‘Cyber-squatter’ exploits web law loophole
A father-of-two from Birmingham has become one of the online world’s most feared cybersquatters
ONE of Britain’s most prolific “cybersquatters”, who has bought thousands of internet domain names and repeatedly been accused of extortion, can be revealed as a Birmingham father-of-two.
An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph found that Wesley Perkins, a 47-year-old former courier, has used numerous aliases and created fake offshore firms to trade in web addresses linked to businesses and trademarks.
Often buying the site from as little as £10 after a company accidentally lets its ownership expire, he sometimes diverts traffic to pornography sites before demanding thousands of pounds to return it to its former owner.
In a challenge to both UK law and the complex network of bodies that police the internet, the “cyber-gangster” said: “What I do is legal, and until the law is changed I will continue to do it.”
Damian Collins MP, chairman of the digital select committee, called for a review into whether the law is up to protecting businesses from web hijackers.
WESLEY PERKINS has made a career out of upsetting people. By his own admission, there are many who loathe him with a passion.
As one of Britain’s most prolific “cybersquatters” he is eager to conceal his identity, particularly as lawyers and victims accuse of him “extortion” and “blackmail”.
Following an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph, it can be revealed that Mr Perkins, a 47-year-old Birmingham father of two, is responsible for numerous aliases and fake offshore companies that he has used to buy thousands of domain names linked to businesses or trademarks.
Despite being described as a notorious “cyber gangster” – he even tried to target Rolex and ExxonMobil – he is not breaking the law and appears unstoppable. He has lost scores of intellectual property arbitration rulings that found he had bought company domains in bad faith, often diverting traffic to hardcore Russian pornography and then demanding thousands of pounds to sell it back to its former owner.
But those arbitration panels rarely know his true identity and cannot fine him or stop him from trading.
Now, Damian Collins, Conservative MP and chairman of the digital, culture, media and sport select committee, is calling for an urgent review into whether British law is capable of protecting businesses from the curse of the cybersquatter.
“From this investigation, it would seem this is a story of straightforward extortion,” he said. “We should, as a matter of urgency, look at how the law can be strengthened to make it an offence to hijack the digital identity of people’s businesses in this way.”
Instances of cybersquatting reached an all-time high last year, as more than 3,000 cases were lodged claiming domain names had been bought unfairly, often after a company accidentally lapsed on its subscription.
While there have been 40,000 such disputes since 1999, many more businesses are believed to have paid “ransoms” to get their company websites back, limit reputational damage and avoid costly legal fees.
The World Intellectual Property Organisation, a United Nations agency that mediates in disputes, recently warned businesses and consumers to be “vigilant” as cybersquatting has also been linked to other cyber crime.
Responding to questions over email, Mr Perkins’s belligerence suggests he revels in his reputation of being untouchable.
“To everybody out there – now, and whoever loses their domain to me in the future – remember it’s not personal, it’s just business,” he said. “Morals don’t pay the bills. People call me a cyber gangster claiming I extort and blackmail them. Call me what you like, but the fact is what I do is legal, and until the law is changed, I will continue to do it.”
Wesley Dean Perkins was born the summer of 1970 in the small village of Meriden, near Solihull, West Midlands. At the age of 27, he married, had two children and moved into a semi-detached house under the flightpath of Birmingham International Airport. He worked as a courier, setting up the ambitiously named Perkins International Ltd. However, when he bought a domain name someone else wanted, he negotiated a $15,000 price tag.
“I accidentally added another zero to the price. That’s how it all started,” he said. Mr Perkins realised that domain names with a “country code” (such as .co.uk for Britain or .fr for France) required greater transparency because they are well regulated by that country’s governing authority. Generic names (such as .com, .org, .net) were sold by their hundreds millions and are harder to regulate.
At first, he used his real name and Birmingham address. But soon he realised he could hide anonymously. He invented TrevMedia of Jersey and The
Cloud Corp of the Cayman Islands. The
Sunday Telegraph has established neither exist, but Mr Perkins insists “they sound good” and are no different to using a PO Box.
Inevitably, grabbing domain names and diverting their visitors to pornographic websites upsets the businesses who lost that domain, a reason he says he uses aliases.
“I get death threats. I once snatched a club domain name belonging to an American gangster. He said: ‘Do you know who the f--- I am?’. He was going mental. I said: ‘Don’t take it personal, it’s just business.’”
A dab hand at programming, he invented a “bot”, a web robot that scours thousands of sites that sell domain names. “I set the parameters of a bot which can do the work of an army to find me the domains I want, then it goes to the auction and bids. That’s how it got big. The business only requires an hour or so a day of work for negotiations.”
While companies can pay £1,300 to an arbitration panel to rule on whether a site was purchased in “bad faith”, most do not because they fear lengthy and costly legal process and damage to their reputation.
“I have lost count how many domains I have bought and sold, it’s thousands,” Mr Perkins revealed.
“Ninety-nine per cent would rather do a quick deal. Not many go to arbitration .... because of the cost involved and the time it takes – it makes no commercial sense.”
In 2006, he was found to have “blatantly” attempted to disrupt the busi- ness of Rolex, the Swiss luxury watchmaker, by buying the domain names ReplicaRolex and RolexReplica with the .co.uk ending, and demanding £1,000 for them. After being ticked off by the panel for giving false contact details, he was ordered to hand the addresses to Rolex.
Four years later, the Workers United Union of America accidentally lapsed on its payments for the domain workersunitedunion.com.
Mr Perkins bought it, before “accidentally” diverting its users to pornography and then asking $28,000 (£21,000) to return it to the union. The panel ruled he was acting in bad faith and he was told to hand it back.
Last year, AD Justice, an American novelist, complained Mr Perkins had snatched her website, diverted it to pornography and a pharmaceuticals site before demanding $6,700 (£5,000) for its return.
After telling the panel of the “significant” impact that it had on her “reputation and livelihood” they ruled Mr Perkins bought it in bad faith, had no rights or legitimate reason to own it and so should return it.
He was also accused by the mayor of British Columbia of extortion after he acquired the Chamber of Commerce website for the Canadian province’s, diverting it to a pornographic site and demanding $10,000 (£7,500) for its return.
Using the name Al Perkins of St Helier with which he bought the domain name, he told a local newspaper the transaction was “just business”.
But, should business involve using pornography to ramp up his bargain- ing power? “It’s simple. I can earn revenue from each click, view or sign-up. As a bonus, it may hurry along a sale,” he said.
Failing to keep up a subscription to a domain name is, to Mr Perkins, no different to losing your house or car by defaulting on a loan.
“It’s not like I steal them from people,” he said. “I buy domains legitimately and sell them on to the original owner or a competitor – whoever pays the highest price.”
He has been told how he is “famous” among American lawyers handling trademark and internet brand disputes – “I am notorious for what they call domain hacking.”
David Taylor, a specialist in intellectual property at the international law firm Hogan Lovells, said he fights a “constant battle” to try to identify those individuals trading in domain names that are linked to fraud, malware and pornography.
“There is no need to prove a right to a name, to prove you are who you say you are when buying and registering a domain name,” he said.
“So, when going after bad actors we are often faced with either false information or registrations whereby the registrant is masked, adding to the difficulty of putting a stop to the nefarious activity.”
Although iCann (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), which is responsible for maintaining a stable internet, is trying to make the system of buying domain names more transparent and accountable, it is feared that will be too complicated and expensive.
‘Morals don’t pay the bills. People call me a cyber gangster, claiming I extort and blackmail them ... the fact is what I do is legal’