This practice has been going on for a long, long time. I have seen others complain about "domain snatching" for years.

Worse yet, in my opinion, are those who "lock up" a domain for five days to see if it is profitable, or to see if they can flip it, and then release the domain if they can't make a profit from it (without having to pay for even a registration.)

Steve

Steve is right. This practice has been going on for a looong time. People can basically setup programs that can see what domains you're searching for and steal them right on the spot.

How do I know this? Because I have a few friends that have done this.

The advice given is right, DO NOT search unless you're ready to buy right then and there. If you search and then come back to it later....95% of the time your domain is gone.

I've gotten lucky a few times where the domain is still available, but normally if I come back to it, its gone by the time I'm ready to buy.

This has happened to me a dozen times. I now go to unpopular sites in order to search names.

Rob is actually mistaken about that part: it is relevant that it was Go Daddy. It's absolutely notorious that this can happen when you search for domains there. There are many threads here discussing this specific issue as it pertains to that specific registrar. (But thanks for posting another one!).

I don't suggest that the same can't ever possibly happen at some other registrars too, but it's certainly far from universal.

The moral of the story is: be ready to register the domains you want to register, when you find them available.

Sounds about right. Can't blame someone for doing this sounds like a great way to make a quick buck : )

Wow I've never heard of this before!

Thanks for the heads up.

Wow, didn't know this type of stuff happens in the 'background', that is really unfortunate for Rob. Wonder how they actually sort out the quality 'domains' using software, how does the software know what to look for in the domain?

I had an awesome 1 word .com domain name I looked up mid day at work. I went home to purchase it and not only was the .com gone, but almost all of the extensions were snatched up too. Of course it was Godaddy.

Using Domize.com give you the date the domain was registered and a thumbnail of the site. I looked up the domains I felt had been snatched from under me and it turns out that they have been registered since the late 90's? Maybe Godaddy isn't as corrupt as we think and their search function is just jacked up sometimes.

It sucks, but it is true when people sell these domain names and snatch them from your like pirates to resell the domain name when they get popular. Make sure you have full rights to that domain name.

I noticed this with daddy in the past...... I now use another registrar..... too many sharks around at the moment...

Danny

Just wondering how can a ICANN accredited registrar follow such ill practices.

wow interesting... I always felt I could be taken advantage off if I put in a really good domain name. Good info

This happened to me many years ago, when I first started. Since then I stopped using godaddy, even when they offer 99 cent domains... Only took less then an hour to lose a domain I found, I turned away to answer a phone call. I been using namecheap since then...

Never had that problem with Namecheap, but I register my domains as soon as I find them. There are many stories of this happening with Godaddy, but it doesn't happen if you register them as soon as you find them.

This is an OLD trick. Search POACHING.

Mostly I use Domain Name Registration : Web Hosting : SSL Certificates : Domain Registrars : Register Domains : International Domains : Dynadot.com - Dynadot.com for my bulk domain checking and I have never encountered any of the listed type of problem. But yeah, don't try to search from the sites which you aren't aware because they might collect the search data and book that domain.

Regards
Venkat

The practice is called domain tasting or in some cases front running. I recommend that you use domaintools.com. go Daddy is the worst. Check back in a few days chances are tn.hey will be available again.

Sorry to hear but this is known fact, godaddy does that often [not first time i hear it] but i even heard of worse situations.. Domai nsi ok to regiter, you register its failed, then you see that registraro owns it. Happened to some guy who almost got for 10$ a domain worth 5k$.

I think they're spying on what people are searching. Well, it's a business and I don't think that practice is illegal (probably unethical for some). That didn't happen to me since I use Domainsbot.com which provides real-time instant results.

happened to me in front of my eyes!

I experienced this a few times with GoDaddy. And although I wasn't sure about this whole thing, I kind of knew there was something fishy about it. So, I did a few "test" domain search and sure enough, 24 hours latter, when I came back to them, they weren't available.

So, now I only search for a domain, when I am ready to buy it right then and there.

There are many registrars who sell real-time data to companies that engage in a practice called "domain tasting" for the purposes of building their domain portfolio. They have automated scripts that register domains based on that real-time data. If the domain brings some traffic or is analyzed and found to have potential for profit on flipping it then the system keeps it, if not the system dumps the domain within the 5 day period where you can actually cancel a domain registration. (though the timing may have changed to something less than 5 days, I can't remember now)

I hope that helps you understand a bit. GD as a domain registrar DOES engage in this activity, as do many other registrars. NetworkSolutions for example is notorious for this and they have done it from the beginning.

Namecheap (reseller of Enom) does not have this issue currently. Netfirms didn't have this issue prior to being purchased by Tucows (not sure if they have the issue now) and there are a good amount who don't do this. You'll just have to do some searching.

Rule of thumb, if a domain seems too good to be true, just register it. If you don't use it, you can always flip it 60 days later to recoup your domain cost.

Whoa, thanks for posting this I had no idea they were this sneaky but it makes sense.

This issue also happened to me on Godaddy a couple of years ago. I haven't been back since. It has never happened with Name Cheap.

I had a similar story happen in back in the hay day. I was having a conversation with a friend and his buddy about this new business I wanted to start. Well my friends scumbag friends buys the domain that night and trys to sell it to me.

The lesson here is careful who you discuss new business ventures. It might bite you in the ass.

Thank you. Where are some good places to purchase a domain?

I always wondered if this was true or not. And it has happened to me at godaddy a few years ago, I was pissed at the time because it was a good domain. I never checked back with it after that, I was unaware of the 5 day grace period.


OP, just to be sure run a malewarebytes scan to see if it will catch any keyloggers, etc..


I Like namecheap currently.


When I first started using namecheap I remember doing a search on godaddy for a domain and it was available. Being tired of godaddy and their upsells, I opened a namecheap account, and tried to register that same domain, it was no longer available. that happened within an hour.

Good to know this. It hasn't happened to me yet so far.

never heard of it but its quite interesting to know such things can happen.. thanks

So the way to check out potential domain names to see if they are available is a

allinurl:

search?

Thanks for sharing this I will certainly be alittle more carefull where to check domains now.

Happened to me before but just once. I only search for domains when I'm buying now.

Your best bet for zero monitoring imo is to use what I use every day: Instant Domain Search.

It shows availability as you type, so there is no monitoring, because you could be typing only a partial word leading up to the actual word(s) you are searching and it will give back "available" for the nonsense that nobody would register.

So, for example, let's say I'm looking for a domain for brand marketing and just typing combinations "brandmarketingdynamo", before I ever get to the end of the 3 word domain, it will show all of these as available: "brandmarketi", "brandmarketin", "brandmarketingd", "brandmarketingdy", "brandmarketingdyn", etc...

Nobody is monitoring that crap. So you can be sure when you finish with "brandmarketingdynamo" and it shows as available, you're not going to lose it to some GD or other monitoring scheme.

Then just register it later.

I would go with a small registrar to check for domains, the one that is unlikely to steal your domains. For example, I've used Prohosting.com and they seem okay with not stealing domain names. By far they have not stolen any of my names even if I searched 5-10 days ago.

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