Someone has claimed ownership of 2 domain names and grabbed them! Help!

[mattmoo]

Hi Warriors,

I am hoping someone here has some experience with this and can offer me some advice.

In the last few days, someone has claimed that their organisation owns 2 domains that i have had registered since 2004. They have managed to convince the domain company who they were registered with to transfer them away from my control.

The worst thing is that this happened without my knowledge. The only way i discovered it was when a client called to say emails to me were being returned undelivered. The new 'owners' has chenged the DNS etc.

The domains werent trademarks or brand names. I was using them for an offline business and they werent being used for 'squatting' or anything like that.

Any suggestion or advice is appreciated.

Thanks
Matt

[valerieSONORA]

That sucks but I'd suggest asking this in the main forum, you'll probably get more replies. This is the asylum.

[mattmoo]

Originally Posted by valerieSONORA

That sucks but I'd suggest asking this in the main forum, you'll probably get more replies. This is the asylum.

thanks Valerie...i'll keep it here for now and then move if i need more advice.

[midasAu]

I had no idea that could happen, I thought once you registered a domain it was yours.

Were they registered with a well known registrar?

I haven't had any experience with this but I would start with ICANN maybe they can offer some advice

[HomeBizNizz]

Contact your domain registrar...

[seasoned]

Thaat isn't legal AT ALL!!!!!! If there is a dispute, and you are using the domains for anything really, they have to go into arbitration, or get your approval. Of course, if you used them for one of these cheap search sites, keywords, etc... then they could make a case that it is being used in bad faith and the other people have a valid case.

Contact ICANN AND your registrar.

ALL this assumes it is .com, or .net. Others are under different rules. I believe ICANN ALSO handles .org,.edu,.gov, and .us.

Steve

[Michael Motley]

You need to contact your registrar. domains can't be transferred or in most cases the accounts even accessed without specific information from the account holder.

[Kay King]

In the last few days, someone has claimed that their organisation owns 2 domains that i have had registered since 2004. They have managed to convince the domain company who they were registered with to transfer them away from my control.

The worst thing is that this happened without my knowledge. The only way i discovered it was when a client called to say emails to me were being returned undelivered. The new 'owners' has chenged the DNS etc.

This just doesn't sound right - did you fail to renew them? The idea that someone could contact a registrar and convince them to give access to someone else's registered domain makes no sense.

What is showing in whois for the domains - what does the registrar tell you (I'm sure you've contacted them) - is the contact info listed for you as the owner with the registrar correct so you could be contacted?

kay

[josspam]

Contact your domain's company and tell them that what they've done is not legal at all! Tell them that you weren't notice about the dispute and in which what right did they take away your domains?

Jocy

[myob]

I don't know if there is anything legally you can do about it now without spending a lot for an attorney and proof of domain ownership. But actually this scam happens quite frequently, as a take off from real estate title deeds. In the future, you should lock your domain with the registrar, and hide your whois info. Registrars do offer this type of protection service.

[mattmoo]

Thanks for all your replies. Much appreciated and ICANN is probably the way to go.

All would say is that it is possible that if you have a domain name it is not 100% your anymore even if it is locked and in your own control panel.

I will report back here progress because the chances are this will happen to someone else.

[mattmoo]

Originally Posted by myob

I don't know if there is anything legally you can do about it now without spending a lot for an attorney and proof of domain ownership. But actually this scam happens quite frequently, as a take off from real estate title deeds. In the future, you should lock your domain with the registrar, and hide your whois info. Registrars do offer this type of protection service.

thanks for your reply. yeah i had it locked and also had privacy protection but you cannot hide the registrar details. i think the company had gone to opensrs and made a claim that it was there domain and 2 weeks later, it was 100% gone from my control.

[seasoned]

Originally Posted by mattmoo

thanks for your reply. yeah i had it locked and also had privacy protection but you cannot hide the registrar details. i think the company had gone to opensrs and made a claim that it was there domain and 2 weeks later, it was 100% gone from my control.

Even if NOBODY could do a whois, etc... They would STILL know who the REAL registrar is. Here is a hint.. It is NEVER godaddy, ecom, etc.... They just ACT like registrars and have more control tan their customers.

If you JUST got the domain names, it is a little different, Maybe they owned them and had special rights.

Steve

[mattmoo]

Hi Seasoned...i didnt quite get your hint can you explain?

I heard from the registrar today that tomorow the domains will be transfered back to me. What has happened is that the domains were transferred into another user account with the same registrar.

It seems the MO here is to set up a user account with a registrar for a domain that someone wants, then claim to the registrar that the owner of that domain is not the real owner, provide lots of paperwork to support it, and the registrar then obliges. Crazy.

If i get a successful conclusion i will update the thread. But if anyone can advise me on how to stop it from happening again i would appreciate it.

[HomeBizNizz]

How about a petition against the domain company signed by us forumusers.
It should give them a scare, maybe.

[Ken Strong]

This happened to me a few months back -- three of my domains were somehow stolen from my Namecheap account (still don't know exactly how it happened -- Namecheap would never give me any details).

I just filed a complaint with Namecheap, with Enom (Namecheap is a reseller of Enom's services) and with the receiving domain registrar.

I also put together as much evidence as I could put together to show my ownership -- log files from my hosting account, screenshots of Google caches showing pages that had my name on them, and I forget what else now.

It also helped that the thief decided to email me directly and demand $2k to return the domain. I forwarded the email to all the concerned registrars, and the email address he sent it from matched his registration email. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that may have been the clincher I needed to get the domains back.

It took about 2 months before I finally got them all back. I contacted ICANN but they said they couldn't do anything for some reason, sorry but I forget why now. Basically you have to work through the company where your domains are registered, and just keep after them until you get the domains back.

Good luck. My domains were locked with privacy protection, so I don't know how this happened either.

[derekwong28]

Something similar happened to me. Basically, owner A developed the site and sold it to owner B. Owner retained owner A to work on the site but did not pay. All this time, owner A had access to the domain control panel. Owner then decided to sell the site to cover the unpaid fees and sold the site to me. I did not know any of this.

Anyway, the domain was at Registerfly and owner B made a complaint to me and the domain was pulled from my account. Like Namecheap, Registerfly was an eNom reseller. Apparently, this sort of thing happens much more easily with domain registration resellers rather the real ICANN registered domain registrar. Anyway, I didn't lose any money because the transaction was done through escrow.

Domain registration appears to be real cowboy business. It should really be run by large mutlinationals or government organizations but it seems to be a free for all and there were really a number of rogue registrars.

I suggest that you pm Davezan on this forum directly. He used to work for a registrar and would know how to proceed in the case. Ken, I am glad you got your domains back. Similar allegations had been made against Namecheap in the past but WF members to be avid supporters of Namecheap. I think we all have to keep a lookup on these types of incidences. Mattmoo, I think many of us would be interested in which registrar is involved.

Derek

[CDarklock]

He mentioned OpenSRS earlier. Probably a reseller, not OpenSRS directly. I had trouble with them, myself, so I don't use them anymore.

[derekwong28]

The Registrar behind openSRS is Tucows / Softcom. You will have to contact them directly at myhosting.com