Your Domain Name Is Being Held Hostage

It’s 1 year later, do you know who’s got your domain name?

I can’t really think of anything more frustrating and disruptive than having your domain name expire and some vulture swoop down and hold it for ransom. Yes, this really does happen, and more often than you think. You don’t even need to own a high profile domain name, just one that is about to expire.

Currently I have a client who has had their 8 year old domain name come up for expiration without any warnings or notifications. Long story short, their old webmaster has since moved on from them as a client and obviously didn’t notify them. Can’t say I really blame the guy, it probably ended badly for both parties involved.

Introducing The Cybersquatter

There’s a difference between buying an available domain name because you could see it being useful for yourself later on and just trolling Whois records looking for an opportunity to snatch up a freshly expired one for financial gain from the rightful owner. The latter act mentioned is known as “cybersquatting”, but I liken it to extortion or kidnapping. Whatever you want to call it, it’s an ugly thing to do to anyone who relies on that domain name for their livelihood.Now in my clients situation, the ransom is roughly $300 to get it back, and the criminal is kind enough to offer to register it for 1 whole year after the payout. What a nice guy.

Last time I checked, you can register a domain name for under $10 at many established and reputable registrars. And last time I checked, this kind of act is ILLEGAL.

How To Protect Your Domain

If you’re reading this and it’s already happened to you, then my apologies on pointing out what you already know and for learning the hard way. But information is power, and for people in my industry, we need to pass the knowledge along.

• Register your domain name under the company name (or the owners name)
• Pay for that domain with the company credit card
• Keep a paper copy of the whole transaction, including how to login to the registrar account management area
• Wouldn’t hurt to give a copy to the accountant, the owner of the company, and the company’s legal counsel
• If you’re using a 3rd party to handle your website, get your contract in order before letting them do anything on behalf of your company
• If the 3rd party contract is already in place and there’s nothing regarding your domain registration and ownership, get on the phone with them and get an addendum put in place ASAP (face to face meeting, legal counsel present)

The point to all of this is to make sure that you don’t end up in a tight spot where you might need to drag some idiot into court. According to Traverse Legal, The National Arbitration Forum (NAF) released figures that showed in 2005 there were 1,396 cases of cybersquatting being brought to court. In 2006 there was a 25% increase up to 1,823. So it’s pretty safe to say that these wastes of skin people are following the path of spammers and finding ways to cash in on your misfortune.

Have any good ideas to add on how people can protect themselves?

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