Domain theft..what to do
 

Yesterday, 12 of my highest traffic domains...4 mainstream and 8 adult...suddenly fell off the face of the earth. Well, I just heard back from my domain register, and the domains in question have now all appeared at dotster.com...although no registrant info is showing up in Whois.

Since these domains were not expiring for another year, and I didn't transfer the domains..they have been stolen from me. Anyone else have this type of experience and know a quick way to resolve the problem?

What registrant do you use?

DirectNIC.

Allows you to set the level of security on domains.

This is one problem with using shitty domain registrant.

Yeah keep regging em for 8.92 - meanwhile some Joe is hicjaking your registrants policies.

Sorry to hear.

Just logged in my reg.

Quoted this for you from DIRECTNIC>

'You are currently set to: High Security
When directNIC receives a request to transfer a domain away from directNIC to another registrar, two email notifications will be sent; one to the domain registrant's directNIC account email address, and another to the email address that is listed as the domain's administrative contact in WHOIS.

To protect its customers, directNIC recently added two security settings for the transfers.

High Security - *** Recommended: This will automatically decline all transfers to other registrars. You still have the option to transfer your domains, but you will have to approve any transfer requests.

Normal Security: This will automatically allow the transfer, if neither of the notification emails is responded to within five days. '

format c:

Are you sure you paid for the domain ??? And what did domain registerer answered you ??? Hmmm...

Thanks as always for a complete waste of space. Do me a favor, this is a serious issue for me. Let people that have valid suggestions post...this is my income we are talking about..not just a minor inconvenience..harrass me on some other thread...not this one...

I'm not in the mood for "could haves, should haves". I'm looking for professional answers by people that have been in this type of legal situation. This is my livelyhood...hope the rest of you understand.

Thank you.

lol.... crybaby.

What registrar do you use? I'll move my domains if I'm using the same one - do tell :glugglug

if you had been using OpenSRS, this wouldn;t have happened. It's your own fault.

Well, I don't know very much what to say. I suggest that you call your registrar and you explain them what happened and ask them the proof they have on file when you "supposedly" transfered your domain names.

Let them know that this is a fraud and you'll be pressing charges. Contact all parties who are engaged in this and explain your problem to every persone you talk to. If you see that it's not working as fast as you want - maybe it would be better for you to seek legal counsel to help you resolve that matter.

Sorry...

nothing you can do except take it to arbitration..

nobody will help you

Contact an attorney immediately to file notice with your register regarding the situation and that a fraudulent transfer has occured. This might not get you your domains back immediately but it will start the paper trail for the dispute and depending on the policies of the registrar they were shifted to it should at least put them into a limbo state temporarily til things can be sorted out.

But do everything by the book from a legal standpoint in case you need to go to court here. Don't go off the deep end with threats to the guy or shit on that level, even though this is something to spark that kind of emotional reaction, be professional and have an attorney handle it. When a registrar receives a letter on an attorney's letterhead they will give that solid credibility that there is an issue here.

Keep us posted. My partner in a deal now had a huge adult domain absconded like that once.

That really sucks man, but like Fletch said, make sure your domains are with a good registrar... like Directnic... they cost $15/year, but they have good tech support and high security.

Most registrars have the same security features, registrar lock, auto renewals, great support, etc.. AND can do it for $8 just fine.

The $15 doesn't mean shit, except more profit for the registrar.

The registrars that have difficulty with the fraudulent transfers are usually the higher priced ones like Network Solutions.

directnic is hardly the be all and end all.

i had a problem with a domain being stolen and directnic was the registrar.

what i did was put together my ownership history of the domain... when registered/rewnewed etc. and sent it off to directnic....

they said that the 'domain thief' would have to prove that he'd legally obtained the domain... ie have his own ownership record.

and then i simply screamed blue murder..... calling, leaving messages, constant emails.... etc.


i had the domain back in a week.

Get a fucking lawyer and threaten to sue everyone involved. It worked for me once when we got a name stolen at Netsol.