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.
