Possible to lease domain name for just 10 days to get into a locked OneDrive account?

[brookwell]

A elderly friend lost his .COM domain name when he failed to renew it. That domain name was used for his online storage account -- Microsoft OneDrive -- and he lost access to the online content (mainly years of diaries). That content doesn't exist on any other device: only in One Drive. Microsoft declined his request to access the account with a new email address, so I think that Microsoft is a dead end for him.

The domain name is now for sale for $13,000 at a large domain-name seller. That's way too much for my friend.

However, I'm thinking of the asking the selling company to lease the domain name to us for 10 days. Ideally, they'd change the nameservers to my current webhosting company, which would allow me to re-create my friend's email account long enough to get into OneDrive, download the files, and change the account details to email addresses that are outside of the lost domain name.

I haven't contacted the company yet. I have no idea what their reaction will be.

What are your thoughts about my idea?

 

[MapleDotsMapleDots is verified member.]

A few points...

The new owner may looks at it as an opportunity to make a sale and totally ignore the request.

If I owned the domain I would not consider your request, it could be detrimental if it came to a UDRP case or something if I gave control of the domain to the previous owner.

Instead it would be fairly easy to make an email forward and allow the previous owner to get access to their Microsoft account.

In my case I would wait for the owner to reach out and make an email forward he could use for a period of time. In most cases that would be sufficient to gain access to the lost account.

Personally I don't understand why you are asking for a name server change and such, that would set of all my alarm bells and I would deny your request.

Try a careful approach, explain your situation and ask politely for a temporary email forward, that should solve the issue.

PS. if you get no response share the domain, chances are someone here knows the owner.

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

A elderly friend lost his .COM domain name when he failed to renew it. That domain name was used for his online storage account -- Microsoft OneDrive -- and he lost access to the online content (mainly years of diaries). That content doesn't exist on any other device: only in One Drive. Microsoft declined his request to access the account with a new email address, so I think that Microsoft is a dead end for him.

The domain name is now for sale for $13,000 at a large domain-name seller. That's way too much for my friend.

However, I'm thinking of the asking the selling company to lease the domain name to us for 10 days. Ideally, they'd change the nameservers to my current webhosting company, which would allow me to re-create my friend's email account long enough to get into OneDrive, download the files, and change the account details to email addresses that are outside of the lost domain name.

I haven't contacted the company yet. I have no idea what their reaction will be.

What are your thoughts about my idea?

do you know which company owns it now? maybe we know the new owner.. I don't think it would be an issue allowing the old owner to allow him accessing his OneDrive

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

@brookwell the pro community is relatively small - there is a very good chance we know the new owner

 

[brookwell]

Thanks for the replies.

Temporary email forwarding for a single address would be sufficient. I'll contact the seller.