No quick resolution of domain thefts is currently possible.
A brazen Russian thief stole the domain name MLA.com and then fabricated an electronic exchange of a supposed Bitcoin sale.
Despite owning this domain since the 90’s, Chicago professional Michael Lee has gone to extreme lengths, trying to prove this is his property.
Internet BS, the registrar where the domain was moved to, refused to return it, despite all the efforts and evidence presented by Michael Lee and GoDaddy. The domain is frozen, pending the verdict of a lawsuit filed by its legitimate owner.
Recently, See.com was stolen from a Moniker account and was peddled for $60,000. Legitimate owner, Mike Loucks, is furious over the lack of coordination between domain registrars, to reclaim stolen property.
“I have to prove I’m not an elephant, all while some thief from Egypt proclaims he bought the domain from another Egyptian fella. The system is broken at its very foundation.”
New evidence in the See.com case matches the thief to the theft of at least two more three letter .com domains, moved between accounts at Moniker. The party at loss in that case, is domain investor Nat Cohen, who also blogged about the ordeal he faced at Moniker. The domains were eventually reclaimed, as no registrar change occurred.
Future Media Architects founder, Elequa, had to resort to legal arm-twisting via a prominent law firm, to motivate Moniker’s action on the subject of several stolen domains. He has yet to receive all of them back.
All these cases share the same frustrating elements: A domain registrant’s account at a registrar gets infiltrated, domains get stolen, and the gaining registrar seeks outlandish forensic evidence in order to return them to their owner of several years.
This would never be a problem, if ICANN’s bureaucracy planned for and defined digital titles of ownership for domain names.
In the meantime, business owners and private domainers face red tape, frustration and substantial monetary loss while trying to get back what is already theirs.
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And no lawsuit brought against the failing registrar yet ? Surprising.
Kate has it correct, that may be the only way to shock them into action
As I read this I am in Nw York visiting AMLAW 100 fifms to interview clients of my clients for a testimonial video. Amazing the ll and lll domains they own and I can guarantee no one would getaway from stealing a three-letter domain from a high powered lawyer. Theives are playing on domainers sepcifically.
firms
Hi guys, Just a heads up that our host server was crashed by hackers (still down 24 hours later) at 8:20 am yesterday. 10 minute later, I get an alert for the 2nd level pin number request at Godaddy. I’d only get that alert if I’m logging into my account at Godaddy. I’m assuming that someone hacked and crashed the server so I wouldn’t get email alerts until it was too late. Since Recordweb Communications holds a number of five and six figure domain names, I’d never see the transfers. Beware
It’s shocking to me that sixteen years after Gary Kremen and I recovered Sex.Com from Steven Michael Cohen, that the theft of domain names has continued to burgeon, and registrars continue to coddle domain thieves and snub their paying customers. I wish more of these folks whose domains have been stolen would call me, so I could help them recover their domains.