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Topic: Somebody stole my name ! |
Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 11:48 am |
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My website has been taken by somebody and I'm not sure what to do. I am paid up with my web host but my registered name is gone. It expired and I don't even know who had it. This is pretty weird and really screws up things for me.
I'm not sure what to do.
Bob
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Bob |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 12:18 pm
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Bob;
Email all the details you have to me, as attachments in a zip file. Include any correspondence from your Registrar and your hosting company. I will try to figure out what happened.
I need to know the Domain name, the company where it was registered (The Registrar), when it was registered, and the name of the hosting company where the website was last hosted.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 1:13 pm
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This issue is being worked on by me personally. It involves a freshly expired Domain name registration that was picked up by drive-by domain scrapers and is being used to serve ads and drive traffic to their affiliated search portal.
If any of you own a Domain name please make a note of the expiration date and renew it ahead of time, then "Lock" it. There are bandits scouring the Registrars and Whois databases, just waiting for domains to expire, then grabbing them the minute they become available. Some of these domains are then used to host spam or worse, since they also gain any page rank and reputation that went with that just-expired domain.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 9:19 pm
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I caught it in time and got my name back. That was a freakin nightmare though. Anybody using a domain name out there make sure you check with your host and have it protected. Those scam dudes are fast and show no mercy.
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Bob |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 9:24 pm
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Bob;
I'm thrilled to learn that you got your domain back! score one for the good guys!
Go into your Domain Registrar's account, ASAP, and Lock the domain against unauthorized ownership transfers. Also, make absolutely certain that your contact info for Owner and Billing is accurate. Add Privacy Post, or Whois Privacy to guard against Whois spammers and scammers.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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Clyde Mattocks
From:
Kinston, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 21 Dec 2008 10:55 pm
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This happened to me. My host was laboring under the
impression that he had a "grace period" to pay the
registration. He kept giving me excuse that he would get it back in a few days, a week, a month.
I got someone to investigate and found he had let it expire. The vultures offered to sell it back for
1750.00. The upshot was I got a new host and an alternate name. Lesson learned!
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LeGrande II, Nash. 112, Fender Twin Tone Master, Session 400, Harlow Dobro, R.Q.Jones Dobro |
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Cal Sharp
From:
the farm in Kornfield Kounty, TN
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Posted 22 Dec 2008 5:32 am
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Another thing that seems to happen is if you're wanting to register a new domain and you do a domain search for several different one you're considering to see if they're available and come back later after you've decided which one you want you'll find that it's already been registered by the "drive by domain scrapers" and if you really want it you have to buy it from them. 
From TechCrunch this morning:
| Quote: |
Doh. Domain squatters snatched away the domain name GeorgeWBushLibrary.com and made an easy $34,990 profit on promptly selling it to back to Yuma Solutions, the web development company that let it expire. Yuma has been a contractor for the Bush family for quite some time, and the domain name they accidentally let expire belonged to the George W. Bush Library Foundation. It originally bought the domain in 2007 from another squatter for $3,000.
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BTW, GoDaddy is a big player in the expired domain market, warehousing them and auctioning them off using one of its hard-to-trace subsidiaries, Standard Tactics, LLC
_________________
C#
Me: Steel Guitar Madness
Latest ebook: Steel Guitar Insanity
Custom Made Covers for Steel Guitars & Amps at Sharp Covers Nashville |
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Wiz Feinberg
From:
Mid-Michigan, USA
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Posted 22 Dec 2008 10:33 am
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There is a reason why scrapers buy up expired domains names, rather than new ones. Most existing domains will already have traffic and be indexed in search engines for terms that were previously used in their pages. Scrapers benefit from unsuspecting web surfers coming to the websites they just bought and some can be turned into instant profits if they are tricked into clicking on links in the new home pages.
That was the mild side of the story. Now, for the rest of the story.
Sometimes criminals will buy recently expired domains and use them to host exploit codes and drive-by malware downloads. Others will use them for phishing scams. Often, these folks will bid on a lot of expired domains and get them really cheap, so they don't care if the domain name is taken away for violations against the human race.
It is up to the owners of domain names to keep track of their expiry dates and to renew them before that time.
Also, as Cal mentioned, do not perform a search for an available domain name, using a Domain Name Search Box, unless you are prepared to buy it on the spot! Most registrars have been playing games and either self-registering, or auctioning off the searched for names. The ones they self-register are used to serve up ads for a few days, called a waiting period, where they don't have to actually pay for the domain (I'm not sure if this has changed) until 4 days after registering it. This means that if you come back to them later on to buy the domain you will have to wait until they release it for sale (was 4 days last year).
As mentioned, the domains that are auctioned off are sold to scalpers who try to sell the desirable names to the original searchers (or owners) for a profit.
All Registrars will attempt to contact domain owners at least 30 days before their domains expire. If your email address on file is no longer valid, and you haven't made a note of that date, you will never know about this impending event and will lose ownership of the name. Some Registrars will place expired domains into a holding database for a short period of time (14 to 30 days), so the original owner can have a chance to renew it, often at a higher rate. After that grace period you lose all rights to the domain and anyone can register it.
If any of you guys lose your domain due to renewal negligence and cannot get it back, cut your losses and register a new domain that is a variation of the old one. Add a hyphen between two words, or go with a .net or .info, if you lost a .com. Just remember to buy the available desired name while it is in front of you in your browser.
I use Dotster as my Registrar (since 2000) and they have been great to work with. In the past they have held domains I let expire for a month in case I wanted them back. The buy-back price increased after 7 days. Every time I change web hosts I get the new name servers from the new host, login to Dotster and update the name servers for each domain. In a couple of days the changes have traversed the DNS system and the website is served from just the new location and I let the old one expire gracefully.
_________________
"Wiz" Feinberg, Moderator SGF Computers Forum
Security Consultant
Twitter: @Wizcrafts
Main web pages: Wiztunes Steel Guitar website | Wiz's Security Blog | My Webmaster Services | Wiz's Security Blog |
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