIS then who are "they"? ) mandate that outdated contact information can be grounds for domain name cancellation. (What? Huh? Who is ICANN again? How are WHOIS and ICANN related. Also, this email came from web.com?) 
   
2. A Customer  or third party contact who may reach out to file a complaint (Let me guess, his name was Glenn?) to a Registrar.These complaints  are typically brought to our attention when another party is interested in purchasing the domain (Someone want's buy my site? How much!?), received unsolicited e-mail from the domain or are unable to reach the Registrant listed for the associated domain for a variety of reasons. (Have they heard of email? And by that I mean, one that isn't vaguely threatening with undefined pronouns such as "we." No really, I'm confused about how "we" is, because this message didn't come from ICANN. It came from [email protected])

If you have any questions regarding the ICANN policy, please see the following or you can view the  entire ICANN Registrar Agreement via:  http://www.icann.org/registrars/ra-agreement-17may01.htm

3.7.7.1 The Registered Name Holder shall provide to Registrar accurate and reliable contact details and promptly correct and update them during the term of the Registered Name registration, including: the full name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and fax number if available of the Registered Name Holder; name of authorized person for contact purposes in the case of an Registered Name Holder that is an organization, association, or corporation; and the data elements listed in Subsections 3.3.1.2, 3.3.1.7 and 3.3.1.8. (Since my site went down, I'm taking you guys seriously but I'm still confused about what ICANN is. I searched you guys through Google and looked at your website... My neighbor found my on floor. 

After a cup of strong coffee, I searched Google with "Can ICANN shut down my site?"which turned up no results. I also searched "ICANN + WHOIS",  "who is WHOIS", "Who are we?" and "Who are they".   Have you ever had a national identity crisis during a website outage? Well I have. Can you please had a link, "Site not working? Here's how to fix it."

Also, can you communicate with Weebly, because they're even more clueless than me.  We've tried updating my personal information but can't. Actually, I tried to update a long time ago, but as I've mentioned, I live and work in South Korea and I'm just used things being USA centric.)

Please check your records, update the WHOIS contact information (How do I do that?) and contact us to confirm this information is up to date as soon as possible (Us is ICANN???). Otherwise, we may be required to suspend the subject domain registration and/or associated website. ( You can't talk with Weebly or WHOIS? You guys are on your way to functioning like a government entity.)

You will need to log your Account Manager to review and update your contact information. In order to update your WHOIS database information, please have your User ID and password ready (Before my site went down, this wreaked of a scammer trying to get my password and user name and I was like nuhu. And now that I'm pretty sure you're behind my site going down, I'm just mad. Who are you that you can just turn off my site? Why didn't you contact Weebly? Why doesn't Google know about this kind of email? ) and follow the instructions via the he link below:   ('cus scam emails never ask targets to do that. Sigh. Also the link is at the very bottom under all the other links. It takes me to ICANN who sends me to WHOIS who sends me back to Weebly. I don't know when my site will be back up or if it ever will, and I still don't know who ICANN is or how they're linked with WHOIS or why I'm getting emails  from web.com.)