Nominet has added three new agencies to its initiative to provide law enforcement landing pages for domains suspended due to criminal activity. The pilot aims to improve transparency, prevent harm, and educate the general public to interact safely online. Under the current system web users would usually see an error message when a domain is suspended for criminal activity.

This initiative allows the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) to redirect web users to a secure site with consumer advice.

In collaboration with the MHRA, web users will be signposted to information on how to safely buy medicines online. This advice aims to protect patient health by preventing the purchasing of fake medicines and signposting safe online purchasing options. The FCA collaboration will see web users redirected to information on how to protect themselves from financial scams. This is particularly important in the financial sector as victims are often targeted repeatedly by criminals. The FCA estimate this could save the UK public millions.

While suspensions for the most serious organised crime are rare in .UK (only three suspensions between 1 November 2019 and 31 October 2020) the consequences can be particularly harmful. The NCA will also have the functionality to redirect web users to Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and internet crime.

On conclusion of the pilot Nominet will assess the impact and report publicly on the next steps. To read Nominet’s press release in full, click here.