GoDaddy Domain Search Scam
Posted on September 16, 2007
Filed Under Data Theft & Security Breaches, Security News |
Several weeks ago I performed a domain lookup on GoDaddy but didn’t have time to make the purchase so went back two days later to find it had been snapped up, it was an obscure name so it raised some suspicion but I dismissed it and did my thing again and came up with another viable name a few days later, this time I decided to leave it a while and see if it got taken, hey presto a week later it was snapped up by the same firm, was this a coincidence or is GoDaddy cheating their customers? Perhaps they have a naughty employee monitoring domain lookups? Or is the domain lookup system flawed? Maybe my PC was compromised!
To test some of these theories I decided to think up some more cool but obscure names and sit and wait, this time I did it from different ISP’s and different physical computers, even though I am certain there is adequate local protection. Surprise surprise in each case the domain was snapped up within a few days.
Here are the firms that were registering the domains I was looking up on GoDaddy :
Subsequently one of the domains I tested is now in the hands of :
So, if you have had a similar experience please contact me, I am continuing to look into this practice, as far as I am concerned it’s quite simply a scam that needs to be halted.
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Adam Sculthorpe
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I had this very problem - when I performed a “WhoIs” search, the registration was minutes after I had searched for the domain, and said it was through another year from then. The site was a common worthless search engine with ads. About a week later, however, the site was gone with no trace. When I searched for the domain on GoDaddy again, the same thing happened, except it was a slightly different webpage - domain was registered for another year though. I’m not sure if the company was any one of those you mentioned. I’ve been trying to figure out what’s going on, and after many of my friends thinking I’m mentally insane and don’t know what I’m talking about, I fully believe it must be from inside GoDaddy, otherwise that site would still be registered for another year (or GoDaddy’s insecure/has been hacked).
I just tried to register a domain that I searched for a week ago. It was AMG3050.com — Pretty obscure right? So I checked it today, and GoDaddy said it was taken. I checked their register data on it, and it told me it was available, so I clicked the helpful register this domain now link, and they said it was taken. Hmmm, suspicous… They say that I can get the domain anyway, but I have to pay $60 bucks plus a sales commission to find out how much it will cost to get the site from the current owner, who is um, nobody. I have always liked GoDaddy, but now I’m reconsidering. I went to Yahoo, and checked the domain there, would you believe it was actually available! Wow, I got it at Yahoo. GODADDY WAS TRYING TO BILK ME FOR $60 BUCKS! This can’t be legal!
Another GoDaddy scam:
They will tell you a domain (say .com) is available, when it isn’t. Once in, they will try to upsell you on .org and .net. Once you bite, and already give them your credit card info, they will go back to tell you that, oh, ups, sorry, can’t register .com, but we took your money for .org anyway.
Many people will not want a .org if they can’t get .com. No refunds.
I agree with you. Godaddy is a doamin theft. I bought two domain at goddady but they cancelled them without any reason and put them in the market to sell them more.Because of that they have the lowest price of the market.They want more domain suggestion to resell them at high price.Don’t buy domain at godaddy they will stole your domain name.
godaddy are cheaters!!!
I have just about 100 domains.
I have forwarded all of them to one site, I checked them later ( after 3 month ) and some of the domains are forwarded to godaddy cash-parcking
is it normal??
I called them, asked them what the hell and they told me that something wrong with the IP address
is it suppose to be my problem? or that is the new feature of Godaddy.com
(I have a prove) so think before you say
This incident happened again. The first time was with ismailax.com and the same exact person from Corpus Christi stole my domain name. Today, I read the NY Times, hear “Client Number 9″ and purchased clientnumber9.com. This is in reference to the NY Governor. I pay for the domain name. I have proof on my GoDaddy account and on my VISA account. Transaction complete so sad too bad no domain name for me? I understand there are other people out there that do not hesitate to jump on a domain name but this is too fishy. What do I do?
I’ve been affected multiple times times since this original post and many other people have written to me with similar complaints. I am convinced there is a scam going on here and I’ve alerted the appropriate authorities. Please continue to let me know if you are affected by this. Thank you.
I search a domain name in godaddy and the domain was free, about some hours later they are sold. In the same day, just some minutes later!!!
Add me to the list of people this has happened too. We were trying to come up with a suitable name for a new site, and were checking them as we thought of them. Next day we came back to register one and, you guessed it, it was gone.
Last August, I found (NEARBYCITY)SHOPPING.com to be available on the GoDaddy site. Didn’t jump on it right away. Several hours later it had been taken by someone, who (according to WHOIS) was actually residing in Scottsdale. After I called GoDaddy to complain, the WHOIS registrant was changed to “Domains by Proxy”. What a coincidence!
It is unfortunate that a company like godaddy must cheat prospective customers to make money. I did a search for domain names with “domain” in the name like XYZdomain.com, abcdomain.com, shitdomain.com and baddomain.com. You guessed it! They all were previously purchased and not available. Now who would buy baddomain.com? So I will go elsewhere for domain searches.
GoDaddy are Tosspotts!
The company i work for is now screwed up online, website and e mail because of GoDaddy basically stealing our domain name. Yep it’s now in he hands of Domains by Proxy, phoned them….waste of time!
After having this domain for over 7 years…..PooDaddy is now making big problems for us.
Someone needs to investigate this matter, how can they do this?