Client's Domain "hijacked" - ideas to restore?

Any idea how to get it back? Nobody that originally set up the hosting is around any more, and the hosting won't talk to her without the account info.

I'm confused. The hosting was locked, or the domain name is locked?

I took over webmastering for a group that had registered the domain name with the hosting company. The hosting company balked at providing me transfer information and backed down immediately when I threatened to report them to ICANN.

Unfortunately it's not necessarily that simple, however one wants to believe.

Although I have a feeling I know the answer, just one important question for
you, AnneHouse: who's the listed registrant or "owner" of the domain? If the
webmaster or hosting company is the listed owner, then...they're technically
the owner inspite of what happened behind the scenes.

If the client is the listed owner, though, then they can also try going through
the host's actual registrar partner. Just PM me if you need more details how
to go about this, or also mention the domain so we can see.

Good luck.

I can help you better if I can see the domain name because I don't think enom would lock any names.

The host CAN and WILL "LOCK" the DOMAIN! That is their business, you pay them to run your domain. You don't pay, they will likely STOP!

NOW, as to the domain NAME... If you pay a webhost for the domain, there are 4 business models, from what I have seen. We know that one isn't valid here, basically having you buy direct from another service. The other three are....

1. You pay them, they do everything EXACTLY like you, but they are the tech contact. YOU have FULL CONTROL! The tech control is simply so they can repoint if they move the servers.
2. You pay them, and THEY own the domain FULL, and will relenquish it to you if you ask and are paid up.
3. They give you a special deal, and THEY own it under some other agreement.

OK, we know it ALSO can't be that first one, because YOU would own it.

BTW it would be ILLEGAL for ENOM to give the domain to you under TOS options 2 and 3. Because YOU DON'T OWN THE DOMAIN NAME! I wish you luck, you MIGHT be out of luck.

BTW most do #1, and most of the others do the referral, but you REALLY have to watch it! There was a company once that registered for FREE! After you stopped business with them, THEY kept the domain!

Steve

I wouldn't say the domain has been "hijacked". Rather, the account has most likely been "abandoned", in the sense that you cannot get the account holder where the domain is being held to do anything.

A secondary problem is if the site is being hosted somewhere and THAT account has been suspended for some reason.

It's a very common practice for web developers to register client domain names in their own name. That's like supposedly buying a car for someone, charging them for it, but registering it in your own name -- it's fraudulent and misrepresents your services.

Unfortunately, most people don't know enough to understand about this. I *ALWAYS* have clients buy the domain names themselves through their own account, just to make sure there's no problem down the road.

Here are the three most likely scenarios:

1) the domain name shows your client as the "registrant". If this is the case, you can get it back with a little effort. It just takes some dickering with the registrar and providing requisite paperwork.

2) the domain name shows the consultant's business as the "registrant". In this case, hire a lawyer and have him look over the contracts, then appear in front of the Bankruptcy judge and demand that the receiver turn over the domain name to its rightful owner -- your client (assuming the contracts don't make a case otherwise).

3) the domain name shows either the consultant's PERSONAL NAME, or one of his employee's PERSONAL NAME, as the "registrant". In this case, hire a lawyer to write a very stern letter threatening to sue the bejezsus out of that PERSON if they don't immediately take whatever action is needed to transfer the domain to your client.

The bottom-line is ... your client has some leverage in the sense that there are trademark and copyright claims that can be asserted over the content of the site and possibly the domain name.

That is, if you're Joe, the owner of "Joe's Bar and Grill" and the domain name is JoesBarAndGrill.com, and the site was all about "Joe's Bar and Grill", then it's going to be nearly impossible for either the registrar or the hosting place to say there's any question as to who owns the intellectual property rights of the site.

That said, they don't make it easy to deal with situations where accounts have been abandoned by contractors who didn't set up provisions to deal with account transitions in the event of problems like this.

There's no notion of a "mechanic's lien" on web hosting accounts. The hosting providers don't auction off the sites to the highest bidder in an attempt to recover their costs. They also won't simply transfer the account to you in the event it's YOUR site but the account was in the contractor's name.

Either way, it might be smart to get a lawyer involved to ensure that the various parties don't delete stuff or make irreversible changes before you can deal with them.

-David