I have solid evidence of WHOIS queries being intercepted by registrars, and domains being registered in anticipation of the webmaster purchasing the domain in a process called "frontrunning". This process is outlined in ICANN documentation, and is prohibited.
It has been suspected that the people involved in this are sniffing packets. My research has determined the process is not so advanced, it's merely the registrar owners or employees watching the queries to their own WHOIS database. Registrars often query other companies WHOIS databases, so the people watching the queries may not be the same sites you're querying through.
Quote:
Source: http://www.icann.org/tlds/pro2/Descr...20Policies.htm
No frontrunning: Registrars shall not engage in anticipating a consumer?s preference for a domain name (via sniffing of Whois data or other processes) and subsequently registering such domain names on behalf of the registrar, or any director, officer, employee or agent of a registrar.
|
This was originally brought to my attention through threads by Pornwolf, and Manowar. I'd appreciate if everyone could highlight, and try to describe where they've had domains snarked when they queried for their availability. If you could post the domain, and where they ended up, it would be appreciated.
I spoke with ICANN today and they have expressed interest in seeing evidence of this activity. The more, the better. Let's put this crooked behavior to an end. Feel free to send me a message:
Message me here.