I Didn't Register it, Moniker Did

seven · Dec 26, 2008

I had been a proponent of searching for domains at Moniker because I always searched for domains there and never had a problem with a "suspicious" domain registration. That has changed.

I searched on Moniker for a specific job niche in the 7th largest city in the US on December 20th. I would have purchased the domain but I didn't have my passwords with me (on someone else's computer). The name went citynichejobs.com. On December 22, that domain was registered for the first time ever by this whois contact:

Name: Admin -

Organization: Oversee Research and Development, LLC

Email: [email protected]
Address: 515 South Flower Street

Suite 4400

City, Province, Post Code: Los Angeles, California, 90071
Country: US
Phone: 1.2132653191

And for all of those who say this is an all out competition and I should have registered it if I really wanted it, fine I accept that. The concept is not lost on me. The purpose of this post is to tell others that Moniker will scan your search and register domains just like GoDaddy will.

If you think this may have been an innocent register, I'm sure another turnip truck will be along shortly.

Webafter · Dec 28, 2008

As of right now citynichejobs.com is available to register/purchase!

krx · Dec 28, 2008

Peter said:
Unfortunately this is quite a common practice among many registrars. This is why you should find somewhere safe that you trust to do searches then and only then do the search on the registrar when you are going to buy.

I use Moniker for this ... always thought they were one of the safe ones. :td:

namelogic said:
try fabulous.com next time

Fabulous is a great registrar, imho, but not a great place to bulk check names. AFAIK, they only check 4 gTLDs (com/net/info/org).

Domainator · Dec 28, 2008

I would hope Moniker would respond to this thread....

bmugford · Dec 28, 2008

I doubt they will. I have found accountability is not in Moniker's vocabulary.

Brad

Domainator said:
I would hope Moniker would respond to this thread....

Charley · Dec 28, 2008

bmugford said:
I doubt they will. I have found accountability is not in Moniker's vocabulary.

Brad

Maybe send this link to the right person at Moniker.

zorag · Dec 28, 2008

I've had Moniker let a domain go to another person, although I registered it one and a half hours before them, I have most of my domains at Moniker and I find that a little undiscerning.

mcahn · Dec 28, 2008

registrations

Folks - Moniker nor Oversee front runs or has anything to do with registering names that customers try to register through our registrars. We do not practice this and never have. Many companies still taste domains and there are many attempts to register the same names all over the world from all registrars...even at the same time.

Should you have any questions regarding any problems or difficulties registering domains at Moniker, please email me personally and I will get you help.

We continue to be the safest, most ethical and most secure registrar in our industry. We also do not allow registrations to go to others if they were not legitimately not registered to them. So Zorag - your issue may have been with a ccTLD where registrations are manual throughout the industry and you do not know who registered those domains first or how they process. I can assure you that the registry controls these issues not the registrar.

Thank you

Auraka · Dec 28, 2008

mcahn said:
Folks - Moniker nor Oversee front runs or has anything to do with registering names that customers try to register through our registrars. We do not practice this and never have. Many companies still taste domains and there are many attempts to register the same names all over the world from all registrars...even at the same time.

Should you have any questions regarding any problems or difficulties registering domains at Moniker, please email me personally and I will get you help.

We continue to be the safest, most ethical and most secure registrar in our industry. We also do not allow registrations to go to others if they were not legitimately not registered to them. So Zorag - your issue may have been with a ccTLD where registrations are manual throughout the industry and you do not know who registered those domains first or how they process. I can assure you that the registry controls these issues not the registrar.

Thank you

So are you calling the OP a liar? Is his story a work of fiction, what?

Note: Oversee Research and Development, LLC has over 320,000 names registered?

Peter · Dec 28, 2008

Auraka said:
So are you calling the OP a liar? Is his story a work of fiction, what?

It is possible that it was simply a fluke that someone else came up with the idea for the domain themselves.

Mike · Dec 28, 2008

Take it easy guys!
Not many (if any) of the executive managers of the big registrars would have even responded to this thread. I believe that it would be fair and professional to let Monte work it out with the OP before anyone here passes judgment.
Once the situation has been addressed by the only 2 people that can potentially shed light on this situation, the OP and Monte, the updates will show whether there's foul play or a fluke at work.

Get the blood hounds back on the leash, there's no feast!

M.

daj · Dec 28, 2008

What about other registrars? What registrar's does oversee.net use to pick up names that are searched to test for traffic? You can't dispute the fact that they don't do that, when it's happened to me, and others.

mcahn said:
Folks - Moniker nor Oversee front runs or has anything to do with registering names that customers try to register through our registrars.

Timewarp · Dec 28, 2008

Play it safe and don't use any web based search.
On Mac I use terminal, just type: whois domainname.com

deet · Dec 28, 2008

I check whois of a domain first if no whois it's usually available.

seven · Dec 28, 2008

mcahn said:
Folks - Moniker nor Oversee front runs or has anything to do with registering names that customers try to register through our registrars. We do not practice this and never have. Many companies still taste domains and there are many attempts to register the same names all over the world from all registrars...even at the same time.

Should you have any questions regarding any problems or difficulties registering domains at Moniker, please email me personally and I will get you help.

I don't see this as an issue with myself and Moniker. There are no rules or even widely accepted codes against this (as many registrars do it). Like many of the domaining gray beards have stated before - you don't register a domain and someone else does (whether registrar or individual), it's on you.

This is a very simple situation so there's no need for any confusion or generalities.

1. I searched for a domain at Moniker and it was available.
2. I didn't register the domain.
3. The domain was registered by Oversee two days later.
4. The domain was subsequently dropped 5 (+/-) days later.

That's it.

If Moniker/Oversee is saying that they just happened to stumble upon this domain, then so be it. I do find the bolded wording used by MCahn in his/her post interesting because I never did "try to register" the domain. I however did search for it using Moniker.com.

The second underlined excerpt really has little to do with the specifics here. Oversee was in fact the registrant of the domain and everybody knows other companies do this.

domainmagick · Dec 29, 2008

sure sounds suspicious... shame we have to worry about these things.

mcahn · Dec 29, 2008

I did not call anyone a liar - citynichejobs.com is available to register....and if it was registered two days later by another organization - then it had nothing to do with whois or registry front running.

I stand by my claim and post. We do not share or use whois checks with anyone...including our parent company and our parent does not use whois checks to register domains...the name was not even registered at Moniker.

DotWeekly · Dec 29, 2008

mcahn said:
I did not call anyone a liar - citynichejobs.com is available to register....and if it was registered two days later by another organization - then it had nothing to do with whois or registry front running.

I stand by my claim and post. We do not share or use whois checks with anyone...including our parent company and our parent does not use whois checks to register domains...the name was not even registered at Moniker.

Just to be clear, citynichejobs.com was NOT the domain in question. That was an example of the domain. It started with a City, was a Niche and ended in the term Jobs.

This is not the first time I have seen/heard posts like this (not just Moniker) and it's a He Said, She Said situation always. I personally think Moniker is The Safest registrar for your domain names and doing available check and they wouldn't do something like this.

It's been said and stated here... If you do a search, domain is available, Register it. "Not having a password" is a pretty lame excuse if you ask me anyway, not having the money and so on..

zorag · Dec 30, 2008

mcahn said:
I did not call anyone a liar - citynichejobs.com is available to register....and if it was registered two days later by another organization - then it had nothing to do with whois or registry front running.

I stand by my claim and post. We do not share or use whois checks with anyone...including our parent company and our parent does not use whois checks to register domains...the name was not even registered at Moniker.

I must reiterate, it's only the one instance I've ever had with Moniker and their support team rectified the issue within hours, which is MUCH more I can say for other registrars over the years, otherwise I find Moniker to be "probably" the best registrar to partner with and the safest in respect of security. The interface is superb and VERY easy to use with every functionality any pro/amateur domainer need utilize - Moniker have proven this since inception

Excellent platform Monte! Best of luck for the new year ..

fle8 · Dec 30, 2008

Slightly OT thought: Every domainer should make a practice of maintaining a strict spyware-free computer for doing their WHOIS work.

Dotplanners · Dec 31, 2008

bulk check safety

namelogic said:
try fabulous.com next time

I'm with Namelogic on this one. I search for all domain availability at Fabulous. A few years ago, when i saved my searches to their "shopping cart", I discovered about 5 out of 300 domains were bought by a syndicate of Fabulous, but those domains were found by me on Overture search terms, so i couldn't really "accuse" them of filtering my shopping cart picks. I wrote to them and they said they didn't check their customer's shopping carts, and I believed them. Suffice to say, my main registrar for new domains is:

Fabulous.

jrzeygirl · Dec 31, 2008

Dotplanners said:
I'm with Namelogic on this one. I search for all domain availability at Fabulous. A few years ago, when i saved my searches to their "shopping cart", I discovered about 5 out of 300 domains were bought by a syndicate of Fabulous, but those domains were found by me on Overture search terms, so i couldn't really "accuse" them of filtering my shopping cart picks. I wrote to them and they said they didn't check their customer's shopping carts, and I believed them. Suffice to say, my main registrar for new domains is:

Fabulous.

Dang!....and here I thought I was special.

Happy New Year Stephen!

I Didn't Register it, Moniker Did

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