Godaddy fuckers... You won't believe this...
 

I don't fucking believe the Email I just got from Godaddy... It's fucking ridiculous!!!

The story so far...

I sell a product through Clickbank.com (using clickbank as my processor). I have an affiliate that has used SPAM to promote my site. I do not allow SPAM, in fact, I fucking hate SPAM!

Anyway, Godaddy have received a SPAM complaint. They Emailed me telling me I was in breach of their TOS.

So I've taken positive steps to stop the spamming and contacted Clickbank to shut down the offending affiliates account. I have told Godaddy this...

Here's the Email I just received:

---------------------------------

Dear Mr. **********,

Thank you for your prompt response.

As the registrant of ********.com you are ultimately responsible for
your domain name. Any email mail advertisement that is driving traffic
to, or generating revenue for, your website or domain name is your
responsibility. If your clients violate our anti spam policy they place
your domain name in jeopardy.

I have supplied an example address from a complaint in order to allow
you to investigate the situation and show proof of opt-in to your
mailings. If you can provide such proof, via server logs showing Date,
Time, and IP address of when the subscription took place, or a copy of
their opt-in confirmation email, we can probably chalk this up as a
situation where the person has forgotten they opted-in.

The example address is: *******@compuserve.com, a copy of the
offending email message has been included at the end of this message to
assist you in your investigation.

I recommend that you contact your affiliate and obtain the requested
opt-in proof. If you do not have this information, or cannot obtain it,
you are in violation of your registration agreement and Go Daddy's
anti-spam policy.

For more information on our Anti-Spam policy, follow this link:
https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/no_spam.asp.

Please keep in mind that it is not our intention to cause anyone's
business to suffer and we do appreciate your response and cooperation.
Because of your willingness to resolve this issue thus far, your
services have not been interrupted, however this situation remains
unresolved.

While we do consider you ultimately responsible for the use of your
domain name, we understand you cannot guarantee that each and every
client you provide services to will act responsibly. Because of this Go
Daddy offers a solution that may be a better fit for your particular
situation. We refer to this solution as our "Abuse Enforcement Program".

If you intend to provide services to your clients that involve the use,
or marketing of, your domain name, you must require your clients to
abide by Go Daddy's anti spam policy. These services include, but are
not limited to, the following:

- Affiliate Advertising Programs (aka "clickthru" programs)
- Website Hosting/Email Services (free or paid)
- Multi-Level Marketing Programs
- Independent Contractor Programs
- Web Services Providers (email, hosting, web design)

If you agree to the terms of the "Abuse Enforcement Program" outlined
below, Go Daddy will accept, in good faith, your commitment as proof of
your desire to correct this problem and enforce our anti-spam policy.

"Abuse Enforcement Program" terms are as follows:

1. Authorize GoDaddy.com to charge a $100 non-refundable administration
fee* to the credit card on file for your account. This fee is used to
cover the costs of responding to or "cleaning up" the outstanding spam
complaints Go Daddy has received against your domain name so far.

2. Terminate the services you are providing to the organization
circulating the mailing that has generated the complaints we have
received.

3. Reply to this message with a statement that you will terminate the
services of any future client that violates Go Daddy's No Spam policy.

4. Provide both a primary contact and secondary contact email address.

In the future, Go Daddy will send a "warning notice" to these contact
addresses if we receive additional spam complaints. If you respond to
these "warning notices" within 5 days no action will be taken against
you. This will allow you handle the problem on your end preventing any
interruption of service to your clients that are not at fault. Go Daddy
itself has a similar agreement with our upstream provider AT&T.

-----

If this solution is not agreeable to you, or you are unable to comply
with these terms, you can transfer your domain name to another
registrar. We require that you pay a $29 administration fee be fore
allowing you to proceed with your transfer. Again this fee used to
offset the costs of "cleaning up" the outstanding spam complaints
against your domain name.

You will need to provide the following in your reply:

1. A statement that you will initiate the transfer of your domain name
to a new registrar within the next 24 hours.

2. Authorization for GoDaddy.com to charge a $29 administration fee* to
the credit card on file for your account.


blah blah blah...

-----------------------------

WTF?!? Now don't get me wrong, $100 is nothing. But being held to ransom like this is fucking ridiculous... I have loads of domains with Godaddy, I'm a long term customer. I don't expect to be treated like this.

What would you do? Pay the $100? Pay the $29? I'm a man of principles and I think even if I lose a few K, I'd rather do that than pay up. Or maybe I'm being stubborn and stupid? Am I over reacting?

I know whatever happens, first thing tomorrow I'm transferring all of my others out of Godaddy and I'll never recommend the cheap bastards again.

Your thoughts?

Too long a post huh.

yes, let me read lol

fuck godaddy... I moved my domains from there long ago.

Where you moved to?

haha
this is a joke
pay the 100$ and spam this domain like there is no tomorrow :P

yep... :Graucho

Holy shit, those are some assholes. Seriously, that is like highway robbery. If I was godaddy I would just spam every single domain that was registered through us and then force everyone to either pay the $100 fee or the $29 for transfer, make a killing.

I guess you have to review the TOS you signed up under, maybe they do have this retarded new anti-spam policy listed. If its there, then there isn't much you can do since you agreed to their TOS before registering domains, but still this is a fuct up practice. Certainly wouldnt want to register any new domains through them, but I use dotster for all of my shit.

Move them to DirectNic or somewhere else.

godaddy has been shady for a long time now.

anyone using them is silly.

havent you people seen enough of them yanking domains, doing shady shit in the past?

they sucker you people in with half priced domain registering and then pull worst shit than this.

ill stick with directnic and paying 15 a name, at least i dont deal with crap like godaddy has and will most likely CONTINUE to do to its clients.

Ok, taking a look now.

GODADDY"Z BULLSHIT!

Ive been warning people for years. No one ever listens.
Godaddy also has contracts with domain brokers. If you break their tos, they sell off your domain.

It happened to me also a few months ago. I have pasted the emails below:
Dear XXXXXXXX

We have received apparently legitimate complaints that you are sending mass,
unsolicited emails, newsgroup posts, or Instant Messenger advertisements
for/from removed.com. Go Daddy Software requests that you cease this
immediately. Failure to do so may lead to actions such as the suspension or
cancellation of service.

Although Go Daddy Software may or may not be hosting your site, we are the
Registrar of the domain name. When you registered the domain name with us
you agreed to the terms of our Registration Agreement.
(https://registrar.godaddy.com/regAgreement.asp)

I'd like to bring Chapter 7 of this agreement to your attention:


7. RESTRICTION OF SERVICES; RIGHT OF REFUSAL

You agree not to use the services provided by Go Daddy, or to allow or
enable others, to use the services provided by Go Daddy for the purposes of:
The transmission of unsolicited email (SPAM)
Repetitive, high volume inquires into any of the services provided by Go
Daddy (i.e. domain name availability, etc.).

You agree that Go Daddy, in its sole discretion and without liability to
you, may refuse to accept the registration of any domain name. Go Daddy also
may in its sole discretion and without liability to you delete the
registration of any domain name during the first thirty (30) days after
registration has taken place. Go Daddy may also cancel the registration of a
domain name, after thirty (30) days, if that name is being used in
association with spam or morally objectionable activities. Morally
objectionable activities will include, but not be limited to: activities
designed to defame, embarrass, harm, abuse, threaten, slander or harass
third parties; activities prohibited by the laws of the United States and/or
foreign territories in which You conduct business; activities designed to
encourage unlawful behavior by others, such as hate crimes, terrorism and
child pornography; activities that are tortious, vulgar, obscene, invasive
of the privacy of a third party, racially, ethnically, or otherwise
objectionable; activities designed to impersonate the identity of a third
party; and activities designed to harm minors in any way. In the event Go
Daddy refuses a registration or deletes an existing registration during the
first thirty (30) days after registration, you will receive a refund of any
fees paid to Go Daddy in connection with the registration either being
canceled or refused. In the event Go Daddy deletes the registration of a
domain name being used in association with spam or morally objectionable
activities, no refund will be issued.

PLEASE NOTE:
You are required to respond to this notification within 24 hours stating
your intentions. Failure to do so may lead to actions such as the
suspension or cancellation of service.

Please also be aware that under the same Registration Agreement, all contact
information (including email address) for the Administrative and Technical
domain contacts must be valid and complete. If this information is
innacurate, and is not changed within 5 days, you will be in breach of
contract for the registration agreement, and your domain name may be subject
to cancellation. Please refer to sections 5 and 6 of the Registration
Agreement for further information regarding your obligation to maintain
valid contact information.

If your contact information is accurate, we thank you.

Regards,

Spam and Abuse Department
GoDaddy.com


Us :
> Dear Sirs,
>
> (removed).com is a free url redirection service. When users join our
> service they agree to our Terms & Conditions to not spam or send
> unsolicited email. When a user violates our terms, our policy is to
> immediately remove the offending url and block the abusive user from
> returning to our service.
>
> You did not include a particular url in this warning email, however we
> have terminated three accounts within the last few days for violating
> our terms of service. The accounts we have previously terminated are:
> (removed for privacy)
>
> If the URL you refer to in this email is not one of the above, please
> send us the URL and we will immediately delete the account.
>
> We Thank You for bringing this matter to our attention.
>
> Regards,
> (removed for privacy)

Them :
> Dear (removed for privacy),
>
> Thank you for contacting Go Daddy's Spam and Abuse Department
>
> We define spam as a mailing sent to recipients, as an advertisement or
> otherwise, without first obtaining prior confirmed consent to receive
> mailings from your domain by the recipient. Please realize that we do
> not consider consent to be transferable. Simply purchasing, renting, or
> leasing an "opt-in" list from another company does not constitute proof
> of opt-in. If you or another company is sending mailings advertising
> your site to individuals that have not requested this information, it is
> our opinion that you are spamming these individuals.
>
> I have supplied an example address from a complaint in order to allow
> you to investigate the situation and show proof of opt-in to your
> mailings. If you can provide such proof, via server logs showing Date,
> Time, and IP address of when the subscription took place, or a copy of
> their opt-in confirmation email, we can probably chalk this up as a
> situation where the person has forgotten they opted-in.
>
> The example address is: [email protected], a copy of the offending
> email message has been included at the end of this message to assist you
> in your investigation.
>
> *PLEASE NOTE you must reply with the requested information within 48
> hours, failure to do so may lead to actions such as the suspension or
> cancellation of your service.
>
> Here is a copy of the offending email message:
>
> Hi,
> NEW E-GOLD Randomizer!
> Add your E-GOLD account to this Randomizer
> and you'll become one of the many E-GOLD
> members who earn money every day without lifting a finger.
> All members are rotated on all of our sites which rank
> in the top 1/2% to 3% on the net today = thousands
> of chances for payments to be sent to your OWN E-GOLD account for
> nothing! This one takes in over 200-250 receipts a DAY - members get
> those! We are the FIRST E-GOLD Randomizer and the ONLY one that lists
> where YOU are promoted at so you can actually check up on it. In
> addition you can promote the Randomizer yourself for evenmore income!
>
> Dont delay!
>
> http://(removed for privacy)
> ************************************************** **********************
> ****
> ***********************************************
> If you dont want to receive further emails.Click
> mailto:[email protected]?subject=REMOVE
>
> -----
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Spam and Abuse Department
> GoDaddy.com
>

Us:
> Dear Sirs,
>
> I understand your definition of spam as we (removed) also define
> it the same way. We (removed.com) do not send any emails at all, so we
> did not send the offending email listed below. We have terminated the
> account ( http://removed.com ) and put the offending
> user's email address ( [email protected] ) in a blocked email list
> to prevent him from using that email to sign up with us again.
>
> Before we terminated the account ( http://removed
> ) it simply redirected to some sales page for the egold randomizer
> product, this web page was not ours, and was not hosted on any of our
> servers. The browser url box indeed did show
> removed.com , but the web site itself was hosted
> elsewhere. It appears the spammer signed up for our url redirection
> service using the name egoldrandomizer, he then forwarded the url to his
> sales page, he then sent UCE email advertising his site, not ours. We
> regret this happened and do our best to avoid such incidents by having a
> strong Terms page ( http://www.removed.com/terms.htm ) but can not
> fully control what others do.
>
> As an example of how this happened I have created the following:
>
> Note that http://domains.removed.com/ will forward you to
> http://www.godaddy.com . One could now send spam advertising
> http://domains.removed.com but the surfer would actually be on the
> godaddy web site. I simply created this to explain how our business
> works. We provide a service that allows webmasters with long hard to
> remember urls, shorten the url by using our redirection service,
> unfortunately we are sometimes the target of spammers trying to hide
> their identity.
>
> We provide a abuse email address on our web site and always immediatly
> terminate spammers. However this time, we didnt' recieve a complaint
> about the ( http://(removed) ) URL untill you sent
> it to us. Of course we have now terminated the account.
>
> Again, we do not send any email at all, we are a url redirection
> service. If you have any questions or other requirements please let us
> know.
>
> Regards,
Removed

(continued next post)

> Dear Removed ,
>
> Thank you for your response, and your actions.
>
> As the registrant of removed.com you are ultimately responsible for
> your domain name, any email mail advertisement that is driving traffic
> to your website or domain name is your responsibility.
>
> We require our customers to be able to provide conclusive proof of
> opt-in for people they send advertisements to. This also applies to the
> actions of 3rd party marketers, business partners, affiliates and, of
> course, mailing list providers.
>
> I recommend that you contact your affiliate and obtain the requested
> opt-in proof. If you do not have this information, or cannot obtain it,
> you are in violation of your registration agreement and Go Daddy's
> anti-spam policy.
>
> Please keep in mind that it is not our intention to cause anyone's
> business to suffer and we do appreciate your cooperating with us on this
> matter. Because of your cooperation and willingness to resolve this
> issue thus far, your services have not been interrupted, but this
> situation has not yet been resolved.
>
> If you cannot provide proof of opt-in, I present the following solution:
>
> First, reply to [email protected] com letting us know that the
> organization circulating this mailing will immediately stop sending
> advertisements on your behalf. Include a statement in this reply that
> you (or your employees, affiliates, 3rd party marketers, etc.) will no
> longer send messages to individuals that did not ask to receive
> information specifically from you or your domain name.
>
> Second, authorize GoDaddy.com to charge a $100 non-refundable
> administration fee to the credit card on file for your account (you may
> want to log into your Go Daddy account and confirm that the card on file
> is valid and has not expired).
>
> If you reply with this statement and agree to pay this fee, Go Daddy
> will accept, in good faith, your commitment as proof of your desire to
> correct this problem. If not, your domain name may be immediately
> redirected and your service suspended.
>
> Please be aware that Go Daddy will continue to monitor this situation.
> If after you commit to ceasing this activity it is determined that this
> problem persists, your domain name may be immediately redirected and
> your service suspended. We realize additional complaints resulting from
> the mailing you have just committed to stop may come in and we will of
> course consider this, and contact you before taking action.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Spam and Abuse Department
> GoDaddy.com
> [email protected]
>
Us :

> Hi,
>
> I have deleted the spammers account so he should not send anymore spam.
> I authorize GoDaddy.com to charge a $100 non-refundable administration
> fee to the credit card on file for my account.
>
> Thank you,
Removed


Them :
> Dear Removed,
>
> I have charged the $100 reactivation fee to credit card on file for your
> account. We will consider this matter closed.
>
> Thank you for your cooperation.
>
> Spam and Abuse Department
> GoDaddy.com

Haha, Godaddy did the same to one of my domains.. but right when it was taken down, i called within 2 minutes (they couldnt beleive it) and i bitched at them for like 20min, then they put it back up and didnt charge me a dime.. haha

I'd pay the $29, transfer the domains somewhere else (Directnic comes to mind) and then charge the fuckers back. End of story.

There is your soulution plain and simple

Pay the money, don't fuck with them. You might get your domains yanked. The other big registrar is just as bad. I dare not utter their name for fear of retaliation. Network Solutions hasn't screwed me over yet.

Who do you use?

Too much jerking off makes you go blind I guess :1orglaugh

:1orglaugh

Im torn.
I like the idea of spammers being attacked from every direction, but in this situation it is unfair.

Change registrars . Fast.

Godaddy is nothing more than a pile of incompetent fools.

godaddy sucks.. been trying to get my customer number for over a week now... incompetent fools

Yeah, looks like Godaddy make a habit of it. Nice way for them to boost their measly profit margins.

I will transfer out. Not sure about charging back. I hope they don't charge for each transfer, could get real expensive, I have a lot of domains with them.

Don't charge back. I know I seem paranoid, but it's justified...
I have saw some totally ruthless and illegal tactics performed by 2 of the registrars mentioned in this thread firsthand. I suggest you hop on over to network solutions.
You shouldn't have even started this thread, honestly.

I can't see how they would.. you normally only get charged by the receiving registrar
and most of them give it to you for free nowadays anyhow...

Oh.. and fuck godaddy! :321GFY

Why not? I've only spoken facts. They've fucked me over, nobody has disagreed. Why not let their actions become their reputation?

They say a happy customer tells 1-2 people. They also say an unhappy customer tells 10 people.

Don't worry, I'm gonna tell 10 fucking thousand over the next few years. This is board 1 of many.

Because someone will report this thread to them, they will be pissed off and they will yank your domains and put them on hold forever. They have unchecked power.

This is what happens when you buy domains for below wholesale
prices. Spend the extra few dollars and register with a company
that makes their money from registrations rather than
partnerships.

-Ben

A good company would realize I'M the one that's pissed off, and they would fight to keep me as a customer. I have done NOTHING wrong!

Yanking all my domains would only fuel the fire.

Recommendations?

authorize the $29, get the domain off them, and charge that shit back! fuck them :mad:

Do you live on the same planet as everyone else? I you really believe your bit of advice I'll remember to laugh rather than feel sorry for you when the biggest scammers of the lot fuck you over. Too funny. :1orglaugh

As for Godaddy it makes you wonder how many times people have to be fucked over by various companies to stop the crap thinking that 'as it hasn't happened to me it must be bullshit and it's really a good company'. It's not as if people haven't been warned about Godaddy plenty of times.

hmmm

Registrars cannot "jerk" your domain name for spamming. Only ICAAN has the legal authority to remove a domain name from someone. Though many registrars pretend they can, one quick call to ICAAn will resolve 99% of your problems with any registrar.

Don't put up with bullshit, call thir bluff and if they yank your domain sue them. They are trying to be the internet police, but they are actually only being Internet Mafia extorting money from people.


Call ICAAN.

BTW cheekycherry - my comment above was not aimed at you specifically, more a generalisation. So many times you see the same i.e. xyz company will continually be attacked because they really do pull some shady shit but people refuse to believe it - 'they haven't done anything to me so....', then these people will be bitching that they got screwed a month or two down the road. It's happened with sponsors, billing, domain names, content etc etc. Just makes you wonder when people will wake up and treat stuff more as a business. If you're really in business you simply can't afford to use shady companies so why do it?

I hope it ends well for you, but what I am saying is a distinct possibility. I'm not trying to piss you off. I'm on your side.
I've saw it happen before is all. Good luck.