A few weeks back, I was browsing the web and headed to RegisterFly.com to see if they had been wiped off the net yet (no such luck!). I was shocked when I found I was redirected to “RegFly.com” and even more shocked to see that they had removed the ICANN termination notice that was supposed to be kept visible indefinently.

I took this opportunity to browse around and ended up in a live chat conversation with Robert O’Neil, former GM of RegisterFly, now the apparent owner and CEO. Whats more disturbing is that it has now emerged that Kevin Medina is in joint ownership, however Robert denies any involvement with Kevin.

After snooping and reading around, it appears that RegisterFly’s back to reselling domains from TuCows, how many unfortunate people they have as customers is unknown, however it does seem that TuCows are supporting these scam artists.

Shortly after my talk with “Bob”, RegisterFlies, the former information and help site for former RegisterFly customers re-opened its website and plans to continue providing coverage, support and to ensure that the world knows about Kevin and his scam squad!

Heres a copy of my chat discussion with bob. Its worrying that a person with his level of grammar, punctuation and general “people skills” is in charge of a chat session, let alone a company!

You are now chatting with bob.
bob: hello how can i help you
ME: Hi, why has your company registerfly rebranded to regfly?
bob: did not know we where not allowed to rebrand
ME: I was just wondering what the reason was for the rebranding, is it to avoid having to keep the ICANN termination notice or something else?
bob: well the company was sold in aug of 07
bob: so its not the same owners
bob: or mngt
bob: the new owners will be moveing all services over to regfly.com
bob: as well as a new site design
bob: and more tools
bob: i belive the process has already started
bob: the icann termination notice has nothing to do with us any more
ME: Sold to who? Robert O’Neill (CEO) was in the picture before the sale, and is still the CEO of RegisterFly…I know Kevin is now gone, and hope you guys can get the place back. However people (including myself) still have funds in their accounts that cant be used….I cant do anything in my account as its all broken.
bob: that served for the domain registrar part of the company who we no longer own or do any thing with as those names where trasfered to go daddy
bob: yes
bob: yes i was the GM
bob: of rfly when we had the problems
bob: i came on in feb of 07
bob: i bought the company from kevin
bob: in aug
bob: well just the site
bob: as well as 2 other investors
bob: in hopes of rebuilding the brand
ME: Ahh ok…I remember you were trying to help out….so whats happening to kevin? Will he be taken to court or anything?
bob: kevin has had nothing to do with this company since july of 07
bob: not a clue
bob: what happned to him
bob: lol
ME: oh ok…well thanks for the insight. I wish you luck at rebuilding the brand. You’ve got a big job ahead of you!
bob: yes
bob: thanks
bob: we are trying
bob: as rfly still has the best interface
bob: in the biz

Some rather worring facts have been made clear from this huge mess:

• RegisterFly is back, and is scamming people once again
• Kevin Medina is in some way in control of the company, along with Robert O’Neil (”Bob”)
• TuCows is either blind and doesn’t know what RegisterFly did (however this is very unlikely) or is happy to support these scammers
• The ICANN notice has been removed, and RegisterFly is trading as RegFly under a new registered company, “Retail Web Solutions, Inc.”

Here are a few useful links to read about everything.

Thread with the initial findings by myself
More findings from Registerflies
RegisterFlies.com

If anyone has and further information, feel free to leave a comment.