Comments on: Whois data a key weapon in fraud fight, FTC says

The agency tells ICANN that the domain databases are critical to its fight against spyware and other Internet fraud.

[yoramnis]

CallingID has a reliable domains owner database

The who is problem is addressed by our company, Callingid.
CallingID uses unique algorithms and multiple external sources to determine who is the real owner of every web site. When a site hides its identity using a privacy protection service it is automatically determined. If the site uses a faked identity CallingID detects it and warn users that go to that site that there is a problem. On the other hand legitimate sites get green light telling users who is the owner, that the owner of the site is real and where this owner is located. CallingID users reported that they doubled the usage of online banking and eCommerce since they know who they are dealing with and if it is OK to do business with the site owner.
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[206538395198018178908092208948]

WHOIS Protection Services?

That wont solve the problem. Domain owners are using Whois Protection services to hide their identity for a small fee. A number of registrars offer this service.

[timomy]

Whois Research

There's a website called DomainTools.com that's been really useful for getting historical whois info.

[jsmith12]

The issue is

That as long as this info is public to anyone, there's going to be reluctance to post it all correctly.

Since ANYONE can see it, it's a problem for spammers, and email address harvesters. Not to mention if someone wants to cause trouble, they can get all the info they need from the site.

There needs to be some kind of control over who can acess what. Because I don't want all that info about me loose on the web.

[hadaso]

There's no real spam problem with addresses on WHOIS

During more than 3 years I received 68 spam messages on the addresses I post on the WHOIS record of my domain. (I changed that address three times during that period and I have them greylisted).

The real spam problem is not with the address published in the whois database but with generic addresses in the domain, that can receive lots of spam.

The real email address published on WHOIS just has to be real, but it doesn't have to be the same real email address you shared with your bank!