Ownership Verification

[Gerry]

With the recent rash of accounts hacked, domain thefts, and stolen domains offered for sale, is there a way to implement a system that would allow ownership verification?

There is a nice system in place on Bido that sends an ownership verification link send to the owner on record.

Before the name is published, ownership is verified.

Now, I know this will not do much help to emails that have been taken over.

But it seems like something must be done to protect the TRUE owners of those domains as well as the BUYER. We've been noticing thread after thread of stolen names, non-ownership names being sold. And, buyers who are being screwed when it comes to the domain being seized by the registrar.

[kspd]

I think that in many cases you can prevent theft from happening by having good security practices in place. Use strong passwords, and never use the same password for your email as you do your registrar and anything else.

[Gerry]

I am more concerned of those that have not done anything - or enough - to prevent theft ending up here on DNF.

Sure, any system can be beat but withing the past week and a half or so we have seen at least three member accounts taken over and stolen domains show up for sale here.

In one instance, nearly 100 domains were listed for sale with none of the WHOIS info changed from the original owner. Fortunately, these domains belonged to members who found their own names for sale.

Had a system been in place that would have verified ownership before listing, it would have saved at least one person from purchasing stolen domains and now having issues getting his money back. Not to mention the hassle of the original owner having to contact three different registrars to secure his accounts and names.

Simply put, this is happening with greater frequency now. And it would be nice if DNF could somehow implement an automated ownership verification. Perhaps ask someone at Bido.com how they have implemented their system.

[Banned: theinvestor]

It's always a good idea when you buy a domain from an online forum...to just pick up the phone and call the whois.

Also always check the history of the name if it recently switch hands. You can always avoid buying stolen names IMO.

[kspd]

Although it might be a nice feature.. I don't really see it as being the responsibility of DNF to be that involved in our transactions.
There are always a few things you can do such as the investor mentioned above that take little time and effort and can prevent a lot of problems.

[INVIGOR]

...

[Gerry]

Although it might be a nice feature.. I don't really see it as being the responsibility of DNF to be that involved in our transactions.

Not once did I meantion or imply that it was DNF's responsibility.

Not once.

But three times I have been contacted by three different members on how to recover stolen domain names - all within the last week.

As an aside...one member lives in China, another in Singapore...and call them?


It would purely be a service to assist in keeping the site clean.

You have got to wonder why many sales and auction sites require verification of ownership before listing to sell. It perhaps protects them from lawsuits? Hmm...