Black Rice Domains.
During the past two years, the proliferation of the short domain market in Asia and China in particular, generated millions of dollars in sales.
The majority of those numbers come from sales of LL .com domains, but LLL/NNN .com and LLLL/NNNN .com domains also contribute to the sales volume.
Chinese investors went “gaga” over this type of domain investments, after cycling through stocks and Bitcoin. Furthermore, China’s stock market bubble popped in June 2015, increasing the interest in short domains.
Some say that LLLL .com domains in particular were used as a monetary vessel for funds, avoiding the long arm of China’s government.
With this increased appetite for short domains, domain crime came along.
For a lengthy period of time, Chinese cybercriminals using phishing emails steadily stole LLL .com and LLLL .com domains, transferring them out of registrars such as eNom, GoDaddy and Network Solutions to Chinese domain registrars such as Ename.
The latter, became synonymous with the destination of choice for stolen domains, as they often made the return of stolen assets next to impossible.
Black rice is the reference to stolen domains in China, that were bought as an easy investment, but were found to be acquired unlawfully.
These days, even the Chinese are using the term, and legitimate domain investors in China have educated themselves to avoid being victimized.
Great deals are clear indications of stolen domain assets, and the use of WHOIS tools such as Benmi or DomainTools can help locate the history of a domain, before the current seller.
Chinese domainers are aware of the potential dangers of losing their investments, as stolen assets challenged at a US Federal Court almost always get returned to their legitimate owners.
By spreading the word about “Black domains” and “Black rice,” Chinese entrepreneurs are aligning with their Western counterparts, for a better domain investing experience.
Registrars that protect thieves should be wiped out by ICANN.