Peter Francis-Macrae, 23, was charged with nine offences,
including fraudulent trading charges relating to the Domain
Registry Services scam in 2004.
This scam involved sending fake invoices to .uk domain name
holders, advising that the registrant could lose its domain name
unless the invoice was paid. The invoice was for a fee many times
higher than the sum charged by the national registry, Nominet
UK.
Francis-Macrae, who used the moniker “Weaselboy,” is thought to
have netted around £1.6 million from the scam and others like it.
He ran his operation from his bedroom in the family home in St
Neots, Cambridgeshire.
Times Online reports that when Trading Standards investigated
Francis-Macrae, he called and threatened them with "petrol and
matches".
Nominet began an awareness campaign, bringing the fraud to the
attention of the public, and earning itself a blackmail threat from
Francis-Macrae. According to reports, Francis-Macrae threatened to
launch a denial of service attack on the registry unless they
removed a warning about the scam from the Nominet site. Instead, he
was promptly arrested and a criminal investigation began.
The registry also filed a civil action against Francis-Macrae –
accusing him of infringing Nominet’s rights in its WHOIS database.
It won that action in February this year.
A jury at Peterborough Crown Court yesterday found
Francis-Macrae guilty of fraudulent trading, concealing criminal
property, blackmail, making death threats and threatening to damage
property.
