Mike The Internet Guy’s Blog

89 responses so far ↓

• Everett // Feb 9th 2007 at 1:35 pm

  Stuff like this pisses me off. I know I’m going to offend a lot of domainers out there but hey - DOMAIN SQUATTING IS FOR LAZY PEOPLE WHO CAN’T COME UP WITH THEIR OWN IDEAS FOR A DECENT SITE! What a waste.

• Free SEO and Domain Tools-Is Anything Ever Really FREE? » First Page Fitness // Feb 9th 2007 at 2:33 pm

  […] That “something” that made me think was a post today by Mike The Internet Guy about how Instant Domain Search may have caused him to lose out on some domain purchases. After doing some domain research on availability, he went back to the client to discuss the options. He then found out that the #1 choice was already taken. Strange. So they went for the #2 choice and it was taken as well. As it turns out, all of the research he had done the night before was not hijacked and some company called Maltuzi LLC had set up squatting pages. […]

• Mel K. // Feb 10th 2007 at 2:29 am

  Scum bags… Its all Mel Gibsons Falt!

• Brajeshwar // Feb 10th 2007 at 8:55 am

  I think they do, I search for a domain and it was being sold to me when I searched for it again the next week. I stop searching domains till I’m ready to buy the one I like.

• Mizzouse // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:19 am

  Very interesting…I’ve had a fear of foul-play for some time now. If I find a must-have domain name, I usually buy it ASAP in order to reserve it from unfair players. Looks like it was a good idea.

• Mizzouse.com » Warning: Instant Domain Search May Steal Your Ideas // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:21 am

  […] This is something that I have been worried about in the past. Whenever I search for a domain name, I think to myself, “what’s keeping these people from logging my searches and buying out the very domains that I’m looking for so they can sell them to me at high prices?”. Well, apparently it actually happens if you’re not careful. My advice: if you find a must-have domain name, buy it ASAP in order to reserve it.read more | digg story Bookmark: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. […]

• Nadav // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:22 am

  If your domain name was compromised, how can you be sure that your credit-card details and other sensitive (and private) info wasn’t compromised as well? (just a thought).

  I feel bad for you - they are real bastards to register YOUR idea as THEIR domain.

  I wonder if that gives you any grounds to file for a domain dispute with the Registrar or with ICANN (not sure what your domain was)?

  Hope it works out for you :-).

• mark // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:25 am

  I am sorry someone else registered a domain name before you got around to it.

  You could always use nslookup or whois for your domain name research.

• Adrian // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:26 am

  You should check out http://whois.sc or http://whois.domaintools.com

  They are the same company.

  They are a big Whois Lookup site, very reliable.

• Matt // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:30 am

  I have been having the exact same problem, same person registering the domains as you absolutely doing my head in, never thought it was domain research tool I was getting suspicious of go daddy

  no longer will i input them into DRT

• john // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:31 am

  Would a better way to just enter the domain name your looking for in url field in your web browser? If you get an error, it’s available.

• steven // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:39 am

  Hold the phone! Big names such as godaddy.com are playing the same unfair game. Less than 6 months ago I had a serious conflict with godaddy.com, ending in the release of a url only after I threaten legal action. The game is quite simple. If you search for a URL name on godaddy.com and find it available, perhaps something catchy no one else has thought of, SOMEHOW, it is taken within 24 hours if you do not buy it at that moment.

  After confronting godaddy.com with the issue they denied it flat, until I called my attorney. Within a week it was appeared available again…

  In short, your searching for good URLs for their 3rd party to buy and resell later, if you dont buy it at that exact moment. Its frikn BS

  Stevo

• RW // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:48 am

  I use http://www.whois.net with the advanced search option where I can elect my character string to be ‘left’ ‘right’ or ‘anywhere’ .
  I - NEVER - use the full character string I am actually seraching for. I use only a partial string, such as the first part, last part, or some middle part of the string of interest, then visually parse the presented list for domain names of interest. If the name of interest is NOT shown, then I have a fairly good chance the name is available. Whois.net only works for .com .org .net domains.

  I made the same mistake as you with HDTVmount.com and CNCmotor.com among others before I evolved the above approach.

• Chris M // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:58 am

  I dont think someone should just be able to buy a domain name. You should show some type of reasoning for it. It takes away from people trying to start a business or from trying to actually do something on the net. I mean, I do believe in fairness, but come on. If your a large company and your buying up domain names that have no relation to you - there should be some type of cap. Any thoughts?

• chari // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:01 am

  Create a list and if you find one that’s available. Register it right away.

• Allaun // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:12 am

  I searched for fuckinstantdomainsearch.com, let them use that one for awhile. :-p

• Leion // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:13 am

  I think the act of companies/individuals buying domains for the sole purpose of reselling for a high premium should banned. I have seen too many sites with ads or place holders seeking an offer to be made.

• Ivan Minic // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:15 am

  1,768,141 domains … jesus?!!?!!?

• John Staton // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:28 am

  I know what you’re going thru.

  I had researched a series of domain names only to have them grabbed up by the same or similar company.

• Jon Henshaw // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:32 am

  I’m still trying to figure out if this is FUD or for real. Very interesting and disconcerting. Thanks for the info on Maltuzi.

• Beau Hartshorne // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:42 am

  I’m not stealing your names. If you are “still not sure which of the above querying services contributed to my research being comprised”, would you mind adjusting your title from “Is Instant Domain Search stealing your ideas?”

  Thank you.

• Henry // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:49 am

  I had the exact same thing happen to me, although I was using Go Daddy for my domain name research. The fact the domain I wanted was purchased is rather odd considering it does not contain great keywords, is a mix of two different languages, and as far as I can tell would be of very little value to anyone but myself. When I checked the page all that had been posted were some advertisements.

• Mark // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:50 am

  When you do a search to get a domain name that registrar asks all the other registrars if they already registered it but it has not propagated yet. All these companies have to do is become a registrar and then after the timeout period of your search they register the name for themselves. No hacking, just unethical business.

• jim // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:58 am

  use aspnetwhois.com

• mike // Feb 10th 2007 at 11:04 am

  Hi Beau,
  Thanks for stopping by. I am pretty sure that is was the searches on instant domain search that led to my names being ’stolen’. While I am not saying you are the crook, the end result began with a query on your website. The reason I am more sure now is because some of the names that were stolen were not searched for using the other service. I will update the post to verify that your company obviously did not steal my ideas (Maltuzzi did), however the search was still compromised.

• Cosmo // Feb 10th 2007 at 11:23 am

  This is easy. Get them to waste money:

  GJFSTDGJSFDT.COM is available!

• Bastet // Feb 10th 2007 at 11:31 am

  Here’s a simple solution…Close the freak’n loophole…No refund! No more 5 day trial…You bought it, it’s yours for at least a year. I bet that’ll stop the cybersquatting instantly! 1.7M domains…that’ll cost him a pretty penny, probably wouldn’t be worth his while.

• Beau Hartshorne // Feb 10th 2007 at 11:38 am

  Mike,

  Instant Domain Search uses a local cache of names to do the queries. (I get the lists of names directly from VeriSign.) I do not do WHOIS queries. That’s why it’s so fast. I do not make calls to other services. Obviously you call another service if you click on any of the links in the results, but not before.

  If a name doesn’t have a name server, it doesn’t show up in my local cache. So often people search for a name, write it down, and then try to register it a couple days later. Sometimes they think I stole it from them, and they write a nasty email. I always ask people to do a WHOIS query on their name. Nine of them were actually registered *before* they did a search on Instant Domain Search. One of them was registered on the same day, but the name was released after the 5-day period.

  I know you said they were registered on Wednesday. Is that what it says in the WHOIS records? Or were they just unavailable when you actually tried to purchase them?

  If WHOIS does report them to have been registered sometime after your search on Instant Domain Search, I would not rule out coincidence. One million names are “tasted” every day (according to GoDaddy’s CEO). You mentioned you’d used Name Intelligence to do some searches. (We link to their WHOIS results, they’re very good.) Name Intelligence suggests alternative names, and supplies a lot of registrars with their results.

  So I’m sure that Maltuzi has a way of generating suggestions like this, or may even use some service to do it for them. Since they can register as many names as they want for free, I bet they just go nuts with the suggestion tool — the same tool you were using. This increases the chance that some of the names they registered on spec were the same that you’d found — especially if they’re good.

  If you’re concerned about someone stealing your name ideas in transit, you can try our https version at https://instantdomainsearch.com . It’s about half the speed, but still fast.

• Jeff // Feb 10th 2007 at 11:39 am

  Use the same tactics as the squatters. Relatively speaking, domains are dirt cheap ($7-$50 each). If you are a company looking for a domain, just immediately buy any domain that looks decent. You then have the 5 day grace period to decide which ones you like.

  Problem solved.

  Yes, domain squatters suck, but address field type-ins in the browsers generate huge amounts of traffic, which is why these people do it.

• originalgeek // Feb 10th 2007 at 11:43 am

  Yeah, I know this sucks and it isn’t right and all, however there is an easy and inexpensive workaround. If you think the name is really that good, just pay GoDaddy the $8 and buy it on the spot. You can run 12 names past your client for under $100…a small cost of doing business to make sure they get the name they really want.

• Joost // Feb 10th 2007 at 12:08 pm

  Man I hate and I mean hate domain squatters. Almost 90% of domains registered are ad pages or domain squatter pages, I think we need to stop this basically make it if the site is not linked to a real site with real content (regardless of what that content is - no ad only sites) then the domain is expired.

• Frank Michlick // Feb 10th 2007 at 12:36 pm

  There are many different whois websites and registrar websites where you can check availalbility of domains. Rumour has it that some of them share their lookup data, however you have to keep in mind that:

  Traffic tasting is still run in huge amounts of domains by many different registrars each day. So if you are actually looking up names that “make sense” in one way or another, or follow a specific pattern, it is possible that your names might be being tested.

  Once you see that one of the domain tasting outfits is tasting/testing “your” domain, wait for another 1-5 days and see if the name becomes available again (if there was not enough traffic). You might be able to register it then.

  On another note, whois websites, such as InstantDomainSearch.com that use local copies of the zonefiles in order to speed up lookups, will sometimes also end up showing domain names as available when they are taken, but not resolving.

• Beau Hartshorne // Feb 10th 2007 at 12:59 pm

  @Mark: That’s interesting. I didn’t know registrars queried each other to get availability. Do you have a link that describes this? What’s the timeout period?

  I was considering adding a “double-check” that would query GoDaddy for the results. But if it’s true that registrars communicate searches to each other, I will not add the feature.

  Thanks!

• Yeago // Feb 10th 2007 at 1:06 pm

  How about changing the title to,

  ‘Is Mike The Internet Guy Arousing FUD By Asking Pointed Questions?’

• Matt Mutz // Feb 10th 2007 at 2:55 pm

  I only know a little about what Mark points out, that DNS queries talk to other registrars. I couldn’t find a good article on it, but if you look at the list of registrars accredited by Internic, there’s some shady companies in there.
  http://www.internic.com/alpha.html

• Paul // Feb 10th 2007 at 2:56 pm

  The best WHOIS lookup site I have found is: http://whois.domaintools.com/

  By “best” I mean it will find obscure TLD and country code domains that other sites cannot.

• tjtalks // Feb 10th 2007 at 3:23 pm

  I have had it happen with yahoo even, I entered the info, yahoo said it was available and by the time I entered payment info to purchase it, a message come up saying;
  “sorry this domain name is not available”
  The next thing I predict is actual stealing of websites. Yahoo’s small print on your order form says they take credit card fraud seriously and if yahoo cannot contact you, your website, domain, etc. can be terminated.
  Others are using the same threat if your info is not up to date …
  What the hell’ who are these Gods?
  Contact me at my email address if anyone out there wants to start a “Safe” domain hosting company.

• ArielMT // Feb 10th 2007 at 4:18 pm

  @Mike: How interesting. A very interesting account, indeed. I always thought there was something sinister about free whois searches, especially those who don’t seem to have relevant enough ads or use little-known or questionable advertising engines to fund such a search engine.

  @Beau: What on Earth is all that JavaScript with all the weird domain names doing in your whois search engine’s home page?
  www.dpbolvw.net for ‘Backorder (GoDaddy)’?
  www.tqlkg.com for ‘Network Solutions’?

  Tracking those two names led directly to Mediaplex.com, a property of ValueClick, Inc., who now have a significant degree of shareholder power held by rival/partner DoubleClick Inc. The relationship with name speculators only gets murkier from there. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that the cause of this “whois search theft” (for lack of a better description) lies on the back-end, rather than any interception between your site and its visitors.

  I’ll grant the possibility that you’re just as much a victim of this problem as Mike is, but it’s your site, your content, and your code. Find out exactly what it’s doing for your visitors and (more importantly) to your visitors.

• gg // Feb 10th 2007 at 5:09 pm

  I have had the very same experience. I have thought about writing a script that all day long does random searches just to screw with these companies. You could then check back the next day to see how many where bought. If enough people did this then these companies would have a hard time see through the chatter. If they figured out what you where doing they may start to filter out your IP. That is when you setup your own “secure” domain search page. You continue doing chatter and also accept real request from people.

• Beau Hartshorne // Feb 10th 2007 at 5:51 pm

  @ArielMT: Those links, like http://www.dpbolvw.net/, are generated by Commision Junction, http://cj.com/. GoDaddy and Yahoo direct affiliates to cj.com to get an account. CJ acts as a broker between sites like Instant Domain Search, and companies like GoDaddy.

  By the way, Instant Domain Search is *not* a WHOIS search engine. It never does a WHOIS query on your searches.

• Ross // Feb 10th 2007 at 6:06 pm

  It’s sad how people just jump on the bandwagon and accuse some site of selling their search data. Look if you find a domain you like buy it right then and don’t think about it for a week, that will solve all these problems. It is not like they are that expensive.

  These companies that are engaged in this practice needs to be stopped but i highly doubt ICANN will do anything as it is an ineffective organization that needs to be replaced by something competent.

• Ross // Feb 10th 2007 at 6:09 pm

  Also,

  I just wanted to suggest people read the article I wrote, it suggests a lot of good registrars:

  http://www.thehostguru.com/2007/02/04/domain-suspension-from-godaddy-to-nodaddy-in-52-seconds/

  Ross
  - http://www.thehostguru.com

• Is Instant Domain Search stealing your ideas? « News Coctail // Feb 10th 2007 at 6:37 pm

  […] Is Instant Domain Search stealing your ideas? Filed under: Uncategorized — recar @ 1:21 am Is Instant Domain Search stealing your ideas? Article about some domain ideas being stolen after performing a search using instantdomainsearch.com[news][entertainment][technology][industry news] […]

• Rob // Feb 10th 2007 at 6:45 pm

  had very similar problem a year ago.
  GoDaddy and Yahoo was the researching registrar, but was leaning towards GoDaddy being the culprit. Somehow someones query’s are getting to these company’s.
  Registrant was
  DOMIBOT (***********-DOM)
  Avenida Caroni 5478
  Colinas Monte, Caracas
  Venezuela
  +1.2085751538
  +1.2085751538

  ..More research showed it was a company in Florida that owned it. I just don’t remember where I saved the info. Very frustrating at the time, however it did work out for us, as the domain did become available in 4-5 days.

• Markus Diersbock // Feb 10th 2007 at 8:48 pm

  Same thing happened to me with Network Solutions.

  Here is my writeup:
  http://www.swingnote.com/netsol/networksolutions_whois.php

  3 days after I posted to Digg, the domain was released and I grabbed it.

• Matt Mutz // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:21 pm

  In my first comment, I forgot to mention that when I find a domain I want, I buy it right away.

  I do that because I don’t think it’s an automated thing to buy up domains people are looking for. I think a human reads the list and grabs the ones that seem likely to be registered.

  For example, I recently bought sundayfunday2007.org and sundayfunday200.com

  I thought that after I did the search, somebody might read it (not a script, but a person) and decide it was of value.

  I admit, in this comment, I’m plugging a site, but it is for a good cause. Please check out www.sundayfunday2007.org

• Matt Mutz // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:22 pm

  d’oh.

  I meant: sundayfunday2007.com

• ArielMT // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:42 pm

  @Beau: Ah, I misunderstood, then.

• Andrew // Feb 10th 2007 at 9:47 pm

  This maltuzzi company is about 0.5 miles from my house, perhaps I’ll stop by and ask them some questions.

• Danny // Feb 10th 2007 at 10:10 pm

  same thing happened to me. i think it was through godaddy but i’m not sure. one day it was available, the next day it wasn’t. the domain name was related to my name (with my last name) so it definitely wasn’t something someone else thought of. when i checked the whois data it was registered in africa!!

  when i went to the page i was offered a choice to buy the domain name. i clicked on it and sent an email mentioning that i was aware of what happened. i asked about the price, and i don’t remember if i mentioned suing them or not. anyway, i never heard from them and a week later the site was available.

  i never really understood what happened until now.

• GlassEdge // Feb 10th 2007 at 11:11 pm

  You guys do know that internationally it is illegal to hold a domain name if you have no intended use for it and someone else does. You are required to sell that domain to whoever needs it at the price you paid for it, no more and no less.

  Domain sitters don’t follow this law, mainly because the one trying to contest the domain also happens to be the one responsible for starting legal action. Not only does almost nobody know that they are illegally holding the domain and that it can be taken back, but even then nobody would want to travel to the holder’s home state/country to hold a case against them.

  If you contest the domain holder’s integrity, or even if you make the threat to do so, most domain sitters just give up the domain on the spot to avoid the legal issues. Try it one day.

• Jake // Feb 11th 2007 at 2:03 am

  domain parking is the most retarded part about the www. In the brick and mortar world I can’t just reserve 1,000,000 names for a non-existent company and then hope someone uses the name so I can sue them. It’ laughable. Yet on the www this is common practice. Funny how something so much a part of our everyday lives and economy is in fact just a huge spamhaus.

• Idea’s Theft!! | Flawless Mind // Feb 11th 2007 at 5:19 am

  […] Beware when searching for the perfect domain name , apperantly data passed to domain name search companies are compromised so if you look for your favouritedomain.com you better register it on the spot don’t wait till tomorrow!! continue reading the rest of the story on Mike’s blog […]

• Ndifor Chrisian Ngwa // Feb 11th 2007 at 5:36 am

  I have a solution to this problem. I will set up a secure domain name search company. Now I need some help out there, can anyone orientate me on this? what does it take to set up a domain name registry company? how much can it cost to set up? I am willing to solve this problem. I have been a victim to this scam. I welcome any good advice. write to me via cnngwa@yahoo.com

• TameBay : Whois stealing your domain names? // Feb 11th 2007 at 6:39 am

  […] Just a quick heads up for anyone who buys domain names: be careful where you’re checking availability. Mike the internet guy, and it turns out lots of other people, have had domain names they wanted hijacked after running checks on them. […]

• Carlos Casas Leal // Feb 11th 2007 at 10:37 am

  Same here, It also happened to me. Searched for a domain tried to register the other day, and surprise surprise it was already taken; looked it up and found that it was filled with ads.

  The positive thing is that I read this article, found out about the 5 day grace period. Looked it up again and is available, I think they didn’t find it useful, i’m going to register it right now.

  Even still, it sucks. I think there’s no privacy and confidentiality at all.

• Johne // Feb 11th 2007 at 12:30 pm

  Finally I find something about this. Happened to me several months ago and I was just waiting to get an email asking if I wanted to purchase that domain name at a 1 million percent markup. They never contacted me but it’s some pretty slimy stuff.

  —
  John
  http://www.monomachines.com

• Friday Night Link-o-rama » Small Business SEM // Feb 11th 2007 at 10:47 pm

  […] I remember one day, probably 6-7 years ago, doing what must’ve been 100-200 domain name lookups for a client to see what was available and what wasn’t. And I remember thinking … Man, there are some good domains here. I hope no one’s able to spay on me as I search, because they could make a killing by grabbing these names before my client does. Seems Mike Belasco might’ve encountered such a situation: Is Instant Domain Search stealing your ideas? […]

• infochia » Blog Archive » Is Instant Domain Search stealing your ideas? // Feb 12th 2007 at 1:01 pm

  […] Domain ideas are being stolen after performing searches using instantdomainsearch.comread more | digg story […]

• Jonathan // Feb 12th 2007 at 2:42 pm

  The perfect analogy in the brick and mortor world is ticket scalping.

• Big Brother // Feb 12th 2007 at 8:39 pm

  Wow, so many paranoid folks out there, who knew?!

  What’s REALLY happening is that when you search via any registrar (or whois service) associated with Name Intelligence, the service does an API call to NI’s service looking for similar available domains and domains for sale on the aftermarket.

  NI tracks that data and sells it - apparently Maltuzi is the current buyer.

  It’s their data, they have the right to sell it, and Maltuzi has the right to do whatever they want with it.

  One of my partners is working on a registrar that will not sell its data, but you’ll have to be a paying account holder. Nothing’s free folks - registrars are in business to make money and they can’t do that giving domains away free or a little over cost - how do you think GoDaddy or your favorite registrar makes their money?

• Domain Sleuth // Feb 13th 2007 at 3:12 pm

  It is no secret that Maltusi and Chesterton Holdings are purchasing search data from companies such as Name Intelligence.

  As to how they can afford the domains, Chesterton is affiliated with DomainSponsor the domain name monetization company which recently secured a 60 million dollar credit facility from the Bank of America.

  That kind of money buys alot of domains. If they do not produce results immediately they are dropped! DOMAIN TASTING.

  Check back in a week or so, many of your names will suddenly be available again, I am sure

• NoRisk-NoFun // Feb 14th 2007 at 7:01 am

  Read the TOS of your registrar/whois service !
  You will find that many of them advise you previously thet the searched data is public.
  So don’t complain that your name has gone if you haven’t purchased it right away - your fault !
  Though, but reality…..
  Bottom line is: It is all about money !

• Pravin // Feb 14th 2007 at 7:38 am

  Guess what happened to me..on around mid week of december i found an awesome name
  bestof2008.com and i thought ill came back and when i came back in the first week on january to book it, turns out that someone has booked it on the 31st of december..Just an additional thing to the post

• VL // Feb 14th 2007 at 12:06 pm

  Here’s a thought…

  I doubt that Verisign or any of the reputatble Registrar is passing this information on to Maltuzzi but what about this scenario.

  Almost every Registrar does a check on the .com availability in ADDITION to other TLDs and ccTLDs. What if Maltuzzi is getting the query information from one of the low end ccTLDs that are also checked???

  It makes the most sense to me that in some way one of the ccTLDs is selling this info - given they could make more money selling the query data rather then selling domain in a TLD that is not favorable.

• pete // Feb 17th 2007 at 4:25 am

  Yes its godaddy, who would have thought that they are double crossing freaks like that, I knew they were they are a bunch of crooks for doing this. I know because thats the only place I searched for it 6 differnt times just for fun thought of good names just to see and sure enough.

  DON”T TRUST GODADDY THEY WILL SELL YOUR DOMAIN NAMES IF YOU DON”T BY RIGHT AWAY THEY ARE THEIFS !

  Its not the victims fault at all, nobody would think that a company they are trusting is seling that info the next day to company that is also just ruining peoples days.

  GODADDY STEALS YOUR IDEAS AND SELLS THEM THEY ARE SCUM FOR THIS

• Who Is Monitoring Your Domain Searches? » Daily Domainer // Feb 19th 2007 at 10:46 am

  […] In many cases, this is simply a coincidence. But there are increasing reports of domain search data being sold to domain tasting companies which then register your domain ideas to see if they attract any traffic. […]

• RN // Feb 19th 2007 at 7:55 pm

  Thanks guys for this. I was doing a lot of researching on one of my company names. Seeing this I stopped it until I’m ready to buy.

• Alex // Feb 19th 2007 at 9:12 pm

  They don’t pay for domains.

  Domain names can be picked up from the traffic.

• misty // Feb 23rd 2007 at 5:27 pm

  Just happened to me today. I was helping my mom buy 2 urls on godaddy. Godaddy marked the transaction as fradulent - took us 3 days to convince them that it was legit. During those 3 days, domain names were swiped by the Maltuzzi LLC company.
  I was really upset. The transaction was valid and while they were pending finding out what was going on, those urls should not have been passed out. I had even gotten in that very day and started setting up the settings.
  I’m going to wait 5 days and see if I can get them back. I’m pretty upset at the whole deal and am looking for an alternative to Godaddy (since this whole thing pissed me off so badly)

• csi // Feb 25th 2007 at 9:10 am

  so it seems like this has happened to more people besides me. now can someone recommend specific things that can be done like reporting to bbb or icann? there has to be a regulatory agency where a case can be filed. if not, what kind of legal action can be taken? it’s unfortunate and unfair that this happens but there should be a way to address it.

• ARB // Feb 27th 2007 at 1:43 pm

  I had the same issue happen yesterday with Maltuzi LLC as the culprit. I searched for the name on Sunday and it was free, I sent around the idea of buying it to a couple friends, and on Tuesday the site had been purchased by Maltuzi.

• Dusty Reagan // Feb 27th 2007 at 3:54 pm

  In response to this topic I set out to make a domain researching tool people can trust. My solution? Use an open source whois script and give the web users directory browsing rights to the site. This way the users can verify that their searches are not being monitored by looking through the source code.

  Simple? Yes. Effective? I hope so.

  http://www.overtwhois.com/

• Whitney // Mar 8th 2007 at 9:29 pm

  These ASSHOLES!!! Maltuzi…I certainly hope I never meet this jackass. I had been looking at the domain name for about 6 months and it was available the whole time. Went to purchase it at 9 pm on Monday night, available. Went back to purchase it after getting sidetracked at 9:45, it was no longer available. Heart-wrenching barely covers it. 6 months of business development….ugh. I am recovering, figured out an alternative, but man, people who make a living out of hurting others, all I can say is karma is a bitch.

• Mike // Mar 15th 2007 at 10:35 am

  when me and my friends
  where younger we came up with some great names for our ‘jackass’ like franchise and wanted to come up with production names to!
  but then this fat fucking nerd took the names from us! our names ranged from
  “snapshot productions/black flag productions”
  and “dick moves/ rocked!”
  Bastards!

• carole beausoleil // Mar 16th 2007 at 11:23 am

  My usiness Name and Keywords were taken from me back in 2003 when I was Stricken with a “Heart Attack”! I didnt realize this until I went back Online 2 months after I fully recvered!

  I have contacted those involved and they were wiling to sell my name back for $240 instead of
  $1,680.
  I recently discovered that a Directory under my Name has several Doll Artists Name listed under my DollDoings!
  This is not fare,they are even using my Keywords:
  The Applehead Doll Specialist the Site for Everything Dolls,etc!

  Im am Fit to be Tied over this Stealing of “My Ideas”!

  Is there any advise out there.

  I do my Booklet listed with the Library of Congress and other Document of when my Domain was listed,etc.

  Sincerely,

  Carole Beausoleil

• max // Apr 3rd 2007 at 9:53 pm

  Of interest:
  http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/2007/03/microsoft_press.html
  Looks like Maltuzi’s days/ways might be numbered.

• Charles // Apr 27th 2007 at 11:49 am

  I paid $160.21 for a .jobs domain name through godaddy.com they send me an e-mail three days later saying there had been an error, they couldn’t process my order, but they kept $40 admin charge! No explanation as to the error. I called, but they laughed in my face. They’re running a huge internet scam!! Be careful when using a poor company like theres to register a domain name!

• Paul Wilson // May 3rd 2007 at 10:43 am

  I am doing a case study on this exact topic. I would welcome anyone on this blog to participate. To read more about what we are doing read the below two posts:

  http://mymarketer.net/how-your-domain-name-gets-stolen/
  http://mymarketer.net/case-study-how-your-domain-name-gets-stolen-part-2/

• Anthony // Jun 10th 2007 at 10:20 am

  Can anyone, any one individual, just drop a domain name if after 4 days we decide its not the name we would like -or- its not earning us any money?

  Are we entitled to the same as those who we know are already doing this with thousands of names a day? If we registered 5 names and wanted to really only keep 3, can we drop those 2 we dont want AND GET OUR MONEY BACK?

• Andrew // Jun 13th 2007 at 6:07 pm

  If we all go search the availability of bogus meaningless domain names maybe that would bog these guys down a little.

• Snife // Jul 28th 2007 at 5:04 pm

  Anyone had their domain stolen by jonman2k5@gmail.com - i searched for a domain and he registered it within a couple of hours - seems very suspicious to me

• SKD // Aug 1st 2007 at 1:46 pm

  This just happened to me. I called GoDaddy and they said it was SpyWare installed on my computer that sent the search information. I looked up who bought the URL and it’s a company in Puerto Rico and I kept getting an answering machine when I called.
  I think of myself as someone who knows the internet pretty well. I had no idea that you are “SUPPOSED” register a URL right away. It seems like many are commenting on here that those of us who don’t register it right away are stupid.

• SKD // Aug 3rd 2007 at 8:00 am

  The company that STOLE mine is
  http://caribbeanonlineinternational.com/ thru
  http://www.domaindoorman.com

  Both companies look like they are scammers.

  I believe godaddy sold the name to them though they deny that.

• Benny Blanco // Aug 13th 2007 at 6:15 am

  I have to comment because of the people like Big Brother above, who blame the victims of these scams for not buying it right away - and claiming registrars are in business to “make money”….

  One of the problems is that the registrars (such as GoDaddy) *are* making with hosting, domain registrations, and all of their other services… That should be quite enough not to turn around and stab their customers/potential customers in the back afterwards and sell their searches, for some extra money in their pocket.

  It’s a scummy way to do business and actually, it leaves the door open for a company that provides the very same services WITHOUT stabbing their customers/potential customers in the back.

• Jose // Aug 17th 2007 at 7:51 am

  I had a domain hijacked right before registration, for a domain name I was searching for the first time. I used domain tools plugin on firefox and godaddy, not sure which of the two searches was responsible for the hijacking.

  First time I was searching for the domain name, and I was ready with my credit card. I used domain tools, and saw the domain available, went to go daddy and searched, and the domain immediately showed up registered to a registrar called DomainDoor. Within minutes of that, the domain now appears registered to:

  Keyword Marketing, Inc. (XXXXXXXXX-COM-DOM)
  P.O. Box 556
  Main Street
  Charlestown, West Indies
  KN
  +852.30164984
  +852.30164984
  message@keywordmarketinginc.com

  These people registered the domain name within minutes of my search, and I truly believe that they intersected my search. This stealing or theft is in my mind something ICANN should be looking for. Every domain name I register has some business idea behind, I hate to have somebody register my search in a greedy way and take advantage of me in this way.

  I want to file a complaint to ICANN or internic or whomever. Domain tasting allows these people to engage in these activities and interferes with other people’s business intentionally.

  I am hoping they drop it in the 5 days, and that is why I didn’t write the domain name here. But they might actually keep it and screw me out of my domain name.

• Kauf // Aug 25th 2007 at 10:00 pm

  @Jose
  Did you get your domain name back? I got mine hijacked 2 days ago by the scumbag called DOMAINDOORMAN and I’m still waiting. I’m a long time Godaddy customer and I’m not trusting them now.

• Sean Stafford // Oct 19th 2007 at 8:36 am

  Great story!

  This is nothing new, it has been happening for a long time.

  As we don’t (and may never fully) know where to search for a domain name to ensure that the search info is not shared, the best advice anyone can give you is to…

  Buy the name immediately if you want it!!

  Domains are pretty much property, and viewed very much like real estate ( “virtual” real estate — sounds funny that something can be both virtual and real at the same time).

  Anyhow, the domain name is not “yours” until you register it. You have ZERO, and I mean ZERO rights to that domain name until you registered it. Want to call your attorney and have them threaten to sue to registrant? You can, he will bill you for his time, and then advise you that there is nothing you can do about it, (not taking into account TM cases and UDRP filings here, keep in mind, since they don’t apply in this case). As long as the TOS says that info can be shared, it can and will be shared.

  Then…you also have to think that if they DON’T have it listed in their TOS you are going to have to prove that they are the ones who actually shared this info.

  Now, if you do end up searching for the domain name and forget to register it, then go back a day later and see it registered, then two things you need to know:

  1.) Don’t visit that address any longer
  2.) If you do, don’t click on the ads

  Most tasters will keep a domain name if it makes 10% (sometimes 5%) of its registration fee within the 5 day window. If it makes that % of is registration fee, then it is kept, if not, it is deleted and available for registration again.

  If you feel that it is being tasted, just wait and query the name about 4 or 5 days later and it may be available. If it is, you need to register it immediately if you plan on using it.

  Keep in mind that once it is deleted, it will show up in droplists and may get immediately registered again, and tasted again, and finally…deleted again. I have seen domains go through 4 rounds of tasting (20 days) before they are actually free for registration.

  Bottom line… the best way to protect your domain name is to register it on the spot. Until you do, you have no protection. At an $8 price point, it just makes sense.

  Happy Domaining!

  Sean Stafford
  DnZoom Inc.

• Keen Watcher // Oct 19th 2007 at 2:18 pm

  This happen to me too.

  First time when I was using whois.domaintools.com. I search one name and it was gone next day

  Second time it happened when I was searching on verisign (thinking that atleast they will not do that). This time it was too much. There were three of the domains which were taken away. Registrant were:
  MAISON TROPICALE S.A.
  P.O. Box 58
  The Valley, British West Indies
  AI
  +31.847261054
  +31.847261054
  info

  I sent a mail to verisign and them but no response. Today I checked and 2 of these are again available.

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