Domain stolen/deactivated by enom

[tm3500]

Enom deactivated the primary domain of one of my clients, citing "spam" complaints (the complaints are fake and were sent by a competitor). Here is what enom wrote:

"In accordance with our zero tolerance spam policy, the domain has been disabled and will remain so as to prevent further abuse. We are not in position to re-enable the domain, thus empowering the offender to continue the abusive behavior. Our goal is to be 100% spam free, and strides are being taken in order to attain this goal. We feel that our new policy will benefit all eNom customers, as well as all internet users."

Is it that easy to get someone out of business?

Note that enom deactivated the domain without checking back with the client first, and then took one week to send them the above response.

Has anyone else experienced similar treatment by enom?

Any recommendations for a lawyer who wants to take this case and set a precedent against abusive registrars?

George

[stuff]

At least one off my domain has the same issue.
I never sent any spam, it has always been parked.

[octobus]

Spammers can use any domain in trying to disguise their origin. Could it be possible that someone, who though that he received spam your client, complained to eNom.

[DNjet]

I would make a huge deal out of it with them and make them produce the IP where the spam came from so you can prove it didn't come from your client.

[tm3500]

Spammers can use any domain in trying to disguise their origin. Could it be possible that someone, who though that he received spam your client, complained to eNom.

That is possible. In the days before the incident, the client was attacked with email bombs and IM bombs, and received several threats, so everything looks like a coordinated attack by a competitor, disgruntled employee, or whatever. It wouldn't be the first time that some idiot sends out fake spam to cause problems to others.

enom's policy of silently deactivating the domain and then taking a week to respond to requests for information, and their stand-offish attitude in doing so (see excerpt above), makes things only worse. Their actions clearly tell the lowlives out there that all they need to do to kill an enom-registered domain is send out spam for it, or complain that it sent spam.

(I wonder what enom would do if someone deactivated their domain due to all the spam their business development department inappropriately sent to their resellers' clients. )

George

[Leading Names]

Enom deactivated the primary domain of one of my clients, citing "spam" complaints (the complaints are fake and were sent by a competitor). Here is what enom wrote:

"In accordance with our zero tolerance spam policy, the domain has been disabled and will remain so as to prevent further abuse. We are not in position to re-enable the domain, thus empowering the offender to continue the abusive behavior. Our goal is to be 100% spam free, and strides are being taken in order to attain this goal. We feel that our new policy will benefit all eNom customers, as well as all internet users."

Is it that easy to get someone out of business?

Note that enom deactivated the domain without checking back with the client first, and then took one week to send them the above response.

Has anyone else experienced similar treatment by enom?

Any recommendations for a lawyer who wants to take this case and set a precedent against abusive registrars?

George

By deactivate you mean anything which relies on Enom's name / email servers? Surely Enom, or any other registrar for that matter doesn't have the right to delete a name without the registrants consent?

Presumably you could still transfer the name to another registrar?

I've never came across this issue before but it sure does sound worrying.

- Rob

[tm3500]

With deactivate I meant to put on REGISTRAR-HOLD. It's as if the domain had expired, it stops working, and it can't be moved anywhere else nor renewed (as it hasn't actually expired yet). For all practical purposes, it's hijacked or stolen, and once the domain does expire, it would presumably be auctioned off on Club Drop, or enom would keep it for themselves. It's a high-traffic domain with highly targeted financial traffic and would easily be worth $15,000 to $20,000 on its own.

Anyway, the mystery is solved. A client of my client had accidentally sent a spam complaint to enom, which prompted them to deactivate the domain.

He realized his mistake and here is his message to enom (company name edited out to protect my client):

Dear Madam, dear Sir, I noticed I have sent you a spam message about an email I received from [company]. I would like to apologize for this terrible mistake: I know [company] as a very good company with a very good service and the [company] messages are very welcome to me. The problem is that, because of a PC crash, I had to buy a new PC a few days ago and [company] had not been entered as a "Friend Partner" into my spam filter. Meanwhile I have adjust this mistake. My only excuse is that I receive between 400 and 600 spam-emails daily and that, under these circumstances, it's not difficult to make a mistake. I regret if [company] should experience any problems for a mistake I made. Thank you in advance. Kind regards,

It sounds like his software sent an automated spam complaint to enom. For enom to kill a domain based on an automated and unverified spam complaint is simply ridiculous, and it is obvious that they contacted neither the domain owner nor the complainant for verification! We'll see how many days or weeks it takes enom to reactivate the domain now that they know the facts... and whether they apologize or not.

My client lost an amount in the lower six figures in revenue due to the downtime so far. Could he sue enom to recover that amount? Is there any precedent for this?

In any case, I hope this incident serves as a warning to all domain owners to stay away from enom. My clients and I have several hundred domains at enom and I'm urging them to move them all away from this abusive registrar.

George

[Acro]

Just have your client sue his client.

[namestrands]

Enom deactivated the primary domain of one of my clients, citing "spam" complaints (the complaints are fake and were sent by a competitor).

That is somewhat worrying. One of my clients sends out 80,000 B2B emails each week and to date nothing has happened to them. However the emails are of a pure business nature.

I guess their are many ways to class and define spam, do you have a copy of the alleged spam email?

I think this is something that needs to be addressed out in the open.. I will send an email to my account manager to ascertain what the rules are exactly. Zero Tolerance is one thing, however witholding domains is an entirely different kettle of fish and somewhat unlawful.

I would suggest a read through of the ICANN regulations with regards to the role of a registrar.

Let us know your next steps

[Acro]

GoDaddy does that all the time. They started this.

[namestrands]

most spam I get is from my own server or virii faking to be from my servers. I just cant believe they would delete someones domain without absolute proof. If that was true then potentially anyone could shut down someone else just because they held a grudge.

[Leading Names]

I'd be outraged.

It shouldn't be within a registrar's jurisdiction to delete a name simple because someone "made a complaint" - that's ludicrous.

I get hundreds of genuine spam messages from Yahoo.com and HotMail.com every month, would the registrar in question delete these names if someone made a complaint? No way!

BTW, is it only GoDaddy.com and enom.com who have this Fu*cked up policy? P.S. excuse the language, in this instance I felt it was justified :smartass:

- Rob

[Mr. Deleted]

I know that this is a little different, but a site called InstantBuzz was sold, but the domain was never transfered to the new owner, and they had members/affilites who were making 1000 a day, but then with one member senting out spam, GD put a hold on the domain and the old owner had to be contacted to pay an 80.00 fine and explain the situation, before the site went back online. I would hate if that happened to me.

[NameYourself]

I know that this is a little different, but a site called InstantBuzz was sold, but the domain was never transfered to the new owner, and they had members/affilites who were making 1000 a day, but then with one member senting out spam, GD put a hold on the domain and the old owner had to be contacted to pay an 80.00 fine and explain the situation, before the site went back online. I would hate if that happened to me.

Wow, I'd be curious to know who says what or what isn't a fine? Do the registrars have free will to determine all this or does ICANN have a strict set of rules and procedures to follow? I think ICANN needs to do something about this.. outrageous fees to get your site back online is just another way some of these registrars can get away with making more money. Aren't they doing well enough by auctioning off their own drops?

[cheapville]

watch out for someone who used busted@secureserver.com and bougth $500 worth of stuff with stolen credit card

[Acro]

Wow, I'd be curious to know who says what or what isn't a fine? Do the registrars have free will to determine all this or does ICANN have a strict set of rules and procedures to follow? I think ICANN needs to do something about this.. outrageous fees to get your site back online is just another way some of these registrars can get away with making more money. Aren't they doing well enough by auctioning off their own drops?

Always read the small print and don't use registrars that limit your consumer rights. GD is one of them.

[Keyword Factory]

I will never understand many of the people on this board.

So how many people on here with domains worth 5, 6, or 7 figures (either value or a related business) who do not know the following things:

-The name and number of the compliance officer for your registrar
-The name and number of your registrar's general counsel
-How your registrar handles issues like spam, domain theft, UDRP issues, etc.
-the reputation of the registrar

All everyone talks about is saving something like 17 cents per month on the reg fees. At this point the costs are so close among registrars I don't even consider price when chossing a registrar.

FYI - the general counsel for ENOM is:
Martin Garthwaite
General Counsel
eNom, Inc.
2002 156th Avenue NE
Bellevue, WA 98007
phone: 425-883-8860 ext 270
fax: 801-457-7531


Their owner is Paul Stahura who is involved in ICANN and shows up at many domain events. I know these people because when I had a Tucows reseller account they were involved with stealing whois data and sending phony invoices to my customers. See the FTC news release at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/12/domainreg.htm

Nobody in their right mind would keep their domains registrered with ENOM andI believe it is gross negligence to keep a client's valuble domains there. While GoDaddy is run by a moron, ENOM is run by a scammer.

[tm3500]

Quick update: After two weeks of downtime, enom gave back the domain to my client. No explanation, no apology, but at least it works again.

Lesson learned: Don't deal with enom.

Thanks to all of you for your comments and input!

George

[Mr. Deleted]

great that he got it back

Good luck.