Comments on: Stolen Domains A Big Problem http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/ Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:56:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: Ron http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11297 Ron Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:10:24 +0000 http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11297 Talking about stealing domain names, a topic that I think needs more attention is domain privacy. When anyone can look up the information of an owner of the domain name and the governing bodies insist this information is kept accurate it leads to serious, serious problems for the owner which can result in destroyed lives and even death. Before some of you laugh at what I’m saying I’ll explain myself a little better. Here is just one example of what I am talking about and it is based on a client I had that payed me tens of thousands of dollars to handle damage control. I’ll change the details of this particular incident to protect the individuals. Say you own the domain name PetFoodStoreMarket.com and decide to do thousands of dollars worth of advertising. Say someone has a beef with your company and buys the domain name ScamCompanyReportDocument.com posting lies about your company showing the WhoIs information along with a bunch of other companies. Anyone that does a Google search using: The PetFoodStoreMarket.com domain name The PetFoodStoreMarket.com owner The PetFoodStoreMarket.com owners home address The PetFoodStoreMarket.com owners telephone number etc. will see instantly a Google SERP pop up, usually at the top of the list, with the title ScamCompanyReport.com. When they read it it will say that your company should not be trusted since many pets were poisoned and the owner is being investigated by police. What can the owner do about this? He has invested money in building and advertising his company like most web projects do. If they contact the owner of ScamCompanyReportDocument.com, the owner will tell you that he can’t remove the information and that everything he is saying is true. Your really cornered into paying him off financially to remove the information since the damage it is doing is ruining your life day by day. If you apply for a job most companies will do a Google search, if you go on a date most people will do a Google search, if you call a friend and they don’t recognize the telephone number often the friend will do a search. The domain you bought is useless, no one will buy from the store if they do any research. If you contact a lawyer the first thing he will do is tell you it will take at least $10,000 to start to go after the individual and there is no guarantee that the individual will have any money that can be returned if you sue him. What happens to most companies that fall in this trap? They end up closing down the website and what additional damage does this do? When the remaining client base (customers that hasn’t seen or realized the fake news) types the domain into their browser and finds a dead page, they then think they made a mistake in the domain name. This once again leads to a Google search for PetFoodStoreMarket.com which brings up the ScamCompanyReportDocument.com page. The ScamCompanyReportDocument.com page gets the additional attention and hits pushing it higher in the search engines causing more damage to companies that are listed on the site. These guys that run these sites are the worst scum on the internet and it really is unknown how much money they extort from the people they victimize. CIRA .ca domain names has already made some steps in the right direction to automatically protect whois information when a domain name is bought. Paying for privacy on domain names is a cash grab from registrars. There are many people who spend a lot of time looking up the WhoIs information of good domain names and report false information in the hopes that they can grab the domain when it gets pulled from the owner. Many people are just trying to protect their information without being ripped off paying for privacy. Besides privacy isn’t really privacy, the guy that had the Scam site above looked up the historical whois which had all of the previous owners and changes to the whois data. With domain names selling for thousands even millions of dollars how long will it be before we start to see murders happening because of the whois information? If a domain is in a will or a competitor wants control of domain or to bring down a company? What do you guys think about this topic? Talking about stealing domain names, a topic that I think needs more attention is domain privacy. When anyone can look up the information of an owner of the domain name and the governing bodies insist this information is kept accurate it leads to serious, serious problems for the owner which can result in destroyed lives and even death. Before some of you laugh at what I’m saying I’ll explain myself a little better.

Here is just one example of what I am talking about and it is based on a client I had that payed me tens of thousands of dollars to handle damage control. I’ll change the details of this particular incident to protect the individuals.

Say you own the domain name PetFoodStoreMarket.com and decide to do thousands of dollars worth of advertising. Say someone has a beef with your company and buys the domain name ScamCompanyReportDocument.com posting lies about your company showing the WhoIs information along with a bunch of other companies.

Anyone that does a Google search using:

The PetFoodStoreMarket.com domain name
The PetFoodStoreMarket.com owner
The PetFoodStoreMarket.com owners home address
The PetFoodStoreMarket.com owners telephone number
etc.

will see instantly a Google SERP pop up, usually at the top of the list, with the title ScamCompanyReport.com. When they read it it will say that your company should not be trusted since many pets were poisoned and the owner is being investigated by police.

What can the owner do about this? He has invested money in building and advertising his company like most web projects do. If they contact the owner of ScamCompanyReportDocument.com, the owner will tell you that he can’t remove the information and that everything he is saying is true. Your really cornered into paying him off financially to remove the information since the damage it is doing is ruining your life day by day.

If you apply for a job most companies will do a Google search, if you go on a date most people will do a Google search, if you call a friend and they don’t recognize the telephone number often the friend will do a search. The domain you bought is useless, no one will buy from the store if they do any research.

If you contact a lawyer the first thing he will do is tell you it will take at least $10,000 to start to go after the individual and there is no guarantee that the individual will have any money that can be returned if you sue him.

What happens to most companies that fall in this trap? They end up closing down the website and what additional damage does this do? When the remaining client base (customers that hasn’t seen or realized the fake news) types the domain into their browser and finds a dead page, they then think they made a mistake in the domain name. This once again leads to a Google search for PetFoodStoreMarket.com which brings up the ScamCompanyReportDocument.com page.

The ScamCompanyReportDocument.com page gets the additional attention and hits pushing it higher in the search engines causing more damage to companies that are listed on the site. These guys that run these sites are the worst scum on the internet and it really is unknown how much money they extort from the people they victimize.

CIRA .ca domain names has already made some steps in the right direction to automatically protect whois information when a domain name is bought. Paying for privacy on domain names is a cash grab from registrars. There are many people who spend a lot of time looking up the WhoIs information of good domain names and report false information in the hopes that they can grab the domain when it gets pulled from the owner. Many people are just trying to protect their information without being ripped off paying for privacy. Besides privacy isn’t really privacy, the guy that had the Scam site above looked up the historical whois which had all of the previous owners and changes to the whois data.

With domain names selling for thousands even millions of dollars how long will it be before we start to see murders happening because of the whois information? If a domain is in a will or a competitor wants control of domain or to bring down a company?

What do you guys think about this topic?

]]> By: jeff Schneider http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11247 jeff Schneider Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:27:47 +0000 http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11247 Sahar, You are to be commended on your decision to post my comments on ICANN. Other sites that I posted this comment on chose to block the post. It is an example of how controlled the domainer community is by the fear of telling the TRUTH. ICANN is no more than a corporate shill for the corporations who want our Addresses. You all still think the wild West days of domaining are past? We have news for you THINK AGAIN ! Sahar,

You are to be commended on your decision to post my comments on ICANN. Other sites that I posted this comment on chose to block the post. It is an example of how controlled the domainer community is by the fear of telling the TRUTH.

ICANN is no more than a corporate shill for the corporations who want our Addresses. You all still think the wild West days of domaining are past? We have news for you THINK AGAIN !

]]> By: jeff Schneider http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11244 jeff Schneider Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:13:03 +0000 http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11244 ICANN is the root of a lot of problems. We have stated many times that ICANN refuses to protect the rights of current lease holders. This is a blatant neglect of fiduciary rights of all current lease holders. The truth of the matter is registrars will sell you a lease ,but they accept no fiduciary responsibility that you will keep the lease till expiration. This is why in all the hyjacking of leases by Kentucky-and contless others ICANN has been completely SILENT, as if lease holders have no rights. Is this a problem? As Sarah Palin says ” You BETCHA “ ICANN is the root of a lot of problems. We have stated many times that ICANN refuses to protect the rights of current lease holders.

This is a blatant neglect of fiduciary rights of all current lease holders. The truth of the matter is registrars will sell you a lease ,but they accept no fiduciary responsibility that you will keep the lease till expiration. This is why in all the hyjacking of leases by Kentucky-and contless others ICANN has been completely SILENT, as if lease holders have no rights. Is this a problem? As Sarah Palin says ” You BETCHA “

]]> By: Chart name http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11242 Chart name Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:29:50 +0000 http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11242 it is unfortunate but there is no way around having a domain monitoring service working for you at all times. I know many of us use domaintools but I think it's important to impress this upon those who have held domains for a long time and not paid a great deal of attention to their product. It is great that we are now being reactive to these scum. Now let's get proactive and stop theft altogether. it is unfortunate but there is no way around having a domain monitoring service working for you at all times. I know many of us use domaintools but I think it’s important to impress this upon those who have held domains for a long time and not paid a great deal of attention to their product. It is great that we are now being reactive to these scum. Now let’s get proactive and stop theft altogether.

]]> By: Russ http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11241 Russ Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:37:31 +0000 http://www.conceptualist.com/2008/12/03/stolen-domains-a-big-problem/#comment-11241 He's been at it a while (a couple years at least) and is very good at stealing domains. I've even seen him try to recover a root password to a dedicated server so he could get at the email hosted there. He’s been at it a while (a couple years at least) and is very good at stealing domains. I’ve even seen him try to recover a root password to a dedicated server so he could get at the email hosted there.

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