> How is this a scam, exactly?
>
> You/your client allowed the domain name to expire and be deleted even 
> though
> that process takes a minimum of two months after the expiry date.  For at
> least one of those months the nameservers would have been removed for the
> name, rendering it inactive.  It clearly therefore wasn't in regular use
> if that went unnoticed for a whole month.

The fact is that many people dont have a clue ... and end up getting duped 
.. Chelsea proved that ..

It is simply the basis of governing, protecting those who will be taking 
advantage of.

In this case, the user didnt use their domain for email, and also used our 
DNS server which had SOA, so from their "view" everything was working 
nicely.

Yes, they could pay big $ to dispute the ownership, bow to the extortion 
attempt or simply forget about.

So what will be the go in the .au domain space? ...

Cheers Tony