Domain owners continue to cry “murder” when the unthinkable happens: losing control of a domain they used to manage.
Registrars such as Google Domains increase their user base thanks to the household name qualities their brand acquired through the years. In the eyes of the consumer, they are trustworthy.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case, and some guy who registered a domain a year ago, now believes it was stolen by Chinese thieves.
“how can i even get someone from google or blogger to talk to me about a stolen domain name. someone stole my domain name and has made a sales website with it that is nothing of the sort to what my blog site is. can someone please give me info on how to get a hold of someone to get this fixed.”
The registrant is adamant about having renewed the domain earlier this year, and confident that Google processed his payment, renewing his domain name.
Alas, someone who researched and contributed to that exchange says otherwise:
“Hey Thomas, your domain was beachmenflytying.com right? It shows that it wasn’t renewed on time, it expired in February and dropped in April. So someone else grabbed it. If you have a receipt from Google Domains that you paid for its renewal, contact their support. They can’t get you the domain back but maybe you’ll get a refund.”
Indeed, the current registrant must have gone after the domain due to its traffic, as the keywords are far from premium. For a reg fee, such domains might command traffic thanks to secondary traffic sources, such as YouTube videos, blog content, or social media.
Things will get even worse when GDPR kicks in, and the WHOIS information available to the general public will be impossible to indicate what went on.
