InDigitalWorks.com - UNOTHORIZED DOMAIN NAME TRANSFER - PLS HELP!

No. There's nothing to worry about. Indigitalworks never stored any kind of payment details.

Hi Goran,

Let me first tell you how sorry I am to hear about what has happened to you. I know your website well and I can only imagine that this is a huge blow for you...

The first thing you need to understand is that this is not the right forum to get help. No offense to the people on WF, they are awesome, but if you want to try and get help with this you need to speak with professional domainers. The best forum for this when it comes to .com domains is IMO: Welcome to DNF.com

Although you might get some good advice from a forum, (and no harm in making a post), I would strongly suggest that you get a US attorney involved ASAP. I would recommend John Berryhill. You can find his contact details here: John Berryhill
Although I have never hired him personally I have followed him on DNforum for years and he seems very knowledgeable.

I have around 2300 domain names and I have in the past gone through the same thing you are now experiencing, and I can give you some information from what I gathered at the time, (but I can't promise that it is still accurate). Unfortunately it is not good news.

I noticed from the Whois history of indigitalworks.com that you from Croatia. I therefore assume that you don't have a US trademark registered for Indigitalworks? That would make the recover process far easier as you could simply initiate a UDRP dispute (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy). However, in the absence of a trademark this will unfortunately be very hard, despite the fact that you are victim of a fraud. You might want to have a quick look at this thread: Using the UDRP to Recover Stolen Names

Your best bet IMO is to either try to work with the registrar, or alternatively get John Berryhill or another lawyer specialized in domains to threaten the registrar with a lawsuit, (assuming they are based in the US). I am not a lawyer but I would think that if you present the registrar with indisputable proof that you are the legitimate owner, you could make a strong argument that they will be liable for the losses that you incur if they refuse to assist in the recovery.

You mention that the registrar is being uncooperative, and it is so unfortunate that people don't seem to understand the importance of holding valuable domains in locked account with an ICANN approved registrar that you can really trust. There are many people, (myself included) that have lost domain names through Godaddy and still people here recommend them to newbies so they can save a couple of bucks... They do this based on the fact that so far everything has worked fine for them with Godaddy, but ignoring the huge number of people who have had terrible experiences with them. Anyway, I didn't mean to go off on a rant, this thread is not about Godaddy! :rolleyes:

I haven't looked into your registrar to see if they are even ICANN approved, but if you feel that you can't afford an attorney your next best option would be to contact ICANN directly and ask them for advice on what to do.

If you were living in the US I would also advice that you immediately report it to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center at the FBI, Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) | Home but I don't think that is feasible for you. However, you should probably still report it to your local police department in Croatia.

You should also try to gather all possible information you can that proves you are the legitimate owner of the domain name. This will come in handy in the future as you will have to prove your claim regardless which route you take.

I really wish I could give you some more definite advice that would help you get the domain back quickly, but all I can say is don't give up!

I wish you the best of luck!

Thank you for info about computer forensics. I don't use any of my laptops any more... I will wait for some other solutions to come up before taking these steps.

Goran, really sad to hear what happened. As a customer I know your site very well.

Hetzner Online AG is a german based hoster located in Gunzehausen

Stuttgarter Str. 1
91710 Gunzenhausen
Deutschland

Tel.: 09831/610061*
Fax: 09831/610062

If you contact them and explain them what happened I'm sure they will help you and shut down or freeze the hosting account.

If this not helps you may file that case to the german police and they can investigate that further.

I'm from Germany and can help you with that if you want.

In the end the bad guys will go to another hoster, but they have lot's of work with that and they should see a big crowd is following them and they can't escape that easy.

Best wishes & fingers crossed!

Unfortunately, it's the same as on the beginning of my post. While I was posting on facebook I didn't knew they stole the whole website... I found this later when I saw it installed on their server. This has made things more complicated...

I suggest you not to store any kind of such data in Gmail!

Indigitalworks.com is still not under my control, it's run by thieves currently. I wouldn't say it's unsafe to visit but I suggest you not to do anything more than that, like signing up.

About a week and a half ago I gave my recommendation on where I believe it is safe to hold your domain names: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post5639588

The registrar that I recommend in that thread is based in Australia, which I believe can be an advantage in many legal situations. However, if you prefer to have a US based registrar I would recommend Moniker

Apart from holding your domain name with an ICANN accredited and highly reputable registrar that you can trust you need to lock down your most valuable domains. By this I don't mean that they should simply be "locked" from being transferred, (which I am sure everyone does)!

What I am referring to is that you should use some form "executive lock" that allows you to have two or three security questions that have to be correctly answered before any DNS changes or transfers of your domains can take place. That way, even if a hacker takes over your email account and computer he will never be able to either change the DNS of your domains or transfer them to another account.

The registrar I recommended in the thread I linked to above goes even further. For high-value domain names, (or domains that host a valauble business like I am sure indigitalworks was/is) they allow you to set-up several security questions that you have to answer correctly to their management team over the phone (after identifying yourself) before any changes will be approved on those domains. This does add some hassle when you need to make changes but IMO it's a small price to pay when you are dealing with a 6 or 7-figure business...

Thanks. I will announce immediately after we setup a new site... It should be very soon.

Well, I would suggest: Always take a domain provider in your own country... since there is a big question about jurisdiction if the provider is in China, the thief in Dubai, ICANN in the USA and the original owner in Croatia...

If the provider and the owner are in the same country, communication is much easier... and when you plan to sue them, you both talk the same legal language...

Regarding your purchase, there's nothing to worry about. If you want I will provide you a full refund. Just let me know.

New InDigitalWorks site, but on different domain, will be setup soon so members will have access. We will also continue to run this site and supply it with new products, there won't be any difference..

Hi Andy, I will announce a new domain on this thread... Thanks

While it can feel that way, especially if the registrar eventually says, "Sorry but
we can no longer help you", there are times they can at least try:

Project #FreeDavidWalshDotName = SUCCESS! » The officially informative, sometimes humorous, and decidedly wonderful blog.

This Site's Domain is Stolen | CSS-Tricks

I would look into the the ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Process. http://www.icann.org/en/help/dndr Also this may help http://venturebeat.com/2010/12/13/3-...n-is-hijacked/

I just checked twitter and you're right. It's been hijacked also like all my accounts. My twitter account is merged with Facebook so everything is published on twitter automatically. I have just submitted a dispute!

Currently I don't have access to indigitalworks.com and I'm unable to send any emails until developers setup a new site.

I truly apologize for everything what happened. I'm doing my best to resolve this issue!

All I can do now is advise anyone not to purchase anything from indigitalworks.com.

hey, i never offered you helped!

just told u a path u can take... which has nothing to do with me.
i believe u can read, so how did u not get this?
just google for "deep web" or "TORa"
in simple words: its where u can meet or make contact with hackers.

now the other user above does sound like a scam.

I wasn't aware that all my accounts have been hijacked except Gmail until he transferred a domain!

Of curse I changed logins but now I'm aware that I have a keylogger or similar virus on my laptop, so it really wasn't hard for them to see my new logins, no matter how strong they were. Every time when I logged into some account, they knew my logins but they didn't do anything that will make me suspicious that my account has been hijacked.

Since my laptop is infected, I'm not using it anymore and I will send it to computer forensics if this issue doesn't resolve soon.

Regarding hosting account, they didn't take control over it, they just use logins to download a whole website and install it on their server. I still have a website which will be ready soon.

I never had similar issues and I wasn't very careful. I advise people not to make my mistake...

Yes, 5 years..

I would go to Geeks to Go and get your computers checked out. They are very good. There is usually a 3 day backlog but their help is free. Just follow instructions.

I'm sorry... I suggest you to open a PayPal dispute for this transaction. I have sent you a PM with more details.

I'm sorry to hear what has happened. Actually I was kind of pissed about what you did to your site and never dreamed it had been hacked.

I just thought you had somehow lost your mind and I removed all your links from my sites. I even went back and found the posts I had written and deleted them.

Now I'm really pissed because I just assumed you lost your mind.

Hi Goran,
i see that the site is going down for some time and then goes up!
please update us your membership subscribers!
ps. use my recommendation in my previous post!
Thanks
Avi

Step 1.

First of all you need to start a DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyrights Act) take down notice on your original site.

To do this you need to conatct the current hosting provider of Indigitalworks.

The details are below:
indigitalworks.com Is Hosted by Hetzner Online AG

• Hosting: Hetzner Online AG host the domain indigitalworks.com
• IP Address: 176.9.108.206
• Name Servers: ns2.7plr.com, ns1.7plr.com

Write out your DMCA take down notice and sign it and make sure it explains everything needed for the host provider to act upon it and remove the old site from there hosting.

For more info on writing a DMCA visit here> DMCA Letter - How to write, prepare and send

Once the site has been removed or suspended by its current host it will give you some peace of mind and perhaps stop anyone falling victim to having there email addresses harvested and hacked into when joining the stolen site, not to mention lots of credit card numbers being logged.

Step 2.

Contact PayPal and explain to them exactly what has happened and that they are putting there customers at risk by allowing IndigitalWorks.com to be operated by thieves.

Include evidence that the site was yours including any screen shots past payments perhaps processed via PayPal would help.

This should make PayPal act in shutting down the payment processor which is what is currently being used on IndigitalWorks.

Step 3.

Write a formal letter to your original registrant and email expalining what has happened to the site and demand it be transfered back immediately without delay or you will begin legal proceedings against your current registrar and mention this will cost them money as you have full evidence of the theft and evidence that they have not acted as they should, provide all evidence when making this claim of theft to them.

Tell them they have 5 days to transfer the site back to your control panel and that they must also lock the site so its cant be moved again for now.

Step 4.

Look up and contact a legal professional that deals with internet fraud and get some solid advice.

Good luck!

What a unique idea!

any ideas on when, where, or how this trojan got on your laptop? Maybe it was a dodgy email or something. If you can find that, maybe it would help you trace the hackers?

I would suggest running your laptop in safe mode with networking, if you have spyware doctor run it in both inteligent mode then full mode before restarting, then run again in normal mode.

Run anti maleware bytes, as well as cc cleaner.

Or take it to a repair shop and get them to remove everything from the registry.

Hey Goran.

As for GMail 2-step verification for login, if it's available in Croatia (I don't know if it is or not), it might actually work even on an infected computer. Why? Because right now, I can give you my login ID and my password to my GMail account and you could not gain access to it.

I'm sure that's got some people wondering why. If someone logs in from a computer that has not logged in to GMail before, I receive a text -- not a text like FB sends, but a text with a 6 digit code in it that I then have to enter into the new computer (and that 6 digit code is valid only ONCE). Once that code is entered, I can access my Google accounts. If it's never entered, I can't access my Google accounts. Once it's entered, it can't be used again on a different device or on the same device. So, if the keylogger sends them your access code that you were texted and try to use it, they still can't get in.

Of course, all this only works if you can receive texts from Google with your access code. You might actually want to look into that to see if it works in your area. It can't hurt to add that extra level of security - I know I feel better about my Google account security. It may be a false sense of security, but I do feel better about it.

James Dunn
Athens, GA USA

This may not be the most ethical approach but given the situation you are in I would do it.

Head over to some b-l-a-c-k, h-a-t, f-o-r-u-m-s and hacking forums.

A quick google search will get you the best ones up in know time.

Let people know whats happened and see if anyone there is willing to help take down the original IndigitalWorks site. If it was me I would want to bury the old site until I had it back in my hands.

Id rather it was a smoldering wreck than have someone else profit from my hard work. Kinda like sinking your ship as pirates board lol.

Just my opinion though.

Hope it all works out and this 7plr site is defo linked to it, so if anyone has done business with either 7plr or indigitalworks recently then check your PayPal receipt and see if there is any address, name or business name on there as this may help trace the person that has done this.

Unfortunately dealing with these kind of messes (international and online) gets very time consuming and expensive... even if you are 100% in the right

There are a few tips I can offer to others to prevent this kind of thing:

1 - Protect Your Computer
Always have high quality firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software running on your computer and always update. If you don't have a big budget grab something like AVG and make sure you have all defenses turned on. Some of the best software tends to be resource hungry, so people get tempted turn them off... don't!

2 - Important Info and Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo Accounts
Popular email sites like Gmail and Hotmail are not the greatest for security, in part because they are such a big target. NEVER use this kind of easily hacked account for financial or login information. Essentially, anything that you would want kept confidential should be using a more secure email server.

3 - Domain Registrars and Web Hosts
Do your research on any registrar or host you are considering - search for reviews/comments people have made about the service recently (past 6 months). Weigh up the value or expected value of the site you plan to register/host against the cost to use that service. If you have a small, fairly basic or short-term type of site you might be happy to take some risks with a cheap service. If you have a well established website that is making good money then factor in how much better reputation for security is worth when choosing a service.


Quality Host Online is one service that tends to be fairly secure for both hosting and site registration. They are definitely not the cheapest, but worth considering if you have a well established/valuable site you want to protect.

Namecheap is a good registrar for low-moderate value domains, however I don't use them for high value sites.

Bluehost is a service I have been using for some sites over the past 10 months and so far I have been happy with it.

From my own and my clients experiences, some services to avoid are:
- GoDaddy
- Hostgator
- Dreamhost

I'm so sorry to hear of your troubles with your domain. I'm also a lifetime member of yours and a domainer. I truly hope you will find a way to get your property back or at least prevent the hackers from profiting from your hard work.

One thing does surprise me however...

I see the Whois server for idplr.com is listed as OnlineNic

Why are you still using OnlineNic?

If you think they may be involved; why are you giving them your business? Could it be the membership database?

It's the only thing that makes sense from what I can tell.

I'm fairly certain that HostGator can assist you to move your entire site, including the database for free or a very small fee if you switched to one of their hosting plans.

I really think you should find a new registrar and hosting company.

I use enom (I'm also a reseller, domainregistryservices.com) for registrations and Hostgator for all my site hosting.

Sorry to hear about your issue as you had (have a great site). Dont know your circumstances, but you should take whatever action you can to recover your domain.
Thanks
JJ

This issue has been fixed.

It's PC, Windows 7.

Some links on website are still going to old domain. My concern is that this happened before I could create my affiliate links. Now your site won't let me log in to affiliate site. Click on log in and redirected to main page which has url of indigitalworks.com.
Any idea when it will all be fixed?