Domain Abusers Hijack WHOIS to Grab Your Domain

She chose to use her first and last names for the domain (just as I own larryseltzer.com) and checked it on at least one service for availability. She went back in a day or two to register it and, lo and behold, it had just been registered to an outfit named Chesterton Holdings.

Don’t search for a domain name unless you intend on buying it.
Larry Seltzer at eWeek has an ongoing investigation about people that search the WHOIS domain database for a domain for their business and then come back later on and the domain has been registered by another party – on the same day that they searched for it.


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6 responses to “Domain Abusers Hijack WHOIS to Grab Your Domain”

  1. Working Solo Avatar

    Don’t search for a domain name unless you intend on buying it….

    This startling headline was the advice from Andy Wibbels this morning.Larry Seltzer at eWeek has an ongoing investigation about people that search the WHOIS domain database for a domain for their business and then come back later on and the…

  2. A.R.Yngve Avatar

    Might it be possible to sabotage the domain hijackers by searching for a lot of useless domains..?

  3. Ray Avatar

    Hi,
    Yes as A R Yngve points it would be possible to register useless domains but there is another part of this whole scam. Andy has not referred to this but you can read about in another article Larry Seltzer wrote which is linked from the article Andy mentions above.
    The scam is that companies get a five days grace period when domains are registered by speculators but not paid for. Speculators put the domains online, plastered with adverts to see if they generate any revenue. Where there is insufficient revenue they are simply given back free of charge. The article is here http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1974213,00.asp

  4. Ray Avatar

    Apologies – I have just noticed that Andy has covered this scam in a previous post, here http://andywibbels.com/post/1184

  5. Max Dawson Avatar

    At hostinghelpline.com find the best articles about hosting, SEO and e-Commerce.

  6. Johnvaam Avatar

    I checked this domain name few days ago and it’s available. But when I tried to buy it yesterday, it was already taken.
    I think those domain hijackers must have the previledge to peep at the domain name list checked by the users.
    Lesson learned: Buy your domain immediately when it’s available.

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