enom Enom selling domain query info to third parties??

[Restecpa]

I've had a reseller account with them for ages and thought they were supposed to be professional, but now I am really upset. A few days ago I did a search for a domain to see if it was available. Indeed it was, so I came back today to register it, only to find out that a few hours earlier somebody else grabbed it. The domain is not a type-in type traffic domain or a dictionary term - I made it up. It is clear that this person got a hold of the search queries and figured he'd give it a try... Conveniently enough, it has been registered through Enom as well and the person is definitely a domain reseller (checked him out). What the hell? :?:

 

[urlurl]

same thing with me, but on Godaddy did a domain search of a unique name, week later someone else had registered it. I thought to myself WTF, who would have thought to register such a unique name a week after I did a search. Makes you wonder if someone is watching you.

 

[angel69]

God knows how many search queries I've made for made up or unique domains, and after I don't reg them someone else does therefore stealing my ideas. I'm just curious where customers in general see lists of past search queries, selling them or displaying this in public violates anyone's privacy and should be illegal. I bet some big guy like Go Daddy would answer something like : Well......if the query was made while you were logged in we respect your privacy (?! yeah, right !) but if made while logged out then it's GD's property or part of the "public domain"... this whole thing makes anybody mad...

Registrars most likely sell them giving priority to preferred customers such as resellers, institutional investors, etc and then to just anyone who'll pay ...

 

[draggar]

Frontrunning is nothing new, sadly.

 

[angel69]

Yeah, tell me about it, man. I'm not big on regulations at all, but what a body like a well-run SEC could do for domain trading disputes/crimes and registrar integrity ! (btw, has Go Daddy ever even heard the term "integrity".....?) Cybercrimes can be just as hideous as stabbing someone

:suspicious:

Frontrunning is nothing new, sadly.

 

[draggar]

Unfortunately there is no way to prove that it was done. All the registrant has to do is say that they thought it was a cool name and it's over. Even some WhoIs sites have been accused of this - sadly, though, I think it can be quite profitable. What better way for some unethical / less-than-honest domainer to get a list of domains that are in demand by buying lists of inquiries from registrars and whois sites? Even if it was only you who wanted it - there is still the chance of making $$$ off of it (like I've said in the past - the domaining industry is the only one where people will flock to a "product" (in this case, a domain) just because one other person wants it.

When checking for availability I only use

http://www.internic.net/whois.html

While I'll admit that ICANN is far from the pinnacle of ethics, I think it's your best bet to avoid frontrunning.

 

[BLazeD]

whois.sc is good too.

 

[angel69]

The best WHOIS used to be NetSol's, the results were really thorough as to the info contained and it was really accurate, the one thing I liked from NetSol, but after Yo Daddy managed to succeed in blocking any search results for WHOIS queries for domains regged at any GD holding co ( GoDaddy, BlueRazor, Wild West Domains ((GD resellers)) ), I saw no point in using any other WHOIS that's not Go Daddy's own, there's more than a 33% probability the domain you're searching is a GoDaddy domain so it makes almost no sense to go elsewhere, GD now has 33% of all domains regged on earth with them

The exception is DomainTools which gives results even for a GoDaddy name as long as you're signed in with DT at that moment, if you're not then you wasted your time

Some WHOIS services are accurate enough but so limited as to what info they give you, others don't support many ccTLDs or most of the newer extensions, Enom has plenty of problems with its own WHOIS for example, it is light years beyond outdated, so that one is never to be trusted because the info in it is from like 10 years ago