Epik and Rob Monster fined $10,000 in DNProtect settlement

Washington State insurance commissioner went after company for offering insurance product.

Domain name registrar Epik shut down its DNProtect service earlier this month, and now we know why.

The Washington State insurance commissioner was investigating DNProtect and entered into a consent decree with Epik and its former CEO, Rob Monster, last month.

Epik was running DNProtect as an insurance service without licensing by the state. Insurance is a heavily regulated service with various state regulations.

Attorney John Berryhill reported the service to Washington State’s insurance commission in 2020, and it began an investigation. Among the evidence was DNProtect referring to the service as insurance on its website and a NamePros thread in which Rob Monster discussed the service. Full details are in this Consent Order.

Search Engine Optimization professional Bill Hartzer said DNProtect was a 50/50 partnership between him and Rob Monster, although he might want to distance himself from that now.

Epik also operates an unlicensed Escrow service, and that’s part of the current troubles at the company. Escrow is also highly regulated in part to protect consumers. For example, customer funds for escrow must be kept in separate bank accounts. That hasn’t happened (at least in the past) at Epik, which is part of the reason people have not received their disbursements. I’m aware that people have contacted the Washington Attorney General about this.

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