An “in rem” lawsuit has been filed in Virginia to recover the domain name 256.com, alleging that it was stolen in December 2014.
The lawsuit, details of which were uncovered by domain investor George Kirikos, is filed against the property itself.
The domain name 256.com is currently stolen.
According to Wikipedia:
“In rem jurisdiction (Latin, “power about or against ‘the thing'”[1]) is a legal term describing the power a court may exercise over property (either real or personal) or a “status” against a person over whom the court does not have in personam jurisdiction. Jurisdiction in rem assumes the property or status is the primary object of the action, rather than personal liabilities not necessarily associated with the property.”
This method has been utilized before, to reclaim stolen domain names when the registrar is not actively assisting with the return of the asset via the intra-registrar transfer reversal process.
In this case, the losing registrar was eNom and the gaining registrar is Ename, the Chinese domain registrar that has been used as a destination in many cases of domain theft during the past year.
According to historical WHOIS information from DomainTools, the domain changed hands, presumably without the authorization of its registrant, on or around December 16th, 2014.
The WHOIS at the time of transfer became as follows:
Domain Name: 256.com
Registry Domain ID:
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.ename.com
Registrar URL: http://www.ename.net
Updated Date: 2014-12-16 15:06:35
Creation Date: 1997-09-24 04:00:00
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-09-23 04:00:00
Registrar: eName Technology Co.,Ltd.
Registrar IANA ID: 1331
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@ename.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +86.4000044400
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: zhuying
Registrant Organization: zhu ying
Registrant Street: furongqufurongdajie
Registrant City: Changshashi
Registrant State/Province: Hunan
Registrant Postal Code: 223311
Registrant Country: CN
Registrant Phone: +86.13898912891
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +86.13898912891
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: niubbb7878@gmail.com
The email address “niubbb7878@gmail.com” appears only once in related search results, indicating that it was created by the domain thief specifically to facilitate this activity.
Since 2014, dozens of domain names have been hijacked from various registrars and from GoDaddy in particular, by thieves residing in China that utilize domain phishing schemes.
