Domain theft is a crime that relies on two parameters to succeed: keeping the victim unaware of the crime and presenting the stolen assets for sale to unsuspecting buyers.
In the case of domain names, domain theft affects the victim’s business and communications, perhaps even their personal identity. Once resold, these domain assets become “laundered” – one step further down the process of cleansing. Domain thieves can make hundreds of thousands of dollars from their illicit sales and often remain undetected for years.
Currently, we were made aware of a systematic domain thief whose locale appears to be in Moldova. He is responsible for the theft of several high profile, or otherwise valuable domains.
Some of these stolen domains have been offered for sale on a number of domain platforms and marketplaces, after they were moved away from their holders’ accounts at Network Solutions.
Here’s the list of the domains that are currently stolen, per our sources:
- Perl.com – Restored to previous registrant
- Piracy.com – Restored to previous registrant
- Patterns.com
- FinPlan.com – Restored to previous registrant
- AcneTreatment.com – Restored to previous registrant
- Spear.com
- Assign.com
- SolarPlanet.com
- CompareMortgage.com
- MoneyClub.com
- ExpoTravel.com
- ExpressAir.com – Restored to previous registrant
- Mamas.com
If you are approached to acquire these domains, or to broker them, keep in mind that they are currently stolen assets.
Some of these stolen domains have been moved to Key Systems, after going through a Chinese domain registrar. Some are parked for sale at Epik.com.
Update 2/6/2021: Adding Mamas.com to the list of stolen domain names.
Update 2/6/2021: Adding Mamas.com to the list of stolen domain names.
A few of those domains are recovered or are close to being recovered. They’re in the process of being transferred back to the original registrar and put into the owner’s account(s).
We know that Perl has been recovered.
Bill – Why not share the domains that have been confirmed as reclaimed? It’d make the task of combating crime and criminals so much easier.
Sometimes domain owners don’t want it shared publicly that their domain was stolen. I wish we could publicly report all domain theft and recoveries. But the reality is that we can’t in some instances.