Is it really that bad to buy a domain with the word hacker in it? I bought a domain at netfirms.com and after 1 day they emailed me asking for a photo of my Credit Card. Since I am in a vacation for 1 week after I bought the domain I failed to submit the scanned image and then they canceled my domain with them. Do domain registrars really flag a domain if there is a "hack" or "hacker" word in it?

I don't think it was the word "hack," since I know several well respected sites with the word in them, including wphacks.com.

it sounds as if perhaps your order was flagged for fraud, esp. if you are on vacation and your IP didn't match with your home address.

Not surprised that they asked you for verification. A year or so ago we had a client that had the word hacker in his domain and it was just about a forum about a game, no talks of anything illegal at all.

Hacking generally isn't a bad thing, it becomes bad when you start doing negative things with it. As sue pointed out, Wphacks is a well known site.

You should contact netfirms and see if they will get you your domain back. Just explain your case, they should understand.

yes, this is definitely suspicious when you register a domain with "hack" (except coincidence like imageSHack). if i were a registrar i would ask about your photo ID as well :) but if all is legal, just send them what they asked for and enjoy your domain

Just my opinion:

I think age has a lot to do with it (both registrar and registrant).

Those of us that have been around a while are less likely to be fussed by it, whereas those raised on the media's sensational (mis)interpretation tend to impart only that meaning to it.

Most of us 'hack' at least one thing every day of our lives.
For instance, every time you make that square peg fit into that round hole, you've hacked it.

that's not about interpretation. from registrar's point of view - they think that prevention is better than cure. you never know what meaning of "hacking" registrant thought of when registering a domain. and what are his intentions :)

Still, it shouldn't really be the registrars job to make sure nothing illegal is going on, especially if there have been no complaints.
There's been a war between two groups of people regarding the meaning of the word hack/hacker. In one end it means illegally breaking into systems and all that, but in the other it has a 'white hat' meaning of just being very good at something or tweaking something to do something it wasn't supposed to.

The bottom line though is that registrars shouldn't police this.
Any domain should be reggable, it is the website and the investigation of the website that should lead to action, not just the domain itself.

try my favorite site:

http://www.instantdomainsearch.com

yes, this is definitely suspicious when you register a domain with "hack" (except coincidence like imageSHack). if i were a registrar i would ask about your photo ID as well :) but if all is legal, just send them what they asked for and enjoy your domain

Really. And a place like lifehacker.com would have been flagged as suspicious? But then, if you're ordering something like warezhacks, that might be a red flag for a registrar. :D

I honestly think the problem was due to being on vacation when registering the domain.

If your IP you're ordering from doesn't (relatively closely) match the address on your CC, you will be flagged as possible fraud, or having a stolen credit card.

Lesson: Don't order while on vacation or else be prepared to send in supporting documents.

As others have said, if you registered the domain while on vacation, netfirms most likely saw the distance between your billing address and your location at the time of ordering was quite great. Only makes good sense to ask for verification.