Yahoo! Private Domain Registration helps shield you from unwanted solicitors. When third parties locate your domain information in the public WHOIS database, they will find, instead of your personal contact information, an email address, postal address, and phone number for Yahoo!'s domain name registration partner, Melbourne IT. A viewer who would like to communicate with the registrant, administrator, technical contact, or billing contact for your domain will be able to send his message only through Melbourne IT. (Please be aware that Melbourne IT reserves the right to disclose your contact information to comply with laws and other regulations as it deems appropriate. Learn more.)

When an interested third party sends a message regarding your domain, the communication will be received by Melbourne IT. Melbourne IT will handle these communications in the following ways:

Email: Emails will be scanned to determine if they can be categorized as bulk mail, or spam. Emails marked as spam will not be delivered. If the email is determined not to be spam, Melbourne IT will send an automatic reply to the sender asking him to enter his message in a designated web-based form.

Like the original email, the information in this form will be reviewed and discarded if it is determined to be spam. Legitimate communications will be forwarded to you, the domain owner, or to your administrative, technical, or billing contact at the email address currently on file — but hidden from the public — in the WHOIS database.

Postal mail: Melbourne IT will open all postal mail sent to your domain and will destroy any communications it determines to be junk mail. Remaining letters that require proof of receipt and are traceable (such as certified, express, or courier mail) will be scanned, and the scans will be emailed to the administrative contact of your domain at the email address currently on file (but hidden from the public) in the Melbourne IT database. If the mail is too large to be scanned, Melbourne IT will forward the mail to your administrative contact, free of charge, at the postal address on file.

Note: Melbourne IT will keep your original mail for 30 days, and store copies of your scanned mail for seven years.

Telephone: If a third party tries to contact you via the Melbourne IT phone number listed in the public WHOIS database, an answering service will instruct him how to contact you using the email or postal mail methods outlined above.

For more information about how Melbourne IT will handle communications to your domain contacts, please visit Melbourne IT's web site to review the Private Registration Service Terms and Conditions.