A Supposed Offline Marketer Hijacked My Friend's Business Site. What can he do?

13 years ago

First, you may be in trouble if he transfered the domain to him. There is no reason any client should ever transfer their domain name to a consultant.

Second, it all depends on the contract. Get a lawyer involved. In many cases just having a lawyer send him a letter may clear all of it up.

What does his contract say he's going to do?

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FormerWageSlave

13 years ago

Jeez... I'm sorry this happened to your friend. Does he own the trademark to his business name? (assuming the domain is the same as the business name.)

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grrr...

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contentment1st

13 years ago

The problem is there was no contract, just a verbal agreement. Three months in with no results and five states away. The guy won't even talk to him on the phone; only through email.

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Headfirst

13 years ago

Originally Posted by contentment1st

The problem is there was no contract, just a verbal agreement. Three months in with no results and five states away. The guy won't even talk to him on the phone; only through email.

Talk to a lawyer if you like, but he's most likely going to be out of luck. He transferred the domain. He's not getting that back.

If the website generates money and is integral to his marketing he might just want to see if this guy will split the difference and send the domain back for a $1500. It's going to be cheaper than hiring a lawyer.

If he doesn't need the domain name then just walk. If there is no contract, the only way this guy can force you to pay is holding the domain hostage. If you don't need the domain just walk.

Either way, just chalk the loss up to tuition in the school of life. Your friend will know not to deal with amateurs now.

In the future he'll know not to do business with a marketing consultant that wont provide a concise contract, a certificate of insurance and some type of written guarantee.

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akazo

13 years ago

He needs legal advice, not forum advice... but there really isn't much that he can do. The 3K would be less than the legal fees, however a letter from a lawyer might scare the guy into submission.

Lesson learned: ALWAYS get things in writing.

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PPC-Coach

13 years ago

Never give up control of your domain, there's no need to ever.

If it was a verbal agreement, then ask your friend what the out clause was?

If it wasn't discussed, then discuss it now.

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Always-A-Warrior

13 years ago

Call his domain registrar and explain the problem. Send them all the emails and stuff so they can track who is who. There's always a chance they will side with the real owner if you can prove it. If the domain name is a company name of which he owns then he has a better chance of getting it back. Never give up. There's always a way.

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Diane S

13 years ago

This is so sad, to think how someone has been taken advantage of like this. It so easily could be any business owner. How many business owners would really understand the ramifications of transferring a domain name to someone else? I hope this gets resolved in favor of the business owner.

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PhilG

13 years ago

Talk to a lawyer if you like, but he's most likely going to be out of luck. He transferred the domain. He's not getting that back.

I agree with the posters above. $3000 is an expensive lesson, but tell him to pay it and get control of his domain name NOW!!!

Once he has control back, he may try to sue to get some money back etc, but otherwise chalk it up to a valuable lesson of the value of his domain name.

Phil G

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JMB Marketing Group

13 years ago

Originally Posted by contentment1st

I have a close friend who needs some serious online support for his business. A few months ago, he allowed a supposed offline marketer to take his URL that he has owned for over five years and transfer it to this guy's GoDaddy account. For an incredibly high monthly fee and with no written contract, all this guy has done for my friend is install an aweber placement on his site. That's it. Nothing else of any value. He decided he wasn't happy with the progress and asked to discontinue the verbal agreement and asked for his site to be transferred back to him.

The response was that my friend still owed him over $3,000.00 for an agreed upon years worth of service and that he had no intention of giving him his URL back. According to my friend, this guy also said he could cancel at any time if he was not happy. Guess he conveniently forgot that part.

The problem is that this URL is all over his marketing materials, bumper stickers, magnets, postcards, etc., so he has a hard time justifying a change to another URL, especially since he bought this one years ago and built up the recognition of the site here locally.

Questions: Is there a way for him to get his site back? How would he go about it? What are the legal ramifications against this guy who lacks both the skill set to do the online marketing job properly and the moral and ethical character to do the right thing?

The first course of action would be to contact a lawyer that gives 15, 30 minute free consultations.

Then I would suggest that you sign up for Pre-Paid Legal Services.

They are Cheap and Effective.

I'm not an affiliate, so here's the link.

http://www.prepaidlegal.com/index.html

This option will be heaps cheaper than hiring a lawyer and extremely effective. The cost is like $26.00/month; $300/year.

They provide services in both the US and Canada.

Wishing you much luck with your friend's fiasco!

JMB

P.S. Pre-Paid Legal isn't some company that deal with no-name law firms. They only deal with the best law firms in the States & US. They cannot be undervalued. I know this for a fact based on research and personal experience.

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contentment1st

13 years ago

UPDATE: We used this as an opportunity. The Hijacker removed my friends site completely and then sold it to a business with the same name in another state. I didn't realize this when I first posted this thread, but this was a URL that my friend had owned since 1999!!!

So what did we do? We started from scratch. We built him a new and more effective Wordpress site. We built him a Facebook Fan Page. We upgraded his Google Places spot and linked him to around 20 vertical markets and have strategic reviews coming in daily. We are doing articles and videos. He is extremely happy with the results thus far and Mr. FartBlossom is a distant memory. Oh, and by the way, I am charging him only what he was paying before, even though it's about a 60% discount off of my normal pricing structure.

Right is right. Wrong is wrong. There's nothing better than picking up a client who you can show immediate results to other than picking one up who's been burned and getting his trust by doing what you are paid to do. Results matter. He's picking up new leads daily...

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TE2

13 years ago

Originally Posted by contentment1st

UPDATE: We used this as an opportunity. The Hijacker removed my friends site completely and then sold it to a business with the same name in another state. I didn't realize this when I first posted this thread, but this was a URL that my friend had owned since 1999!!!

So what did we do? We started from scratch. We built him a new and more effective Wordpress site. We built him a Facebook Fan Page. We upgraded his Google Places spot and linked him to around 20 vertical markets and have strategic reviews coming in daily. We are doing articles and videos. He is extremely happy with the results thus far and Mr. FartBlossom is a distant memory. Oh, and by the way, I am charging him only what he was paying before, even though it's about a 60% discount off of my normal pricing structure.

Right is right. Wrong is wrong. There's nothing better than picking up a client who you can show immediate results to other than picking one up who's been burned and getting his trust by doing what you are paid to do. Results matter. He's picking up new leads daily...

That is excellent. You made lemonade from lemons!

A very close friend of mine has a saying: "Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?"

I had a situation two years ago that I have pursued legal action against a person to recover $10K in legal fees they cost me for false statements.actions.

Basically, we won the case and I wanted to recover the money this person had just cost me. I asked my attorney how to proceed and he explained what the next two or so years of my life was going to be like as well as the additional amount I would spend suing the other party to recover the money.

That's when I decided that I would rather enjoy the peace and harmony to be had by NOT pursuing recovery of the money. Result: no stress and I moved on to help my son build his business. And business is good, very good!

So for all the warriors out there reading this post...

"Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?"

Choose wisely and don't let the bad guys consume your life.

Again, congratulations for a stellar play by contentment1st.

Regards,

John

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MichaelHiles

13 years ago

Glad it's working out okay. This is just one of the countless stories that I continue to hear over and over in the market.

And a bunch of people on the WF can't understand why "internet marketers" and SEO people have such a horrible reputation.

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Rus Sells

13 years ago

Yeah some of the stories make me wonder if some of these people are EX-Roofers. seriously.

Originally Posted by MichaelHiles

Glad it's working out okay. This is just one of the countless stories that I continue to hear over and over in the market.

And a bunch of people on the WF can't understand why "internet marketers" and SEO people have such a horrible reputation.