(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Domain registrar and web hosting provider ResellerClub (www.resellerclub.com) and online pharmacy verification service LegitScript (www.legitscript.com) announced last week that they have had “very promising results in their united effort against abusive domain name registrations.”
As the largest online pharmacy verification service in the United States, LegitScript has approved over 230 online pharmacies as having met its baseline standards for legitimacy and safety, and monitors over 35,000 rogue Internet pharmacies.
The two companies have been working together for the past few months to identify and block domain names associated with rogue online pharmacies that were registered through ResellerClub.
As a result, they have managed to shut down thousands of rogue online pharmacies, mostly over the past six months.
This is certainly not the first time a web host has gotten involved in the fight against rogue pharmacies.
In 2007, Go Daddy’s 24-hour Abuse Department shut down more than 1,300 different websites affiliated with rogue pharmacies, which helped contribute to former President George W. Bush signing into law a bi-partisan legislation that gives web hosts the tools they need to shutdown these kinds of websites.
The legislation seeks to stop rogue pharmacies from conducting business online and help prevent the purchase of drugs online without a valid prescription.
LegitScript reported that six months ago, over 13 percent of the rogue Internet pharmacies in its database, or roughly 8,000 at the time, were registered through ResellerClub.
The companies collaborated to bring this number down, and although LegitScript’s rogue Internet pharmacy list has grown to over 35,000 domains, ResellerClub domains account for only 0.5 percent of these rogue Internet pharmacies.
The initiativewas successful in that 75 percent of the sites that were shut down remained offline, several months later, while nearly all of the remaining 25 percent sites turned to other registrars to set up shop.
LegitScript works with domain name registrars, such as ResellerClub, to find and shut down rogue online pharmacies.
The company will be meeting with various global government agencies to find out which domain name registrars are the main sponsors of online pharmacy crime and refuse to suspend such domains.
“We are happy to be commended by such an eminent organization of the Internet community,” says Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of ResellerClub. “One factor that cannot be overstated is that this could not have been possible without the cooperation that our Resellers have continuously provided. Results like these only spur us on to work harder towards our commitment to online safety.”
