My Domain was stolen from under my nose!

aruna · Jun 20, 2007

This is a cautionary tale.
I first registered my domain, sharonmaas.com, about 9 years ago. It has built up quite a bit of traffic over the years, and is plastered all over the net, and on some of my book covers.
I changed my email address about 2 years ago. I can no longer access my old email address, the one I first registered the domain under. As happens, I forgot to update my info with the provider.

The domain came up for renewal. I was notified under the old address, but of course I did not receive the mails. After several reminders. the domain expired, and the website went offline. I contacted the provider; they told me that the domain name was now in a special status where it was due to expire, but could be manually reinstated if I pay $100. I thought, hell no (money is short right now), I'll just let it expire and then buy it again.

It had a month to go, after which there would be 5 extra days before it became available again. I waited, checking in every day to see if it was available.

The other day I checked in - and found it was taken! Apparently there are folk who trawl the net for expired domains and then snap them up so as to resell them - and profit from the acquired traffic!

To buy back my domain would cost at least $200. I'm not going to do it. Even if I had the money I wouldn't do it. I think the practice is downright evil!

I've since registered two new domains, sharonmaas.co.uk and sharon-maas.com and they will go live soon - but I grieve for the old one, especially because that's the format most people look for when they guess at a website name.

And - when I did not reply to the "expiring domain" emails they could have sent me a mailed notification.

So, people, be careful with your domains. If you don't have one, do register in time and keep your contact details up-to-date. Or you could end up like me! Now I have to go and change everything all over the place...

aka eraser · Jun 20, 2007

My condolences Sharon. I'd be ticked too. I'm glad you registered the new ones. In time (as your new editions and new books update your contact info) one of the new ones will supplant your old one and all will be well.

(Making note to self to extend domain registration for the longest possible period....)

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Jun 20, 2007

Can you add a second email address for notification on this new domain? And/or set up a keeper addy with yahoo.com or gmail or whatever so if you change ISPs again, you'll still have the stable email for notifications to go to?

aruna · Jun 20, 2007

Ol' Fashioned Girl said:
Can you add a second email address for notification on this new domain? And/or set up a keeper addy with yahoo.com or gmail or whatever so if you change ISPs again, you'll still have the stable email for notifications to go to?

I've registered them under a gmail address. What gripes me the most is they have actually set up an advertising site under my name. If it was just a "cannot find server" thing I wouldn't mind so much.

Mac H. · Jun 20, 2007

There's a good chance you can get it back without paying them.

See: http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm

Basically, if they take the domain of someone's name (like yours) for the reason for selling it back to you, you can apply to have it transferred to you - they have 'no legitimate interest' in the domain name 'sharon-mass'.

It costs almost nothing - no lawyers, etc, but can take about 60 days to resolve the dispute.

Mac

aruna · Jun 20, 2007

Mac, that is GREAT! I wil certainly try my best to get it back!

aruna · Jun 20, 2007

...however, I don;t see any instructions there as to how to proceed. Who do I complain to? The information on this page seems to address the person who is complained against, not the complainant (me).

Mac H. · Jun 20, 2007

There are a few different organisations registered to resolve disputes.

Two of them are:
* WIPO -- World Intellectual Property Organization
* NAF -- National Arbitration Forum

You can see how each of them have decided on similar cases here:
* http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/cases/index.html (WIPO)
* http://www.arbforum.com/domains/decisions.asp (NAF)

I'm not sure of the link to start a dispute, but I'm sure others are ...

Mac
(PS: If you are looking for similar cases - here's an example: http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2001/d2001-0209.html

The result was:

In the result, the Panel having found that the Domain Name is identical to a trade mark/service mark in which the Complainant has unregistered rights and that the Respondent has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the Domain Name and that the Domain Name has been registered in bad faith and is being used in bad faith, the Complaint succeeds.

The Panel directs that the Domain Name <margaretdrabble.com> be transferred to the Complainant.

It will be observed that this decision is almost identical to the Panel’s decisions in parallel cases nos. D2001-0121/0122/0123. The reason is that the facts of each of those cases are substantially identical as are the terms of the submissions which the parties have made to the Panel.

The author's name (even though totally unregistered as a trademark, etc) was considered a trade-mark ... naturally enough)
)

(PPS: Congratulations. You now have blog fodder for a few months)

aruna · Jun 20, 2007

I looked up the fees at WIPO and they are $1500! :e2faint:

aruna · Jun 20, 2007

Another question: if I were to win such a dispute, would the cyber-thief have to pay the fees? Because in that case it might by possible to simply threaten to challenge them... since I have a fairly good case against them, they might just cave in without a fight. What do you think?

aruna · Jun 21, 2007

Apparently, domain name hijacking is becoming more and more common and you'd be wise to take extra precautions. I was silly not to keep my info up to date, but even if you do, there are dangers. Check out this info:
http://www.circleid.com/posts/help_domain_name_hijacked/

Bo Sullivan · Jun 21, 2007

A similar thing has happened to me with barbaraosullivanauthor.com and it is so annoying to see a company's website using it when they have nothing to do with my name.

Barbara

aruna · Jun 21, 2007

Duped said:
A similar thing has happened to me with barbaraosullivanauthor.com and it is so annoying to see a company's website using it when they have nothing to do with my name.

Barbara

...especially when it has "author" at the end of it! Have you thought of registering simply barbaraosllivan.com? I just checked and it is available.

Little Red Barn · Jun 21, 2007

What the...I just checked mine its been sold to a business!!! Mine is not even due to expire for two more years...

Rolling Thunder · Jun 21, 2007

I have an account with Register.com. When my site is about to expire they notify me by email as usual, but I have their free 'automatic renewal' service. I think this should be available for most domain providers, especially since it provides them with easy income for renewals.

If your domain provides the service, sign up. You won't have to worry about losing your site name again.

Christine N. · Jun 21, 2007

Can you get something similar but not the same, like sharonmass.net? Or sharon-mass.com?

I had to do that because christinenorris.com was already taken by some stupid real estate agent in Florida with the same name. So I had to use christine-norris.com (but I could have gotten christinenorris.net, I think)

I also have automatic renewal from freewebs. Mine will renew this august.

MidnightMuse · Jun 21, 2007

Oh man, that's a bummer ! I'm so sorry for your frustration, but thank you for clueing the rest of us in to this risk - - I never could get my name as a domain, it was already taken but nothing was ever done with it, so I had to go with something else. It's a pain, but I figure I'm not gonna achieve the kind of fame where someone's going to search for me by name without just using Google.

After they wade through the porn stars, they'll find me

Susan Gable · Jun 21, 2007

Be glad it's just an ad site. Many times, hijackers point the sites to porno sites to put added pressure on you. I've seen it happen.

In fact, I wrote an article about it a while back.

http://www.susangable.com/WebsiteWHAT.htm

Make sure you put into your computer calendar RIGHT NOW when your domain is set to expire. Write it down on a sheet of paper and stick it to the wall near your computer. Make notes of it in any other scheduling formats you use.

An ounce of prevention really is cheaper in this case, as Aruna's unfortunate experience shows.

Sorry, Aruna!

Susan G.

Melanie Nilles · Jun 21, 2007

I go through Yahoo! Small Business and they have a feature called Domain Locking that helps "to prevent unauthorized transfers of your domain to another registrar or web host by "locking" your domain name servers. When your domain is locked, you'll be substantially protected from unauthorized third parties who might try to misdirect your name servers or transfer your domain without your permission. You will also be unable to inadvertently make changes to your name servers that could prevent Yahoo! from hosting your domain services properly."

I only pay $11.95 a month through Yahoo! for my own domain, including subdomains, and get a lot of other features (most of which I don't use right now) that includes statistics. I track those and have seen my traffic increase. I can see the host IPs of who's visiting, any searches that led to my sight, etc. It's worth the money and a lot easier to afford on a monthly basis. I also pay a few quarters extra to keep my domain registration private.

Just a suggestion. I like the services included with the package and their customer service (only had to use them once).

aruna · Jun 21, 2007

There are various websites form attorneys who concentrate on such cases... just to see what they said, I mailed two of them. I got this answer:

Sharon: This is classic cybersquatting. We can help you get back your domain name under the UDRP by bringing a cybersquatting action complaint to either WIPO or NAF. The process takes 60-90 days. We charge a flat fee of $5,500, which includes the ~$1,500 arbitrator fee to WIPO/NAF to decide the dispute. Obviously, the domain is worth enough to justify the cost of getting it back.

Please contact me directly with any questions. I can help you understand the process.

Attorney

Well, obviously I'm not going to do it. In Germany (and I think in Britain) the one who wins the case foots the entire bill. Is this not the case in the US?

Pat~ · Jun 21, 2007

Oh Sharon, I'm so sorry! What a bummer. I had no idea things were so complicated with all this. I have a very common name and was fortunate to get a .com addy for my domain; I'll take extra precautions now. Thanks for the warning.

benbradley · Jun 21, 2007

I have a domain through Godaddy, they have all the domain locking, auto renewal and stuff too. The .com domain is $8 per year and hosting is $3.95 per month, and cheaper by the year. I don't really use it (a counter shows 106 hits in 18 months), but it's cheap enough that it doesn't bother me.

Do I have a more common name, or are there that many domain names? I thought of getting benbradley.com ten years ago when Network Solutions was the only registrar and domains cost $35 per year, but that seemed too much for a domain when I had no clue what I was going to do with it (and I STILL don't...). I think by 2000 it was taken, and within another year benbradley.net and benbradley.org were also taken.

Aruba, as soon as you get your new website(s) up, be sure to submit them to all the search engines, so people can find them. It might be a good idea to also submit your OLD website so the search engines are updated with whatever's there, and it doesn't show up when people search your name or book titles. If you ever get the old domain back, you can then reload the content and submit it yet again.

aruna · Jun 21, 2007

Pity mine wasn't a .uk domain - nominet actually does the whole arbitration thing for free!

Anyway - I have written them a mail threatening legal action and damages, and offering to buy it back for $15. Who knows.

JennaGlatzer · Jun 21, 2007

Yikes. Sorry to hear this, Sharon.

Would you believe this very nearly happened to Absolute Write? The domain expired, and like you, I had changed e-mail addresses and wasn't notified. I thought the site was just down (remember how often that used to happen!) and waited 2 days or so before finally finding out it was the domain, not the hosting company, causing the problem.

Mac H. · Jun 22, 2007

I waited, checking in every day to see if it was available.

That might have been the trigger.

Some very unethical bulk registrars (*cough* Enom) have been using whois records to decide who to cybersquat.

When you do a 'whois' search (or the equivalent) you are basically asking the registrars if the name is available.

If one of those registrars have decided to make money cybersquatting on names that they have no legitimate interest in (eg: PersonsName.com) then they will use the fact that there have been 'X' queries recently as a guide on what they can sell.

Wait a year for it to expire, and get it back. Whatever you do, do NOT do lots of 'whois' queries or visit the domain at all. Ensure all links (such as Wikipedia, etc) no longer point to it. If the site gets traffic (even just from you) they may decide to not give it up.

Mac
(PS: Edited to add. I just checked - the domain is now registered to a fake 'whoisprivacyprotect.com' address.

These addresses are used by people running illegal schemes like fake lottery sites etc. If you ever see one of those addresses - run. It's a very *very* big red flag)

My Domain was stolen from under my nose!

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