DomainInspect Domain Lookup Stole My Domain!

[jhansen]

Hello,

I'm pretty angry right now, and I'll be more than glad to tell you why. For as long as I've been in domaining (6-8 months) I've read stories about people doing domain lookups on various shady websites only to find out the site registers the name via a script right after a successful search. I dismissed that sort of thing as foolish people using free tools to do lookups and not being careful about who they share their business with. Quite a while ago I purchased a license for DomainInspect, an application to do lookups on domains in the hope of finding reg-worthy names.

Much to my dismay, I just 'caught', if you will, the program registering a name it just looked up for me. Not only that, but I began to think and realize the same thing happened a day or two ago as well..I just didn't put two and two together.

I set up a large lookup list, 50 or so names, 3 extensions each, and found exactly *1* qualifying name out of the 150, my own little needle among the haystack if you will.

Naturally, I head right to Moniker to register the name...I log in...put the name in...only to be told the name is unavailable! I click the 'whois' button on Moniker..and it tells me the name is available, rinse..repeat..etc.

I go to Whois.net and the domain info is as follows:

Domain Name: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.COM
Registrar: INNERWISE, INC. D/B/A ITSYOURDOMAIN.COM
Whois Server: whois.itsyourdomain.com
Referral URL: http://www.itsyourdomain.com
Name Server: TM124-2.TRAFMON.COM
Name Server: TM124-1.TRAFMON.COM
Status: ACTIVE
EPP Status: ok
Updated Date: 02-Nov-2006
Creation Date: 02-Nov-2006
Expiration Date: 02-Nov-2007


What the (expletive)? Is there any safe way to look up domains, or should I just give up searching altogether?

A very unhappy customer,
Justin

 

[Theo]

NetSol used this paradigm a good 8 years ago. In an era where domains are tested for traffic and then dropped within 96 hours if they don't perform, I would not be surprised.

 

[Luc]

I have received MULTIPLE complaints from my customers (Domain Research Tool customers) who previously used Domain Inspect and swore that their domains were picked up a few hours after lookup.

This is not new and I always warned people about that tool. I think they are based in China so there is not much that can be done as far as legal action.

Best Regards,
Luc L.

 

[Gabriel]

Common practice these days from NetSol. It hapenned with a customer that made some lookups and registration requests in our system for the same domain but didn´t pay for it. After few days, when he decided to pay, the domain name appeared taken and he was claiming that we said to somebody to register that domain and resell it.
It is difficult to explain this to people that don´t know this business, then we only said that we didn´t do that and that just wait 4-5 days expecting if the domain is available again and indeed it hapenned. The user again made the registration request again.....some days ago but again without making the payment

 

[zzz]

That is pretty shady for software that you actually purchased for domain research. They take your money and your names? Good luck on getting repeat biz.

 

[jhansen]

I checked again today (by just going straight to Moniker and typing the name as a registration attempt) and the name was available again. I quickly registered it, guess it didn't get enough traffic for them. I won't use DomainInspect anymore though.