Godaddy have just stolen my name!!!

[gingeman]

I just received an email from godaddy that changes had been made to the contact details on one of my names- when I checked the name is no longer in my account!

The name is CasinoEro.com

I own a lot of casinolll llcasino lllcasino type names.

The name has been transferred to CasinoEuro.com without any notice or consent from myself- this is completely outrageous.

If a godaddy rep doesn't sort out this awful behaviour I will be seeking legal advice, and will move all my other names away immediately.

Can adam help with this??

[draggar]

It sounds like someone hacked your account and turned off the lock. Change your password ASAP and don't make it easy.

[Carter]

When this thing happen?

[south]

Originally Posted by draggar

It sounds like someone hacked your account and turned off the lock. Change your password ASAP and don't make it easy.

Sounds like it, yes. If you have a spreadsheet of your names, check it against whats in the account too, quickly.

[gingeman]

nope, I don't think this is what has happened- that was my first thought too...

I beleive Godaddy have decided that my name was similar enought to casinoeuro.com to give them the name, as this is who now has control and is shown in the whois. This is completely unethical and appallingly unprofessional- I received absolutely no warning whatsoever.

Ero is a generic term relating to love and erotica. The name was parked, but if there was a questionable infingement, there are proceedures in place for this.

I am absolutely appalled- I genuinely had no idea of the existence of casinoeuro.com until I checked the whois just now.

Does anybody know a senior person at godaddy who could contact me about this as I am very upset and angry that this was the course of action they took. Effectively giving my names out to other people is shocking behaviour by a registrar.

[south]

No way. They're not allowed to move them to another persons account at will. It would require URDP proceedings or a court order.

[gingeman]

Originally Posted by south

No way. They're not allowed to move them to another persons account at will. It would require URDP proceedings or a court order.

I hope you are right, but I fear not- the coincidence is too great I feel. I have read bout this practice of theirs elsewhere (although I never actually believed it!)

[Carter]

Originally Posted by gingeman

nope, I don't think this is what has happened- that was my first thought too...

I beleive Godaddy have decided that my name was similar enought to casinoeuro.com to give them the name, as this is who now has control and is shown in the whois. This is completely unethical and appallingly unprofessional- I received absolutely no warning whatsoever.

Ero is a generic term relating to love and erotica. The name was parked, but if there was a questionable infingement, there are proceedures in place for this.

I am absolutely appalled- I genuinely had no idea of the existence of casinoeuro.com until I checked the whois just now.

Does anybody know a senior person at godaddy who could contact me about this as I am very upset and angry that this was the course of action they took. Effectively giving my names out to other people is shocking behaviour by a registrar.

I don't think GoDaddy stolen nothing...I think some hackers enter in your account and push the name in the dark.

[south]

I'd be calling godaddy, changing passwords (email passwords, account passwords, etc), and checking credit card accounts, etc.

[MarinM]

Various things could've happened. From the whois:
Created on: 28-Aug-06
Expires on: 28-Aug-09
-maybe it expired, and someone bought it?

More on the topic, I believe it's unlikely that casinoeuro.com took your domain. WHOIS shows Seebola Ltd. from Gibraltar as an owner. WHOIS for See* Ltd. doesn't reveal no one, which can be indicative. Someone has reason to hide.
Seeb* looks like derived from Spanish (and more, Gibraltar is offshore haven at Spains SW border) and that casino is a Swedish company on Malta.

I believe it would be easier to check your firewall and other layers of security before trying to contact GD. Domain registrars do sometimes unmoral and unfair things, they sometimes even go against their EULA or laws they shouldn't go against, but I believe there are certain things they wouldn't do. One being selling domain that wasn't their.
Anyways, let us know what was it about when you find out.

[-ET-]

I would suggest you to call godaddy directly rather posting it here and waiting for help online.

[DotComGod]

PM me your phone number and I'll get someone to call you right away.

-=DCG=-

[Acro]

I'd like to add to the mystery that somehow, there appears to be a glitch with nearly expiring (but not yet expired) domains that get backordered. At least, that's what a domain thief claimed.

[gingeman]

Thanks to Adam and Rod at godaddy this has been resolved very efficiently and I am very happy. The name was not taken from me but updated by a client of mine. I apologise for any confusion and thanks to all who assisted.

[DomainerScript]

Originally Posted by Acro

I'd like to add to the mystery that somehow, there appears to be a glitch with nearly expiring (but not yet expired) domains that get backordered. At least, that's what a domain thief claimed.

I noticed a similar glitch (or perhaps it was intentional) that domains hosted with GoDaddy hosting are handled differently than domains hosted outside.

From what I've seen is that domains hosted with Godaddy don't get an expired page. They continue to be live right to the point they get removed from your account. That is what happened to one of my domains. It expired and was backordered by another Godaddy customer. My mistake was that I did not renew before the expire date. What happened was the domain continued live and expiry date had next year added. So it looked like it was live and up-to-date renewed. I feel it was removed from my renew domains list in cp earlier than normal (although there is no way to prove it.) Then I get a notice that there was an account change for the domain to another gd customer. All happened suspiciously quick in my opinion comparing to observing how long other expired domains take before they become available.

I talked to my account exec but there was nothing he could do. I contacted new owner of the domain directly and worked out a reasonable arrangement. Fortunately the new owner was understanding to my case and did not ask for my arm and leg.

This is a predicament that one can easily find themselves when they have a few hundred or more domains and renews on a per case basis. It looked suspicious to me how gd handled this expiry as compared to others. Perhaps something similar happened in your case.

Hope this experience is helpful to you.

All the best.

Case resolved. No need to extent it matter then.

[Focus]

Originally Posted by gingeman

Thanks to Adam and Rod at godaddy this has been resolved very efficiently and I am very happy. The name was not taken from me but updated by a client of mine. I apologise for any confusion and thanks to all who assisted.

lol, usually better to handle stuff like this in private! (with good reason)