This document is very confusing. The section : "(3) Adding 'abuse output' Option " describes the changes to the result returned for "$ whois 10.0.0.10". However the result displayed is actually the result before the change. This is followed by a description of the result of "$ whois -b 10.0.0.10". The result includes "e-mail:" attributes but no "abuse-mailbox:" attribute. So which request do I use to obtain the "abuse-mailbox:" attibute? . In your examples it is only returned with the "$ whois -L 10.0.0.10". And yet I am supposed to use the "$ whois -b 10.0.0.10" to get the abuse contacts. Should I expect to ignore the attributes and treat any email address returned with the "whois -b" request as an abuse contact? I have tried using the "whois -b" and I have yet to get a result without ERROR appearing.