Will I lose money if I unintentionally have bought a stolen domain

**james2002** · 07-28-2009, 05:09 AM

I recently went through an escrow transaction and I was the buyer. The domain was agreed to be bought by me for xx,xxx range.

I paid the money into escrow which had ask the seller to transfer the domain. I got email communication with him and he used the registered email address at whois records.

I tried to request the domain transfer at Networksolutions but it was locked legally and I got frustrated after a few days and therefore called the networksolutions security department. The real owner had no knowledge of the domain transaction and he was on holidays for 2 weeks abroad.

My questions are:

1) if the domain transfer was successful and I got the domain and escrow had transferred the money to the seller (domain or email account thief), will I lose the money once the real owner makes a case against this.

2) How do we avoid this happening?

**GUA** · 07-28-2009, 06:03 AM

You answered your own questions really.. yes because it is not YOUR domain name.. ergo when it gets returned to the original owner.. unless you pursue the thief, you wont have the domain or your money..

**tristanperry** · 07-28-2009, 06:16 AM

Leading on from GUA's answer, the only way to try and avoid this is to either check if the WHOIS info was recently changed and/or to ring up the phone number listed.

This sounds like the scammer simply hacked the guy's e-mail address but nothing else, meaning ringing the phone number would have got you through to the real owner.

**ComScout.com** · 07-28-2009, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by james2002

2) How do we avoid this happening?

If you tell us how you got scammed, then we will learn from your story. The scammer must have been convincing.

How did you get sucked in? 10k is alot of money! Feel sorry for you.

**Raider** · 07-28-2009, 08:20 AM

Did you contact Escrow to cancel payment to seller?

**james2002** · 07-28-2009, 09:55 AM

I check the whois and the scammer got access to the registered email.

The domain is Example.com and the email was domain@example.com and therefore I believe I was dealing with the real seller.

I did cancel escrow transaction and I might lose the fees and the discrepency between exchange rate. It was good to find out before the transaction finished.

But we usually don't call the phone number listed and we normally do transaction via registered email address.

In the future, we might have to make phone calls if we are making big domain transaction as email addresses could be hacked.

**Domain Jedi** · 07-28-2009, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by james2002

I did cancel escrow transaction and I might lose the fees and the discrepency between exchange rate. It was good to find out before the transaction finished.

I am sorry to hear about your unfortunate experience and am glad to hear that you will get most of your monies back. Escrow.com should show some empathy in regard to your situation and not charge the fees.

**biggedon** · 07-28-2009, 10:10 AM

Originally Posted by james2002

I check the whois and the scammer got access to the registered email.

The domain is Example.com and the email was domain@example.com and therefore I believe I was dealing with the real seller.

I did cancel escrow transaction and I might lose the fees and the discrepency between exchange rate. It was good to find out before the transaction finished.

But we usually don't call the phone number listed and we normally do transaction via registered email address.

In the future, we might have to make phone calls if we are making big domain transaction as email addresses could be hacked.

lol

moved to Legal issues

example.com has never been for sale, it is a reserved domain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Example.com

james, you should really consider consulting some of your more experienced members here in the future before spending another dime

**DomainsInc** · 07-28-2009, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by biggedon

lol

moved to Legal issues

example.com has never been for sale, it is a reserved domain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Example.com

james, you should really consider consulting some of your more experienced members here in the future before spending another dime

I don't believe the domain in question was actually example.com, just that he used that as an example. James, if all you lose out on are some fees and exchange rates count yourself lucky.

**Poker** · 07-28-2009, 11:21 AM

Originally Posted by biggedon

lol

example.com has never been for sale, it is a reserved domain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Example.com

james, you should really consider consulting some of your more experienced members here in the future before spending another dime

Wow biggedon, getting enough sleep?

Originally Posted by biggedon

lol

example.com has never been for sale, it is a reserved domain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Example.com

james, you should really consider consulting some of your more experienced members here in the future before spending another dime

Wow biggedon, how did you miss that?

**Johnn** · 07-28-2009, 11:24 AM

Did they give the example.net and example.org free with the purchase?

**Poker** · 07-28-2009, 11:26 AM

double post

**james2002** · 07-28-2009, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by biggedon

lol

moved to Legal issues

example.com has never been for sale, it is a reserved domain

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Example.com

james, you should really consider consulting some of your more experienced members here in the future before spending another dime

Example.com was just an example and was not actual domain name.

I don't think I would mention the particular domain names I buy to anybody before I buy .

I don't believe the domain in question was actually example.com, just that he used that as an example. James, if all you lose out on are some fees and exchange rates count yourself lucky.

The money is still with escrow and I would only lose out the fees and exchange rate discrepancies.

**GUA** · 07-28-2009, 11:59 AM

Phone escrow.com asap and tell them what you have found out which leads you to believe it is stolen...

**biggedon** · 07-28-2009, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by james2002

Example.com was just an example and was not actual domain name.

I don't think I would mention the particular domain names I buy to anybody before I buy .

The money is still with escrow and I would only lose out the fees and exchange rate discrepancies.

why post example.com as the name in question, if it wasn't the domain?

i'm done!

**GUA** · 07-28-2009, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by biggedon

why post example.com as the name in question, if it wasn't the domain?

i'm done!

Um.. the exact reason in the article you linked in your last post.. for examples.

**DNBA** · 07-28-2009, 09:45 PM

This is why you should do a full escrow transaction like escrowdns.com does.

Sounds like they spoofed the email. you should post the header info or do a search on ARIN.net with the IP address. you can get some idea of where it was coming from.

**Provider** · 07-28-2009, 10:29 PM

Actually your questions are valid. In real estate transaction for instance, if you buy a property, and you pay for it in good faith, but the property is stolen, you get to keep it in most cases in North America. The title was transferred to you by the land authority, so you couldn't have known that there was something wrong with the property. With domain names it is different, and it is a big problem. The domains are not considered to be a real estate, even though many domainers think that this is property. It is not, unfortunately it is a license based product, and basically anybody can take any domain name from you anytime- it is a question of money only. In your particular case I believe
Escrow should be held responsible, but in real world (in our world) you will lose the funds.

**Focus** · 07-28-2009, 10:37 PM

I ALWAYS talk to someone on the phone and do my "due diligence" before buying anything over a few hundred bucks..you can never be too careful.

Thank God you used escrow!