In article , TELECOM Digest noted in response to Joseph :
Of course, spammers/scammers/phishers can, and *do* use raw IP addresses, without having domain-names attached. So can anybody else. e.g. http://208.31.42.81/index.html or mailto:esteemedmoderator@[208.31.42.98]
Thanks to the wonders of HTML, unsophisticated readers need never _see_ the above forms, you do something like a href=http://208.31.42.81/>Telecom Digest or a href=mailto:esteemedmoderator@[208.31.42.98] email Patrick Townson or fatuously: email a href=mailto:esteemedmoderator@[208.31.42.98] snipped-for-privacy@whitehouse.gov/
Domain-names are not necessary. They are simply a 'convenience'.
Is 'directory assistance' (a non-common-carrier, *non-regulated* ancillary service for the PSTN) responsible when you get telemarketing calls? or harassment calls?
Is _directory assistance_ responsible for checking out the 'history' of the person who buys into having their name 'indexed' in the database? ILEC telephone service usually includes getting entered into the database. CLEC telephone service often does *NOT*. Frequently you have to order that separately, sometimes via the CLEC, sometimes directly from the ILEC. Just like the way you can get your non-ILEC, or even VOIP number listed in the ILEC 'white pages' phone book.
Registrars serve an essentially identical function to 'directory assistance'.
[TELECOM Digest Editors' Note: No, directory services are not responsible for that type of phone call. But we can and do prevent that type of phone call by having our numbers unlisted/non-pub. And I do not agree that the registrar serves an 'essentially identical' function. One difference might be that telco makes the number assign- ment and _forwards_ that information to the various directory services where no single entity tells the registrar what numerics will be applied; the registrar simply assigns the requested name and tells the root servers to deal with the names. If no registrar ever listened to you and assigned the name you wanted, thus no root servers would ever know of that name, then how would anyone be able to reach you _by number only_ if the root servers did not know what to do with the number?So I, John Q. Spammer go to an ISP and ask for a connection. I tell ISP I want to be known as 'spam.com'. I do not tell the ISP I want to be known as '208.31.42.98' ... ISP says I will take care of all that once you get installed by a registrar. Quite a difference, the registrar _is_ like directory assistance, but different in the sense that directory assistance does not _assign_ anything, but simply reports on what has been assigned. So if the registrar was not a greedy son-of-a-bitch and started saying NO! that would help a lot. Oh yes, I know that John Q. Spammer could try to cut a deal under the table direct with the ISP, or whomever it is that physically makes his connections in and out, but ISPs working in concert with registrars could do a lot to clean up the mess. And like the old system which was used with FIDO, when a site becomes a nuisance, he gets delisted, and if others up the line do not cooperate then _they_ get delisted also. The rule ISP's and registrars would use is that if John Q. Spammer was expelled by whoever, then no one touches him or works with him. PAT]