Finding the actual owner of a website?

Factual Questions
1

My coworker is driving me nuts.

She is a nice lady and uses the Internet to
socialize and date.

She has found a lot of success and a few “ugly men,” but nothing out of the rdinary. Now she uses a very odd screen name, it’s
pretty unique (I won’t use the real name but it’s like) VRURU.

Last week she was looking around Google and entered the screen name and a website came up as VRURU.COM.

Well the website is very simple. It’s a blue background, it has a logo and a stick figure and the worlds, “Laura I’ll Always Remember You.” She is totally freaked out.

The stick figure she uses as an aviator on a lot of talk sites. But in reality it is just a stick figure she drew with the MS Paint that comes on Windows 2000.

She is convinced someone is stalking her. Now I did a source and in the “meta”
Section it does say “Laura, New York, Chicago, Seattle, CBS, Cool, Nice,
Friend.” Those are cities she lived in, she at one time worked for CBS and
the rest is self explained.

I went and did a look up and it says 1and1.com registerd the domain privately. I told her and she blasted off an email telling 1and1 to take it down.

First of all I doubt they will, I mean while this site seems to be directed at her, it has no image and Laura could beanyone. It’s only one page, and the only words on it. “Laura I’ll Always Remember You,” are not exactly a threat.

She can’t imagine who’d go to the trouble of setting up a website, but I did go to the wayback machine, and they have a cache of it from March 2004, so the site has been around, and it is unchanged by the way, for three years now, and she’s never heard from anyone or been stalked or harassed or anything. So my guess it is an old site someone forgot about.

I tried to do a reverse IP look up but 1and1 has over 250 other websites registered to that IP?

So any other things I can do to find out who owns this site?

2

Short of a subpoena, that’s about it. You could try sending email to “admin@vruru.com” (or info@, webmaster@, etc.) and see if anyone responds.

3

I just want to be sure, here. You did a WHOIS lookup, such as this one?

You should perform a Whois lookup on VRURU.com, and it will give you not only the registrant, but more importantly, the ICANN-accredited Registrar.

Then go to the actual registrar’s website, and do a similar search on their own database. They will likely have more information.

4

Assuming the WHOIS entry for that domain is not missing or outright falsified. I think it is illegal to lie on a WHOIS entry these days in America, but I don’t know if that law is ever enforced, if it ever could be meaningfully enforced (I doubt it), or if the law means what I think it means. Of course, if the registrant is outside America it doesn’t matter anyway.

5

I think you mean avatar, not aviator.

6

A private registration isn’t necessarily a lie. I use private registrations on all of my sites. It cuts down the junk mail, and it also cuts down a certain radical fringe element from wanting to bust my kneecaps. Private registrations are just registrations by proxy or trust. The private registrar owns the domain, even though you still have control over it, even in the registrar’s control panel (i.e., I still control my domains via GoDaddy, but DomainsByProxy is shown as the owner). Short of a subpoena to DomainsByProxy, I’m safe and following the law.

7

Thanks Monty that is what I meant avatar

Yes the domain is a prive registration

Here it is

registrant-firstname: Oneandone
registrant-lastname: Private Registration
registrant-organization: 1&1 Internet, Inc. - Contact | IONOS
registrant-street1: 701 Lee Road, Suite 300
registrant-street2: ATTN: VRURU.COM.
registrant-pcode: 19087
registrant-state: PA
registrant-city: Chesterbrook
registrant-ccode: US
registrant-phone: +1.8772064254
registrant-email: proxy199665@1and1-private-registration.com

The site actually lists an email, I sent one but nothing bounced back and I’ve not got a reply.

Seeing as how old the site is, as I said I looked it up on the wayback machine, it’s the exact same thing 3 years ago, It is probably forgotten.

I looked at 1and1.com and I was shocked to see how cheap a domain name is. Only $6/year? Now wonder people can set up sites like this.

8

At least she probably isn’t using your username. That could make things more difficult, I’d imagine.

9

Whois should give info on when the registration expires. From that you can gather if the web site has been renewed year to year or paid several years at once.