News & Updates

Earth to NetEarth

What do illegal Internet pharmacies need to survive and thrive? Among other things, they need a Domain Name Registrar that will allow criminals to use its services to register domain names for websites that sell unregulated pharmaceuticals without a prescription.

Some Registrars, including GoDaddy, eNom, and Directi and several others, have shown a commitment to disallowing their registration services from being used in the facilitation of unambiguously criminal activity.

Others have not been so committed. Today, as an example, our blog will recount our notifications to NetEarth One, an ICANN-accredited Registrar registered as a Nevada corporation but operating out of the United Kingdom. As explained below, the company continues to allow its registration services to be used by rogue Internet pharmacies, despite numerous rounds of notifications and requests, including from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), and letters by government agencies forwarded to NetEarth attesting that some pharmacy “licenses” displayed on the websites are forgeries.

On June 19th 2010, LegitScript notified Chris Pelling, the point of contact for NetEarth, about 150 rogue Internet pharmacy domain names using NetEarth’s domain name registration services. Most of these rogue Internet pharmacies are affiliated with the notorious Russian criminal network commonly known as GlavMed, which sells prescription drugs without a prescription, sells unregulated pharmaceuticals, and practices pharmacy without a license. The websites claim to be “Official Canadian Pharmacy” but are neither official, Canadian, nor pharmacies at all. The network is widely known in Internet security circles as tied to Russian organized crime. (To be clear, these are not otherwise-legitimate foreign pharmacies that are shipping a few genuine or generically equivalent products outside of their jurisdiction as an incidental matter now and then. Rather, it’s a whole-scale criminal organization.)

Our notification to NetEarth stated:

LegitScript is contacting you to notify you about over 150 “rogue” Internet pharmacies selling prescription drugs without a prescription, utilizing your DNR services. We accordingly request that you suspend these domains based on a violation of your Terms and Conditions (specifically, 5(3)(1)). Please be advised that the sale of prescription drugs without a prescription is a criminal (typically felony) offense under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) as well as numerous state laws…(and) in nearly all countries (including the US, Canada, throughout Europe, Japan and elsewhere) pharmacies must be licensed in the jurisdictions where they ship prescription drugs.

We received a response the same day from Chris Pelling, who runs the NetEarth Group, saying that it would be investigated. We never heard back, and the domain names remained online, most of them to this day.

Subsequently, in August 2010, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), which represents the government agencies that license and regulate pharmacies, wrote to Mr. Pelling, “urg(ing) (NetEarth) to take steps to prevent the use of (its) registration service by Web sites engaged in the illicit and illegal sale of prescription drugs.”

So, what happens when a Registrar ignores these notifications? Well, as of today, LegitScript has documented more than twice as many rogue Internet pharmacies – nearly 375 – now using NetEarth’s registration services as compared to before. In other words, according to our data, as rogue Internet pharmacy operators realized that NetEarth could be a safe place for their domain names, we saw an increase in domain name registrations with NetEarth by Internet criminals in Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus and elsewhere. And as a result, NetEarth is profiting from domain names registered for a criminal purpose.

For a second time, on December 1st 2010, LegitScript notified Mr. Pelling and NetEarth about these illegal Internet pharmacy domain names, plus the additional 200 or so registered since then. Included in our notifications were letters from government agencies attesting that some of the “licenses” displayed by the Internet pharmacies are forgeries. We’ve received no reply, and all of the domain names are still online, still registered with NetEarth, and still selling unregulated pharmaceutical products without a prescription.

As of today, among the rogue Internet pharmacies registered with NetEarth:

• About 175 are part of the criminal GlavMed network operating out of Russia.
• About 75 are part of the Russian EvaPharmacy network. We provided Mr. Pelling proof in the form of government documentation that these websites display forged pharmacy licenses.
• The remainder of the websites are part of similar criminal networks, such as Rx-Partners, 4rx, Rx-Promotion or MyRxAffiliateProgram – all well-known criminal pharmaceutical affiliate networks. One additional website is selling anabolic steroids without a prescription. All of these have Russian criminal ties, none require a prescription, all sell unregulated drugs, and none are appropriately licensed as a pharmacy.

Earth to NetEarth: we have a problem. Internet criminals, rogue online pharmacies and intellectual property thieves rely on Registrars who do nothing when presented with evidence that their services are being used in the facilitation of a crime. It also makes a mockery out of the company’s own Terms and Conditions. (If they aren’t enforced, what’s the point?)

We are all for freedom on the Internet, but freedom and anarchy are not the same. The existing Internet infrastructure was founded based on the assumption that the Internet should not be under the thumb of governments or law enforcement. However, the flip side of this has always been an expectation that Registrars, ISPs and other companies within the Internet infrastructure would govern themselves in a responsible manner, and not let criminals and fraudsters run wild. Anyone wondering why government regulatory agencies are frustrated and pushing for greater authority over the Internet need look no further than non-responsive Registrars like NetEarth to understand the basis for that frustration. When Registrars voluntarily engage in self-governance, that’s a step in the direction of, not away from, protecting Internet independence and freedom.

Listed below are the rogue Internet pharmacy domain names registered with NetEarth. For a third time – this time, publicly – we renew our request to NetEarth to terminate its relationship with the GlavMed, EvaPharmacy and similar criminal organizations and suspend these domain names, which have no lawful purpose anywhere and exist solely for the purpose of making money by selling unregulated pharmaceutical products in violation of applicable laws and drug safety regulations.