Filed under: Business, Internet, Productivity
Scammed out of your domain?
Security. Protection. Backup. We're all familiar with protecting our assets –data, personnel records and credit card numbers. But after spending thousands of dollars on brand and identity campaigns, how many small business owners get scammed out of their domain names?It's one thing to register a domain in good faith and then have the ICANN approved registrar turn into an international mockery like Register Fly. It's another scandal for domain registrars to send misleading postal and email to scam domain owners into giving up control of their domains and losing their Web sites [see one here and the FTC press release [pdf].
It's not good enough anymore to shift the responsibility onto those who "get it." If you own a business, then you just have to learn who owns your domain, know how to control it, and be aware if someone is trying to steal it. Your domain name is in the top three of your brand/identity package. Can you afford to give it away because you don't understand how it works?
An individual, group or business registers (not "buys") a domain name from an approved registrar. There is an up-front fee and an annual renewal. (This is not the same thing as paying for Web hosting, although you can pay the same registrar for both.)
HOW TO LOSE YOUR DOMAIN
Business owners lose domains when:
- they forget who registered the domain name
- the person who registered it changes an email address (and can't access the old one)
- the person who helped you register it put it into their name and not yours because "you didn't understand it" and they did
- the registering party 'goes away' for any reason, like the college intern who helped you graduates
- and the worst: the Web design firm you hired registered the domain in THEIR name in THEIR account and won't release it, or doesn't exist anymore.
HOW DO YOU GET YOUR DOMAIN CONTROL BACK?
Learn more about domain names – yours especially – and keep tabs on it. Your business should be the registrant, one of the most important roles on a domain name. The second role is administrative contact who has almost as much power as the registrant. I've had to tell too many angry business owners that they have no legal right to their domains, most often because they "didn't get it" and handed off these critical contact roles.
Third is the billing contact whose job is as simple as it sounds: pay the annual domain registration bill and don't be internationally embarrassed as was the Washington Post when it forgot to pay its annual bill. Finally, there is the technical contact, very often defaulting to the registrar unless you change it to the Web hosting company you use (they'll usually demand it and for good reason).
Some registrars are offering the one-role solution, where one person is the admin, billing, and technical contact all rolled into one.
Know who your contacts are and make sure they are up-to-date. Check your "whois" status at any of these links.
http://networksolutions.com/whois/
http://www.internic.net/whois.html
http://whois.domaintools.com/
WHAT IF YOUR CONTACTS ARE WRONG?
If your contacts are incorrect, a mystery, or shows the name a disgruntled ex-employee, browse post haste to your registrar's Web site and click Support (your registrar is listed in the whois information). Once there, file a support ticket or call. Explain the problem (painful as it might be). Every registrar has a system for reclaiming control of a domain name but some make it next-to-impossible for civilians to accomplish. Prepare to be on hold. They will possibly require:
- a faxed photocopy of a picture ID that can be seen after faxing
- letterhead from your company with your request
- their complex forms filed electronically or by fax
- your first-born child
My firm, like many reputable others, offers simple domain management as part of your web hosting fee. However, we charge for complex domain management (aka "yanking your domain") because it takes patience, time and expertise to jump through all the registrars' hoops. In their defense, registrars must ensure that the appropriate parties are given control of domains and unfortunately too many domain names are living in litigation because someone – and that's usually the business owner – didn't bother to check the whois regularly and didn't understand what it all meant.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kellie Peterson said 11:36AM on 5-08-2007
Those are great tips Sue. May I also suggest:
1. Registering your name for the maximum time you can afford/are likely to be using it. That's typically ten years for a gTLD. If you know you'll only use a name for a couple of years you may not want to incur the extra costs.
2. Use a "role" based email account for your registrations. If and when I leave my company they wouldn't have to worry about keeping my email account active because we've set up "domainguru@xyz.com" to forward to my account. All they will have to do is forward that email account somewhere else.
3. Utilize privacy services whenever possible.
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Sue Polinsky said 11:40AM on 5-08-2007
"3. Utilize privacy services whenever possible."
I hesitate on that one, Kellie. Once privatized, it's almost impossible to unlock unless you can find the privacy site's login. In my experience, small biz owners who lose domain info also lose privacy login info and we're two steps behind, instead of only one.
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Frank Gonzalez Jr said 12:51PM on 5-08-2007
Just two weeks ago my domain was put to expire by registerfly.com before it became expired I tried contacting their support but no one answered. Now I'm out of luck and have no way to get my domain back before the suppose it 72 day wait till it becomes available to the public again. What can I do? I just found out about registerfly's legal problems but my domain is being held hostage. I'm really frustrated. Thanks
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rijit said 12:52PM on 5-08-2007
Every year when my domain fees are due, I get a "renewal" form in the mail from some company that I do not do business with telling me to renew or loose my domain. I have several domains registered and get this letter for every single one. If I were not the one who did the registration and know which company I registered with I would probably fill out forms and send them back because no where does it say it is an advertisement, the form looks "official" and is worded in such a way as to make readers think without this particular registration form I will loose the domain. Watch out for these things, specially since anyone can access who has registered a domain.
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Sue Polinsky said 1:41PM on 5-08-2007
Frank, try this link:
http://blog.icann.org/?p=85
From the ICANN blog site (above link):
"Over the last several weeks, ICANN has fielded thousands of inquiries from Registerfly customers by email and telephone. We have put together a list of 14 FAQs below as an attempt to answer some of the questions we’ve heard most.
If you have additional suggestions for other Registerfly customers or questions that might apply to others, please leave them as comments below."
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Seattle Innovative Design said 11:48PM on 5-09-2007
My web design business < href="http://www.seattleinnovativedesign.com">Seattle Innovative Design provides domain registration for our customers because they either do not not how, or do not want to bother with domain registration.
In the web design agreement which is signed by both parties, it clearly states the ownership of the domain is to the client. I explain and emphasise this fact to all of my potential clients.
When you enter into an agreement with a web design firm it is a good idea to clarify the ownership of the domain before any agreement is reached.
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Sm Bsn Owner said 5:32PM on 5-13-2007
Suppose you loose control of one of your domain names. Is there a way to get it back? If you are a registered corporation do you have intellectual property rights to the domain? Should you consider legal action?
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Sue Polinsky said 6:43AM on 5-09-2007
Sm Bsn Owner - a situation like yours leaves too many questions to answer without more information. You can check with an IP attorney, of course, but one suggestion for the future is to trademark your business name (have your attorney do it) and/or domain name. It costs, but it can protect you in cases like yours. (And I don't even play an attorney on TV!)
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patrick said 7:59PM on 8-02-2007
Hi
I think im about to be scammed or I already have been.Dont know which.Purchased around 40 domains last week.Some for my buisness and some for speculation. I cant access my account at the domain registrar I signed up with and they do not send out emails from there password reminder thingy, even though the password sender outer says that it has.
Really frustrated at present, can someone point me in a direction that i should go in.Please!
Thanks in advance.
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Sue Polinsky said 8:01PM on 8-02-2007
Could be a mistake, could be a problem. What registrar did you use? If they are reputable, there's a way to salvage things. But if you're worried, perhaps you can contest the charge on your credit card.
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