Url ??

I heard a radio ad soliciting earthquake aid for New Zealand ( japan will be next!) but what struck me as funny is the the url ended in .govt.nz The .govt ( vs .gov) made me suspicious that is was a scam, but that does appear to be a legit domain. Where can you find out what is up with a domanin name? I understand .com , and it seems you can trust a .gov or a .mil ( not the you should necessarily trust the gov, but the website is probably safe!!!) What about others?

I just wrote and asked my buddy in Auckland. He would know Jim. That is nice of you to donate, not too many people would.

Don't confuse the TLD (Top Level Domain) part of the URL with the middle portion. There are TLDs like GOV, COM, INFO, EDU, etc. mostly for US based sites. Much of the rest of the world uses country codes for the TLD while others go for the coveted dot COM even if they are not US based. Some also tack their contry code on the end of a something.com URL. Sure makes for confusion when trying to ferret out phishing sites.

For example, Industry Canada is http://IC.GC.CA so for Canada, GC represents Government of Canada with of course the CA TLD.

Jim,

Here is part of his email to me:

Kia Ora Wahine.

I would NOT use that site, however newzealand.govt.nz will have no issues.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm Are you checking up on us ha ha ha ha .

All is well here, however not all the victims from the Christchurch Earthquake have yet been recovered. But when we look at what happened in Japan we were so lucky with approx 200 deaths.

He's me mate.

you can go to http://www.whois.net/ and type in the URL and it will give you some info about who registered it. Don't know if that will do anything for you