Recourse when someone purchases your NON-expired domain name

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Posted by lilbambi, 01-20-2002, 09:02 PM
Hi, I am new here. I was search for some information for a fellow computer related business owner. They have a domain name that will expire in March 2002 from what she was saying. However, she said someone stole her domain name. Apparently someone bought it in December 2001! She has not had a site up for little over a year, but it is her domain name until March 2002. She was in the process of putting together a site to put up when she found out that someone bought it and apparently has put their site up. What recourse does she have. Thanks in advance for any help that I can pass on to her. lilbambi
Posted by thewitt, 01-20-2002, 09:09 PM
We're going to need more information here. Can you post the domain name, or if you'd rather not, PM me or email me with it? I'll do some digging then if I can. Domain names should not be able to be "poached" without their owner knowing about it. A domain transfer requires the domain admin to approve it. Was your friend the admin email contact for the domain? Who was the domain registered thru? Is there any relationship between the old domain owner and the current domain owner? -t
Posted by lilbambi, 01-20-2002, 09:20 PM
thanks for your quick reply! I think I am going to have to get her to come here and ask the question herself, or see if she would provide that information. I thought that your domain couldn't be sold without your permission at least before it expired. But, it kinda shook me up when she said that had happened to her. I will send her to this site and ask her to post her question here with more information. I have so little information on this since the lady posted it on a group I am a part of. She said she needed to know what to do. Thanks again for the quick reply, lilbambi Thanks so much.
Posted by thewitt, 01-20-2002, 09:51 PM
The only way that could happen that I'm aware of is: 1) She did not control access to the domain management interface and someone changed the ownership 2) She was not the admin contact and someone transfered the domain away 3) Someone fooled her registrar into changing ownership The domain cannot be sold out from under you in any normal way. There is no way to purchase a domain - legally - that belongs to someone else. -t
Posted by lilbambi, 01-20-2002, 10:04 PM
thanks thewit! I have passed that info along to her and I hope she comes to webhostingtalk.com to talk with you about it. Take care and thanks again for your help. lilbambi
Posted by debjonestx, 01-21-2002, 01:40 AM
Hi, I'm the domain owner with the questions. I registered my biz name, AdministrativeOptions.com, in March of 2000. Shortly after that I registered AdminOptions.com. Both were being used, but it was the same website no matter which addy was put in. I took the sites down a little over a year ago because I didn't have time to monitor/change it properly. I recently lost a major client, so I decided to put the sites back up. AdministrativeOptions.com is still registered in my name, but AdminOptions.com is not. The records show it was purchased on December 10, 2001. I was the only administrator of those sites and no one else was on any kind of paperwork. No one asked my permission to resell it, nor was I notified. Yesterday I sent e-mail messages to the company she registered with and the company I registered with, but neither one have replied. It may all be straightened out when these companies get my e-mails, but if it's not, what recourse do I have, and if I didn't give them permission, how could they have resold it? Thanks so much for any advice you can give me, and for taking time to do so! debjones
Posted by thewitt, 01-21-2002, 10:57 AM
Deb, I'm sorry you have lost your domain, however between the losing registrar - bulkregister.com - and the gaining registrar - godaddy.com, they should be able to tell you exactly what happened. Either the domain expired, or there was a transfer of ownership, and then a transfer of registrars. The losing registrar would have to approve the transfer out. He most likely would also have been involved in the transfer of ownership - though that could have happened at godaddy if the transfer out had somehow been approved by bulkregister. The dates on the whois records make no sense however. The dates on that domain are: This does not look like a transfer of an active domain. When a domain transfers, a year is added to the current end date. This is a registry requirement. A registrar cannot change that. If you originally registered the domain in March, and it was transfered, it would show another March expiration date and not December. You have certainly taken the correct approach to contact both vendors. Do you have the original confirmation email when you registered AdminOptions.com? This would show when you first registered it. -t
Posted by SimonMc, 01-21-2002, 11:02 AM
If you bought it in March 2000....and it was for 1 year....then by March 2001 its gone unless you renewed it. So..Maybe the first one you bought you got for 2 years and then the other you made a mistake and only signed for 1 year.....So by December 2001 the 1 year site has well expired. I might be completly wrong though and you did sign up both for 2 years. Simon
Posted by debjonestx, 01-21-2002, 02:24 PM
I don't remember getting a confirmation. The only "evidence" I have is my credit card charges. So far I haven't gotten any response from either company. To the best of my knowledge, both sites were for two years. It seems like I remember it was a requirement to register them for two years and then after that, it was optional. debjones

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