Godaddy Wants To Suspend My Domain Because My Affiliate Spammed! Any Advice?

[homebizbuilder]

Hi all,

Urgent help needed!

Have you ever come across GoDaddy threatening to suspend your domain because your affiliate spammed?

What happened was that one of my affiliates spammed by mass-mailing to many people and one of them filed a complaint to Godaddy. I immediately got an email from GoDaddy explaining that

"----- Provide Proof Of Prior Consent -----
Go Daddy has a strict anti-spam policy, Go Daddy customers are required to be able to provide conclusive proof of prior consent for any individual they send advertisements to. This also applies to the actions of any party that generates traffic on your behalf. This includes, but is not limited to, 3rd party marketers, business partners, employees, mailing list providers and affiliates."

Now, I only have the complainant's email address. The affiliate is the one who spammed and how am I supposed to know whether the complainant has given any prior consent or even remembered that? It looks more likely that the complainant has never given any prior consent since the affiliate has sent an email under a fake email address.

Has anyone of you encountered this before? Is there anyway you can help? Any advice?

The situation is urgent as I only have 48 hours to respond! Help is needed and deeply appreciated. Thanks!

Davion

[Christian Fox]

No Idea, but best of luck to you.
It seems to me you will have to prove it was an affiliate. If you can do that I can't see how they could reasonably delete you but there are of problems with that also.

Anyone can by any proxy shifter assume any random IP.



I am sure you have or will banish the affiliate for the favor.

Wow, that sucks!

[homebizbuilder]

I have banned him promptly and explained to GoDaddy but the way they have crafted the email to me as I have written above, it seems that GoDaddy considers the product owner which is me as spamming as well because of my affiliate's actions!

[homebizbuilder]

Yes, it has not been locked or suspended yet. By moving my domain to another registrar like NameCheap, what will happen to my site? Also, how long will the process take? You sound like you have come across such an incident before?

[globalpro]

Davion,

Go Daddy is notorious for doing what they are telling you. It's how they make money. I would attempt to get things moved somewhere else immediately or cut your losses and move on.

Be cautious in making too many concessions to them. Once they see you will give, they will want more.

Thanks,

John

[jjpmarketing]

Does namecheap do this as well? I have a ton of domains with Godaddy.

[Sean Donahoe]

A lot of hosts really nail you with this even if you have a dedicated server. The only thing you can do is switch hosts and move on because GoDaddy does not care about any pleas you may make and they will always think you are full of crap. Ban the affiliate that spammed if you can identify them and get the site moved to a new host.

Good luck, tell us how it turns out!

Regards

Sean Donahoe
The Manic Marketer

[homebizbuilder]

Hi Nathan,

My site is fortunately not hosted with Godaddy. It is on my own Hostgator account.

I am sending you a pm now. Thanks!

Originally Posted by NathanFalkner

Twice, actually. But the last time it happened one of my
roommates took care of it, so my recollection of some
of the nuances surrounding the process are a bit spotty.

Are you currently hosting your website with GoDaddy, or
is your website hosted elsewhere? If it's all tied up under
one roof (namely GoDaddy), then the process for quickly
extricating yourself from this will be slightly more complex.

Please feel free to PM me if you need some one-on-one
help, I'd be more than happy to do what I can.

[ebizman87]

I tell you what.Cut all crap relationship with Godaddy and start a NEW one with other host.Godaddy is #1 in upsell.They scare you off with something then as a solution,they'll introduce you to an upsell service that you've to pay.B.S

[JamesFraze]

I would have to agree. Godaddy is not marketer friendly. They like to sell you tons of junk and do not provide service.

I like dreamhost but have accounts on 1and1 and hostgator - all of them have affiliate programs that are very nice.

If you can move your site off quickly do it. filezilla, export databases, etc Then, transfer your domain to another host and remove all contact information of Godaddy.

Other consultants where I work use godaddy and they defend godaddy, but I personally can't stand them because of their hostage holding tactics and upsell tactics (they are too aggressive and upsell instead of provide service).

[ripsnorta2]

If all you have with Godaddy is your domain registration, you should be okay just to do a transfer to another registrar like Namecheap. Once your domain has been transfered all you'll have to do is set your nameservers to look at the webhost you are using.

Your site will be down for a few days while the domain is transfered, and until you set the nameservers again. There's nothing you can do about that.

[ebizman87]

Originally Posted by JamesFraze

I would have to agree. Godaddy is not marketer friendly. They like to sell you tons of junk and do not provide service.

I like dreamhost but have accounts on 1and1 and hostgator - all of them have affiliate programs that are very nice.

If you can move your site off quickly do it. filezilla, export databases, etc Then, transfer your domain to another host and remove all contact information of Godaddy.

Other consultants where I work use godaddy and they defend godaddy, but I personally can't stand them because of their hostage holding tactics and upsell tactics (they are too aggressive and upsell instead of provide service).

How true.I got fed up with Godaddy's upsell and now thinking of changing my host.Godaddy is not NEWBIE friendly at all.Just imagine what will happen to a NEWBIE with zero knowledge on web hosting and designing who wants to make a small fortune on the net get exposed to Godaddy in the first place?Godaddy gona scare him off with it's WEIRD and confusing offers.You'll be totally confused with it's offers.I'm a victim of Godaddy too.I got so confused with their B.S upsell that I end up paying for 2 hosting account when I only need 1.I was a NEWBIE back then.Zero skills and knowledge.Fortunately for me I got my money refunded after a series of emails to the online support team.It took me 8-9 emails with 'hot argument' to convince them that Godaddy confused me and it's not my fault to pay for 2 hosting account.Just defend yourself if Godaddy accuse you with something that's not your fault.Don't give up.
If it's possible,just leave Godaddy.Case closed!

[homebizbuilder]

Guys, hopefully this thing will blow over soon enough. I am quite fed up with this "ransom" holding experience. They don't listen to reason at all. Hardly marketer friendly. What's worse is the way they have threatened to take action when you don't respond within 48 hours??

The spammer is not even me! How am I supposed to investigate?

And despite the fact that I have been registering domains with them since 2 years ago. And I have quite a large number of domains there.

Fortunately, I never put all my eggs in one basket. Some are elsewhere and I NEVER use their webhosting service. Otherwise, I am not sure what will happen now...

In any case, once the episode is over, I shall update everyone how I managed to get out of this mess so that it will be a good learning point for everyone who happens to be caught in the same undeserving situation...

[Norma Holt]

I never liked GoDaddy from the first and have never had any business with them. My host is one I have used for years and I always register my domains with Aplus. Great services

God bless

Norma

[homebizbuilder]

Have initiated the transfer from GoDaddy to Namecheap. Will let you guys know what is the final outcome.

[Platinum Matt]

This happened to me YEARS ago.

Nice to see they are up to their old tricks.

My advice... Pay the "ransom" and then TRANSFER OUT OF THERE and make sure you let as many people know that using GoDaddy is BAD FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

I've warned MANY people here and other forums NOT to use GoDaddy for this very reason.

Namecheap is the way to go guys.

[derekwong28]

It takes 5 days to transfer a domain to another Registrar and Godaddy may well have frozen your account before then.

Anyway, you should try your best to explain your situation to Godaddy and hope that they do not freeze your account before the domain is transferred out.

By the way, it may help if you have a dedicated account representative with Godaddy. If you do not have one, I would suggest that you get assigned with one now and get him/her to work on your behalf.


Derek

[Melkor]

Ask Mike Filsaime about Godaddy, and you're likely to get a bunch of swearing in return - same thing happened to him

[newsecrets]

Like Nathan said, transfer your domain away before Godaddy locks it. Luckily you use a different company for web hosting. (ALWAYS use different companies for your domain name and web hosting.)

Wow, I didn't know Godaddy was so marketer-unfriendly. From the Godaddy email cited above, looks like Godaddy will still put the blame on you EVEN if you can prove it was your affiliate who spammed - because the email states that Godaddy holds you responsible for your affiliates' actions (which is ridiculous).

Thanks for the heads up, I have dozens of domains on Godaddy but I'm moving them away ASAP.

Any recommended marketer-friendly (and inexpensive) domain registrars? Someone mentioned Namecheap - any others? I prefer not to put all my eggs in one basket.

[Dixiebelle]

This is at the top of my list of reasons why I don't use affiliates.

Dixie

[Kim Standerline]

So u risk reducing your income because there is the possibilty someone will act like a tosspot!

All you need to do is take precautonary measures. The first one is tell your afffiliates straight up that if caught spamming they will instantly forfeit any moneies due. (and stick to it)

I have a number of domains at Goddady, but I wouldn't dream of using them now

Kim

Originally Posted by Dixiebelle

This is at the top of my list of reasons why I don't use affiliates.

Dixie

[Jon Alexander]

NEVER host at the same place you registered the domain.

EVER.

[Art Turner]

First of all, if it's your domain, then you ARE responsible for securing it and policing it. Check the TOS when you buy.

Second, one of my Godaddy domains was locked because the Wordpress installation (Hostgator) had been hacked and it was hosting malware.

I responded to GoDaddy, explained the situation, explained what I had done to keep it from happening again, and they unlocked the domain. No upsell, no fee.

And if you don't want the upsells, click on the express checkout or "no thank you" buttons. It's not that difficult.

Art

[Chris Lockwood]

This is why many of us just say no to NoDaddy.

The $200 is pure extortion. What does it have to do with the alleged spamming?

[ecdiscounts]

Your Affiliate probably didn't Spam but someone on his list decided instead of unsubscribing to just report then as spammers as people have done to me in the past.

For some reason Godaddy also goes after the site that was advertised and they try to extort money from them for some BS service. I have already threatened to pull all my domians from them if they ever try that crap again.

If you only have a few domains you can transfer them to another registrar although they all have a spam policy. Stay way from enom they send you a warning email and then suspend your domain before you can even answer it.

Scott

[TheMagicShow]

Godaddy is a picky registrar and they can do all kinds of things if they want, there are many godaddy threads on this forum, well at least in the old one there were tons, use other registrars and save yourself the headaches.

[ecdiscounts]

Originally Posted by Kim Standerline

So u risk reducing your income because there is the possibilty someone will act like a tosspot!

All you need to do is take precautonary measures. The first one is tell your afffiliates straight up that if caught spamming they will instantly forfeit any moneies due. (and stick to it)

I have a number of domains at Goddady, but I wouldn't dream of using them now

Kim

Kim that isn't really fair holding monies due an affiliate because they were accused of spamming. Most Affiliates do not spam yet get reported because some AHOLE didn't want to click on the unsubscribe link and instead reported them as spammers. Been there, Done that, Have that T-Shirt. I just went through this with another marketer where I sent out just 1 email promoting her product and some idiot reported me as a spammer instead of just unsubscribing.

I also deal with this crap every day as I run a Autoresponder Service and people that are double opt'd in to clients lists are reporting them as spammers and we end up getting banned. Mainly it is OutBlaze that does this crap and since they share their internal BL list with surbl it creates a mess for me to clean up.

Don't be so fast to jump on the Affiliates before you know the entire story.

Scott

[ecdiscounts]

Originally Posted by NathanFalkner

Odds are you're going to be given two choices. Pay a fee in the
neighborhood of US$200 and promise not to SPAM again, or transfer
your domain to another registrar. My recommendation is to make
arrangements to transfer the domain to another registrar. Do NOT
try to reason with GoDaddy -- simply accept that you are going
to either have to cough up the cash or move. I'd move, quickly...

Never Never pay the Extortion fees they want, GoDaddy says they want 75.00 to allow you to transfer your domain which is BS. I know of someone that resently had this same problem and they basically told Godaddy to go pound salt and transfered their domain without paying the Extortion fee.

Scott

[ecdiscounts]

Originally Posted by ripsnorta2

Your site will be down for a few days while the domain is transfered, and until you set the nameservers again. There's nothing you can do about that.

If it is a simple registrar transfer and the nameservers do not change there should be No interuption of the site, in his case he is using a hostgator account so he is using their nameservers I imagine so he is safe.

Scott

[seobro]

This is a good reason for having many different domain names placed over many different companies, with different hosts for the websites.

Putting all your eggs in one basket is asking for trouble. A few years back, another company, not godaddy, held my domain name hostage and asked for $250.00 to get it back. Bunch of crooks.

[sunnyman]

I am about to transfer all my domains from Godaddy to Namecheap. I have heard of exactly the kind of things reported here. Reminds me of speeding up the process...

- don't use Godaddy as registrar
- don't use Godaddy for hosting either! (their reputation is poor also)

[D Ambrose]

Originally Posted by homebizbuilder

Hi all,

Urgent help needed!

Have you ever come across GoDaddy threatening to suspend your domain because your affiliate spammed?

What happened was that one of my affiliates spammed by mass-mailing to many people and one of them filed a complaint to Godaddy. I immediately got an email from GoDaddy explaining that

"----- Provide Proof Of Prior Consent -----
Go Daddy has a strict anti-spam policy, Go Daddy customers are required to be able to provide conclusive proof of prior consent for any individual they send advertisements to. This also applies to the actions of any party that generates traffic on your behalf. This includes, but is not limited to, 3rd party marketers, business partners, employees, mailing list providers and affiliates."

Now, I only have the complainant's email address. The affiliate is the one who spammed and how am I supposed to know whether the complainant has given any prior consent or even remembered that? It looks more likely that the complainant has never given any prior consent since the affiliate has sent an email under a fake email address.

Has anyone of you encountered this before? Is there anyway you can help? Any advice?

The situation is urgent as I only have 48 hours to respond! Help is needed and deeply appreciated. Thanks!

Davion

I had a similar problem with aan affiliate a while ago. GoDaddy threatened to remove my domain name unless I paid them $199 for the abuse enforcement program - which basically means they turn a blind eye or I pay $77 instead but move hosts.

I decided to move hosts to hostgator, because AEP sounded dodgy. However I soon learned they charged me the full $199 anyway.

It was absolute daylight robbery.

Having tried to get in touch with them through email and phoning them, they kept me waiting and waiting and came back to me saying the $199 was for "cleaning up" the spam and for admin fees.

I raised a dispute with paypal, but paypal said they could not enforce a refund based on the fact I had paid for services.

I had to cut my losses and get on with life.

I did learn a valuable lesson though - NEVER EVER USE GODADDY AGAIN.

I am pretty bitter about the whole ordeal and I just hope the theiving company goes bust.

Then again, I got more chance of seeing a pig fly.

[danhughes]

I hate to say the same stuff, but this is CLASSIC GODADDY. I have moved nearly all my domains away from Godaddy at this point (I use namecheap) and havent hosted with them for years. This information is in their universal user agreement (or whatever they call it). Moving forward, if this is how you make your living make sure to read over terms and conditions to the point that you understand what they are saying and what it could mean to you. Even consider paying an attorny to do this for you. That goes for every contract you enter into.

If the transfer doesnt work then pay their fee and walk away. It will fee crappy, but your domain and content is worth far more than $200.

If the affiliate has sold you stuff in the past offer him / her a second chance, by doing the same as Godaddy did to you. Send him a nasty email with a super tight deadline asking him to prove permission.

Good Luck, Dan

[~kev~]

Originally Posted by homebizbuilder

Hi all,

Urgent help needed!

Have you ever come across GoDaddy threatening to suspend your domain because your affiliate spammed?

Davion

My only advice to you is to find a different host. My experiences with "godaddy" have been less then pleasant.

I have had a few problems that I needed help with, godaddy told me they did not provide tech support and would not help me. Besides that, their tech support people are some of the rudest I have ever dealt with.

[pmore]

Unfortunately for you registrars and hosting providers like to be seen to be doing all they can to cut out spam so that they don't get bit in the ass with fines. They'd much rather it was you, it's unlikely they will side with you on this - as per the previous advice, try to move out from under GoDaddy asap.

Get a fresh start elsewhere and make sure you have something on your website, preferably where your affiliates sign up saying that you don't condone SPAM etc. incase this happens again.

[Paul Myers]

Davion,

Welcome to Hell.

I have never heard of anyone successfully appealing a claim like this one with GoDaddy. Your choices at this point are:

1. Lose your domain.

2. Pay them $199 for the privilege of staying there, and lose the domain (or pay another $199) if anyone complains in the future.

3. Pay their fee to be allowed to transfer the domain elsewhere.

This all assumes they won't allow the current transfer request. Given their history, I'd be surprised if they did. If they allow it while there's a complaint outstanding, I would start believing in Santa Claus.

GoDaddy is not a suitable host for any business that sends email, about which email might be sent, or that has any significant degree of controversy attached to it. It is especially risky if you have one or more email lists to which you do regular mailings, or if you have affiliates.

They assume that any complaint is valid, whether they can verify it or not. I could sign up for a list, confirm my subscription, and complain to them about an email I got from that legitimate list, and you'd be right where you are now.

Some people will likely chime in and say that GoDaddy isn't a problem. That's only because they haven't been hit with this themselves yet. This is a regular occurrence.

To be fair, probably better than 99% of the domains about which they get complaints really are spamming. The thing they fail to consider is that the ones that really are spamming are not the ones that are likely to follow up on issues.

GoDaddy's handling of these things reaches a level that I consider extremely abusive. I'd avoid them like the plague.

Now, on the affiliate thing... There's a problem with affiliate marketing that a lot of new folks to the game don't consider. It is not uncommon for shady merchants to create affiliate accounts and spam using those. When caught, they cancel the fake accounts, to look like they're playing by the rules, and then start up new fake accounts to keep spamming. This is why people at abuse desks are so skeptical of claims that an affiliate was the one who spammed.


Paul

[getmorebuyers]

Is it possible to call the phone number that Godaddy provides and speak to someone directly. I have tried that in the past and it worked. Don't rely on email.

[Ryan123]

Originally Posted by NathanFalkner

Quick followup -- it could very well be that your domain has
yet to be locked and/or suspended, in which case, I'd still move
forward with transferring the domain name to another registrar
while apologizing profusely to GoDaddy via e-mail in an effort
to smooth the process as much as possible.

I fully agree with Nathan's reply. This is the best way out. Buy time from GoDaddy, and move your domain elsewhere. I just hope they haven't put some lock on it.

Overall, this problem can happy to anyone. Imagine...any affiliate on Clickbank can spam, and your domain will be cooked! Doesn't make sense. I just hope NameCheap has more reason on this front.

[Ryan123]

Folks, there's another thing I wanted to share, which you can also try.

For every serious domain, I add affiliates only after personal verification by phone or web conference. I don't take any under the hood gurus! I suggest the same to you.

[Anthony Smith]

I tell you what, that's a terrible situation to be in. You will probably have to pay a hefty fine. I guess in the future just watch who you work with eh?

good luck!

[jjpmarketing]

I am starting to think that GoDaddy is only for people not trying to make money online. It is only for personal websites... or business websites that do absolutely zero email marketing.

[Platinum Matt]

A lot of people are missing the point.

It's not forced to have been anybody spamming. All it takes is ONE spam *complaint*.

Doesn't even have to be a case of genuine spamming.

TRANSFER OUT OF GODADDY NOW.

[Doug English]

I just received the exact same email from GoDaddy about 2 weeks ago, but it was a complaint on an email from a double-optin user of a membership site, not an affiliate email.

I just had to provide proof of opt-in and that seemed to put them at ease - but then they sent me another email basically saying "ok, we'll accept that, just provide us with proof that this member has been removed and we'll close the case".

Didn't even know how to respond to a stupid request like that.

Over 5 years w/ GoDaddy - never a previous complaint.

Will never be a GoDaddy customer again based on how they handled this situation.

[ebizman87]

Originally Posted by jjpmarketing

I am starting to think that GoDaddy is only for people not trying to make money online. It is only for personal websites... or business websites that do absolutely zero email marketing.

My ambition to make a small fortune with a business website was "DESTROYED" by Godaddy.That's why I'm considering changing my host.

[Jesus Perez]

Welcome to the wonderful world of "GoDaddy, the internet's self-appointed cop".

I'm bookmarking this thread so I can place it on "I love Godaddy!" posts. They've been doing this for years. The chances of you getting your domain back are very, very low (unless you have deep pockets). Good luck and start looking for a new domain at a registrar that doesn't think they're moral cops.

[homebizbuilder]

Hi guys, I have successfully moved my domain to NameCheap. Now, I am concerned that they will try to be funny and touch my account. I have over 30 domains there. Am trying to move those critical ones over to NameCheap asap.

[ebizman87]

I'd say don't give up.Keep arguing and fight for the truth.It's not your fault anyway.Although my problem is a different one,but I can say that they'd eventually give in if you fight back.I sent 8-9 emails to their support group to get back my $80 that I spent for a hosting account that I never wanted and used.Maybe $80 is not much for some of you,but for me instead of wasting my money for a STUPID BS service,I'd rather spend it to buy Joe Vitale's product.It brings me more money.

[homebizbuilder]

Oh, it so happened that this affiliate tried to spam me as well! Which is why I got hold of his spam email. He was masquerading as someone else under another email address but he did something very stupid. He left his paypal id as the tracking link as I am using RAP script so his paypal email was appended to the affiliate link.

I promptly canceled his account but I guess I am getting the major bulk of the aftermath repercussion.

Originally Posted by ecdiscounts

Your Affiliate probably didn't Spam but someone on his list decided instead of unsubscribing to just report then as spammers as people have done to me in the past.

For some reason Godaddy also goes after the site that was advertised and they try to extort money from them for some BS service. I have already threatened to pull all my domians from them if they ever try that crap again.

If you only have a few domains you can transfer them to another registrar although they all have a spam policy. Stay way from enom they send you a warning email and then suspend your domain before you can even answer it.

Scott

[Paul Myers]

Davion,

Congratulations on getting it moved before they locked it. Santa's being very, very good to you.

This is one of the problems of an instant pay affiliate program. They tend to attract spammers, because they can get their money even if you end up cancelling their affiliate accounts.

No matter what it is, if you try to make things better for legit folk, these [insert epithet here] will do their damndest to screw it up.

I suggest setting your system to require approval before letting people sell. Otherwise, this guy is likely to keep coming back. I have no idea if reporting him to PayPal will do any good, but it's worth a try.


Paul

[homebizbuilder]

Hi Paul,

Probably reporting to Paypal will help.

Now, I am more concerned about my account at GoDaddy. I have quite a number of domains there. Am going to move them over to NameCheap.

But unfortunately, I still have a number of newly bought domains there. To initiate transfer, registration needs to be more than 60 days!

Now, I am not sure if that will affect my main account, seeing that I have moved my domain out.

Davion

Originally Posted by Paul Myers

Davion,

Congratulations on getting it moved before they locked it. Santa's being very, very good to you.

This is one of the problems of an instant pay affiliate program. They tend to attract spammers, because they can get their money even if you end up cancelling their affiliate accounts.

No matter what it is, if you try to make things better for legit folk, these [insert epithet here] will do their damndest to screw it up.

I suggest setting your system to require approval before letting people sell. Otherwise, this guy is likely to keep coming back. I have no idea if reporting him to PayPal will do any good, but it's worth a try.


Paul