This morning I logged on to register [my surname].net only to find it has been registered on the 5th! It has been held previously for the last few years by a distant relative was due to expire recently, having never being used so I've been checking on it's availablity at various registrar sites for the last week or so

The whois response shows it as registered through ITSYOURDOMAIN.COM (Oh the irony :eek: ) but other than that the whois information has been made totally private.

When I visit the domain in the browser I get redirected to 64.225.154.135/index.asp which bares the notice:


You may inquire about a domain that brought you to our search page. Domains have been acquired using automated methods. Although we do not sell domain names, our policy is to transfer any domain to a company or person who demonstrates to us to our reasonable satisfaction that they have a legitimate claim to that domain name. To inquire about a domain, please click here.

All legitimate email requests will be responded to within one business day.


It's obvious it's been registered by con artists out to swindle me for big $$$.

Are there any alternatives to negotiating with these guys?

Do I have any legal claim to the domain? (It's a very uncommon name)

Are they violating any TOS? If not, why don't domain registrars or domain name authorities have TOS to prevent this sort of domain hijacking?

:angry: :angry: :angry:

Sorry to hear that somebody beat you to the name. :(

However, you shouldn't just throw around words like "con-artists", "hijacking" and "swindle". From what you've described, they acquired the domain in a perfectly legitimate fashion when it expired. It's basically the early bird that gets the worm in these situations.

That notice sounds friendly enough, so you might as well contact them and tell your story.

Good luck.

This happens all the time. as gen-t pointed out the word con-artist is strong since this does not appear to be the case.

Originally posted by blackbadger
Are they violating any TOS? If not, why don't domain registrars or domain name authorities have TOS to prevent this sort of domain hijacking?

:angry: :angry: :angry:

Can you describe what they may be violating? Do you have a trademark on the name? Gen-T is correct, in this business if you don't know the tricks of the trade you will lose. In this case you knew it was dropping so you should have used a Backorder service.

Sorry to hear what happened to you. But like the others pointed
out, those are strong words to use for something which is really
your responsibility to stay on top of things regarding your domain
name.

You know, you should be glad you got a really polite notice. So
unless you do have a valid trademark to the name or words itself,
your only recourse is to negotiate.

And negotiate with a clear head. :D

The registrant must be affiliated with a registrar site in order to find out about my interest when I checked for availability. If this is the case they clearly have no interest in the particular name other than to force me into using their service and effectively deny me a choice.

If that domain was a person they'd be holding it hostage :eek: There has to be something illegal about it im sure.

I can now expect to pay:
* Whatever they want from me for the domain for a change in ownership
* A possible release fee? Do ITSYOURDOMAIN.com charge a release fee? I couldn't find any information on their site
* A minimum of a years registration in transfering the domain to another registrar

All of which could take months.

Yes i'd say these people are con-artists, scammers and I don't think these terms are too harsh. Send out spam and your looking at jail time, its a criminal offense and this should be too.

To put a bit of perspective on the scale of this problem, I just run the domain through whois.sc:

Reverse IP: Web server hosts 203996 websites (reverse ip tool requires free login)
Server Type: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
IP Address: 216.122.145.102 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)

The IP has a DSL hostname provided by http://www.inland.net

Have they used our availability searches to register over 200,000 domain names? Think of the revenue they generate from the sponsors on the 'search engine' website and from releasing domain names.

Is there nothing that can be done here?

Originally posted by blackbadger
The registrant must be affiliated with a registrar site in order to find out about my interest when I checked for availability.[b]
Why do you assume it's a conspiracy, and that somebody is looking over your shoulder? Are you aware that there are thousands of people out there monitoring names that are about to drop/expire, and then grabbing those names the moment they become available? That's just the way it works. It's not a crime.

Have you tried to contact them yet? That would be much more productive than trying to make a federal case out of a common everyday event. We are not trying to be rude. We are just telling you that this happens everyday, and it's not a scam. People chasing dropping domains is a very common thing, and (though some people don't like it) a perfectly legal trade.

^ I don't get exactally wat you want to be done here??????

I think you need a example away from the web, when you go shopping and someone buys the last bottle of coke! do you call them "con-artists" and they should go to prison? just because you didn't get out of bed soon enough to beat them to it!

Stop trying to claim ownership for things that you don't own. and if you got a copyright on the domain in question then you can sue them!

I think the problem here is really a lack of education with regards domains - sorry original poster, but they have done nothing wrong.

In the media we hear about people buying domain names and then holding them to ransom.
All that has happened here is that a domain name has expired and then dropped.
The second that domain dropped any one of the billions of people in the world was entitled to this domain name as much as anyone else.
Some will have known it was about to expire, others won't.
Some will have had a passing interest in the domain name, others won't have even blinked twice at it.

What the original poster is saying is:

A domain name I really wanted dropped
Somebody else out there knew I wanted it and so registered it before I had the chance.
They are now holding it to ransome from me

Which is of course a very strong thing to say and as far as I can see, totally untrue.

Originally posted by blackbadger
This morning I logged on to register [my surname].net only to find it has been registered on the 5th! It has been held previously for the last few years by a distant relative was due to expire recently, having never being used so I've been checking on it's availablity at various registrar sites for the last week or so


Sorry but this happens every single day, like everyone here
is trying to tell you.

You can believe it's a scam all you want, but there's nothing that
can be done about it except to accept it and move on. This is the
reality since the first domain name's day one, and it has been and
will remain this way until more laws (aside from the trademarks)
are enacted defining the scopes and limitations (and it's doubtful
there will be, either).

Just charge it to experience. We all make mistakes, we learn from
them, don't repeat them, simple as that.

Many times in life, we want something badly but can't have it. It's just the way it is.

fewcoin

Next thing you know, someone might think we have a hand in it! :dgrin:

Blackbadger - if the domain was held by a distant relative, then why didn't you ask your relative to transfer it to you rather than let it drop and hope that you'll be first in the queue to register it?

From what you are saying it sounds like you didn't even put in a back order for the domain before it expired - which would at least have given you some chance of getting it.

Waiting for a domain to drop and then trying to register it is not going to work, unless it's a domain that no one else wants. If it's a common surname (or even a not so common one) then it WILL BE in demand. In fact a lot of surnames are registered by people who run mail services offering people email address of firstname@surname.com. Several of my friends have email address @surname.com without owning the "surname" domain.

Companies register expiring domains all the time, nothing new here. You're over reacting.

blackbadger, one thing that might help explain away the suspicion that someone was watching over your shoulder and "saw" your apparent interest in the name is that every day lists are published of domain names that are either due to expire soon or have expired.

All someone needs to do is look through the lists and if they come across a name they feel might be of some value, they'll register it. This is probably what happened to you....It's really not likely that someone was spying on you and decided to hold the name hostage.

Originally posted by haxtheplanet
Companies register expiring domains all the time, nothing new here. You're over reacting.

exactly

Blackbadger - if the domain was held by a distant relative, then why didn't you ask your relative to transfer it to you rather than let it drop and hope that you'll be first in the queue to register it?

The whois contained the contact details of the company my relative worked for, although it seemed to be a personal website and I had no way of contacting him directly (There wasn't even a email address on the site).

The domain was made available today, and I registered it immediately. It was only held from the 5th to the 10th

Maybe they just wanted as many domains as possible to submit their site to search enginesand get lots of hits to their heavily sponsored site. Or benefit in hits from domain names already indexed. So maybe they drop domains with few hits. Ingenius really.

So maybe it wasn't a scam, but it certainly seemed like someone had been monitoring my searches. I hesitated in buying the domain while i looked for a hosting plan and meanwhile someone grabbed it. So yes i guess its my fault.

Im just happy to have the domain.

Apologies if I over-reacted :blush:

Glad to see you got the domain you wanted.

checkout www.exody.com

you can just buy the lists of expiring names. thousands of people are looking over those lists each day.... chances are high someone might buy a name that you are also interested in.

Glad to hear you got it back, blackbadger! Just keep checking here
so you can learn a thing or 2 or 3 more about domain names.

Re: your overreacting? It happens. ;)

Let me guess, it was Smith.net :rolleyes: