Protecting Your Valuable Domain Name Assets
If you own valuable domain names there are many things you'll need to protect them from over the years, including domain theft, domain host hijacking, corporate bullying theft, and more.
A domain name can be a very valuable asset like real estate, but as a new kind of asset class, traditional protections may not be as strong as they would be for other assets. And to make matters worse, traditional enforcement authorities often pass the buck about who's jurisdiction the virtual world is in.
Stolen Domain Names
We had a valuable domain name stolen several years ago. It was registered with Network Solutions at the time, and the theft was done more through social engineering than through a technical glitch.
Network Solutions has a form to fill out and fax back if your domain contacts have moved or you no longer have access to the domain contact email addresses. Basically, it's a paper form to which you attach a copy of a driver's license or some other form of ID.
The people who stole our domain name basically forged a driver's license and sent in the info to change the contact email address, and then later they moved the domain. Once the domain was moved and at the new registrar, they changed the ownership info listed on the domain.
With the assistance of Network Solutions, as well as a letter from a sympathetic FBI agent to the new registrar, we were able to get the domain name back. However, if the registrar had been in a foreign country, or Network Solutions had not provided adequate assistance, it could have been much more difficult.
It may be that Network Solutions now has better controls in place to combat this type of the theft, but they still do use a Primary Account Contact Change Form that is received via fax with a copy of a driver's license. And according to a Network Solutions customer service representative, they receive these forms all the time as standard procedure.
Another way a theft can occur is if a domain name contact email address is not secure, or is left to expire and and then it gets re-registered by someone else, who would then be able to receive emails from the registrar.
To help avoid domain name theft,
The last bullet point is not only for security purposes, but for customer service as well. We have some domain names registered through iPowerWeb, for example, and they use OpenSRS as domain registrar. It's inexpensive to register a domain through iPowerWeb, but dealing with OpenSRS is an exercise in frustration, the management is terrible, and I wouldn't want to count on the OpenSRS customer service in case I had a problem.
The recent situation with RegisterFly is another case in point, where the company's management just wasn't conducting business in a professional manner, and eventually many of the customer's suffered losses because of RegisterFly's actions.
Stick with well known and established domain registrars that have a good domain management interface, and helpful customer service, like GoDaddy.com.
Domain Host Hijacking
Some web hosting providers offer free domain registration when you purchase web hosting. But watch out for those that register your domain name in their name, rather than in your own. We had a terrible experience with a company called FeaturePrice.com a few years ago.
The company began to have financial problems because of their poor customer service, and when it came time to try to transfer our domain names away from FeaturePrice, it took months of calling and emailing practically on a daily basis to finally get the domain names back.
My best advice is to register your domain names all at one place. You may find a registrar that is slightly less expensive than one like GoDaddy (which is still low-priced), but the hassle and potential loss of your domain names is not worth the small savings.
Corporate Trademark Bullies
For several years we ran a number of websites under a company name that was somewhat similar to the name of a large corporation, but in a different business line. I can't tell you the name, but the similarity was that the name was reverse -- so for example, if our company name was called NetMoney, the other company was called MoneyNet.
One day we receive a call from a lawyer asking us if we would consider selling the domain name for $5,000. As our company had been established several years earlier using that domain name, we declined the offer.
A few days later we received what basically amounted to a several hundred page lawsuit, and in the end, we just couldn't afford to fight for our domain name, and had to let it go. A large corporation can easily out-spend you in a lawsuit, so be aware of this possibility when starting a business under your domain name. Also, be sure to establish use of your domain name, trademark it in your line of business where necessary, and try to stay out of view of the corporate raiders.
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