GoDaddy Blocking Emails?

[KoolKat]

Does anyone know when Godaddy stopped forwarding emails from domains that are under privacy? I just checked my portfolio and it seems that there is a new setting requirement and the option to receive emails sent to @domainproxy was disabled on all my domains over 1k there and you now have to manually (1 by 1 as no bulk option) enable the option to forward emails from an interested party using domainproxy to your main email address. I wonder how many offers were not received because of this as, with privacy, I used to always receive email offers, I decided to check and noticed this major change. Did Godaddy issue any press release or email info on this as this seems rather problematic on several points. Let me know if I'm missing something and if someone can bring some clarity on this @Joe Styler @James Iles

thanks

 

[411domains]

Does anyone know when Godaddy stopped forwarding emails from domains that are under privacy? I just checked my portfolio and it seems that there is a new setting requirement and the option to receive emails sent to @domainproxy was disabled on all my domains over 1k there and you now have to manually (1 by 1 as no bulk option) enable the option to forward emails from an interested party using domainproxy to your main email address. I wonder how many offers were not received because of this as, with privacy, I used to always receive email offers, I decided to check and noticed this major change. Did Godaddy issue any press release or email info on this as this seems rather problematic on several points. Let me know if I'm missing something and if someone can bring some clarity on this @Joe Styler @James Iles

thanks

@Boston Domainer & @James Iles

Posted today.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/changes-to-your-godaddy-whois-email-privacy-settings.1292184/

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Well, these are the current legal documents linked to GoDaddy's website relating to the domainsbyproxy agreements. GoDaddy Legal DomainsByProxy Agreement and Domains By Proxy Privacy Policy

These terms agreed to by customers raise some interesting issues. What does the DomainsBYProxy "review" of emails and mail sent to you via the domain actually mean? So, if you are using their service even with privacy off, do they review your emails?
In terms of blocking mail, apparently even first class postal mail is not forwarded? So, regular mail gets blocked? Junk mail is one thing, but what if a company is trying to contact your directly via mail to try to buy your domain?

Inasmuch as DBP's name, postal address and phone number will be listed in the Whois directory, You agree DBP will review and forward communications addressed to Your domain name that are received via email, certified or traceable courier mail (such as UPS, FedEx, or DHL), or first class U.S. postal mail. You specifically acknowledge DBP will not forward to You first class postal mail (other than legal notices), "junk" mail or other unsolicited communications (whether delivered through email, fax, postal mail or telephone), and You further authorize DBP to either discard all such communications or return all such communications to sender unopened. You agree to waive any and all claims arising from Your failure to receive communications directed to Your domain name but not forwarded to You by DBP.

 

[fogfever]

Thanks for stopping by Bob.. I know it depends on the regiatrar... some forward emails sent to private whois go straight to you which is what GD used to do and changed without notice while others have guided forms to address issues like Dynadot.

I'll dig a little further tomorrow at others.

A few questions I have:
1)When did this change occur? And why do I have to manually re-enable this now. I have over 1k names there and to do it one by one is prohibitive and not happening no bulk option.

I agree it is really bad to default to NOT receiving communication. Godaddy needs to fix this ASAP for all domains - not just newly registered ones. I was told that you could have them changed in bulk by sending an email to [email protected] - including your account number, call-in PIN, the list of domains that you want switched to receiving emails and the email that you want it forwarded to.

 

[Dane]

I agree it is really bad to default to NOT receiving communication. Godaddy needs to fix this ASAP for all domains - not just newly registered ones. I was told that you could have them changed in bulk by sending an email to [email protected] - including your account number, call-in PIN, the list of domains that you want switched to receiving emails and the email that you want it forwarded to.

So silly that we would have to do that.

 

[411domains]

I was one of, if not, the very first to express my feelings about this rollout to my Premier Rep.
The good news is they're working on it.

 

[Ostrados]

Sneaky move!
Why no announcement about this?!
And why Godaddy insists to be involved in negative issues?
I wish that I once hear good news about new changes from Godaddy.

 

[fogfever]

Apologies for the delay @BostonDomainer. I know how important the Domains by Proxy feature is to domain investors, and with that in mind, I can say that the email forwarding feature is slated to be enabled by default for new registrations in the next 60 days, which includes bulk functionality. Domains in the interim will likely need to be manually adjusted.

I've been keeping my eye on this. So far it's 33 days and they still haven't switched new transfers to automatically receiving emails.
But Godaddy did change the options for the 'email forwarding' section. Now you have to click on it and manually enter the email you want it forwarded to. Seems like they made a change but not the one to automatically transfer emails yet. It still defaults to blocking all emails for newly transferred domains.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I've been keeping my eye on this. So far it's 33 days and they still haven't switched new transfers to automatically receiving emails.
But Godaddy did change the options for the 'email forwarding' section. Now you have to click on it and manually enter the email you want it forwarded to. Seems like they made a change but not the one to automatically transfer emails yet. It still defaults to blocking all emails for newly transferred domains.

Please consider here that domain owners, including new transfers, deserve clarity in these choices. Even when stating "filter for spam," does the registrant understand the implication that the registrar could intercept and read the emails? Is that what folks really want? Could the registrar take those leads and start marketing to them directly? And how do you know that any such offers would ever be sent to you? After all, they could be spam?!

That's fine if registrants don't care about that. But, if they do care about this, and don't want any potential offers and leads being obtained by GD, then would it be better that this is explicit?

I truly don't think there is any domain investor on this forum that actually wants to share their leads and potential offers with any registrar and brokers.

 

[bhartzer]

Apologies for the delay @BostonDomainer. I know how important the Domains by Proxy feature is to domain investors, and with that in mind, I can say that the email forwarding feature is slated to be enabled by default for new registrations in the next 60 days, which includes bulk functionality. Domains in the interim will likely need to be manually adjusted.

This is actually not just a 'domainer' issue.

My understanding is that it's an ICANN requirement that the email on the whois gets to the domain owner. So even if it's using an obfuscated email (such as the email address being obfuscated in the whois record), an email sent to that email address MUST be delivered to the domain owner. The registrar cannot block it or send it anywhere else--they have to send it or forward it to the domain owner.

There are a lot of reasons someone may need to contact the real domain owner of a domain, not just because someone wants to buy the domain from them.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

This is actually not just a 'domainer' issue.

My understanding is that it's an ICANN requirement that the email on the whois gets to the domain owner. So even if it's using an obfuscated email (such as the email address being obfuscated in the whois record), an email sent to that email address MUST be delivered to the domain owner. The registrar cannot block it or send it anywhere else--they have to send it or forward it to the domain owner.

There are a lot of reasons someone may need to contact the real domain owner of a domain, not just because someone wants to buy the domain from them.

Absolutely agreed. And, for the "spam email filtering option," it's concerning whether those agreeing to it understand fully the implications of such a setting.

What puzzles me as well is how it is justified to have first class email also blocked? Aren't there laws against that in the U.S.? If someone has not explicitly consented to this, perhaps that needs to be promptly changed.

This potentially a very important privacy issue for a company. A business may have multiple domain names, some of which only are currently being used. Do they really want a third party potentially intercepting their first class mail. The term in their GD agreement is (bold emphasis added)

You agree DBP will review and forward communications addressed to Your domain name that are received via email, certified or traceable courier mail (such as UPS, FedEx, or DHL), or first class U.S. postal mail.

Does any business readily agree to have a third party opening mail and package deliveries intended for that actual company? Isn't that a potentially significant security concern? Does the term "review" include actual inspection of the contents of the packages and letters? If so, there would be some very real privacy concerns here.

 

[fogfever]

Apologies for the delay @BostonDomainer. I know how important the Domains by Proxy feature is to domain investors, and with that in mind, I can say that the email forwarding feature is slated to be enabled by default for new registrations in the next 60 days, which includes bulk functionality. Domains in the interim will likely need to be manually adjusted.

Hi James,
It has now been 64 days since you said that the email forwarding feature will be enabled, but it is still not enabled.
I just registered a domain at Godaddy and checked the domain and it says Privacy email forwarding: Off. As many others have said in this thread this is very problematic because domain owners need to receive messages about their domains. Godaddy - please fix this.

 

[KoolKat]

I took privacy off my entire portfolio about 2 month ago... the whois was showing fine for weeks with my public email... now (past 2 weeks since I've been checking) *****all Godaddy whois searches shows the following regardless of your privacy settings *****
Email:
Select Contact Domain Holder link at https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=DomainName.com

This is a big deal and again this switch occured under the cover of darkness. I invite you all to check the names in your portfolio at Godaddy that are suppose to display public email contact info. Ask yourself, why does Godaddy want control of our WHOis contact email that these email "issues" keep occuring? Maybe they'll start charging for the right to display your personal email contact info? Godaddy Verified perhaps?

I started moving my domains from Godaddy to Dynadot ~1,200 left. It feels like they are always up to something questionable or at the lease- undesirable- these days. Too much data

 

[Mister Funsky]

I used to always receive email offers,

Just a heads up to all...

Gddy is not the only registrar to 'block' or stop forwarding emails. I've made formal complaints to two others who stopped forwarding...according to one buyer, over 3 months ago.

A strongly worded email to one got things resolved...the other is ignoring me.

If your names are worthy, park for revenue and send to make offer page (see bodis or PC). If there is concern about click revenue causing a problem, point directly to offer page at parking companies or use a basic landing page.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Just a heads up to all...

Gddy is not the only registrar to 'block' or stop forwarding emails. I've made formal complaints to two others who stopped forwarding...according to one buyer, over 3 months ago.

Thanks for the alert.
Could you share the two other registrars where this appears to be an issue?

It may be important for those registrants to double check to see whether they are having problems with email forwarding there as well.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Thanks for the alert.
Could you share the two other registrars where this appears to be an issue?

It may be important for those registrants to double check to see whether they are having problems with email forwarding there as well.

Since they both monitor this site and I'm doing a bit of battle with both, I wont mention them...yet.

I found out by testing just one name at each registrar...most I use worked. Take a few minutes and test a few...in the case of registrar, I think they fixed the issue.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I took privacy off my entire portfolio about 2 month ago... the whois was showing fine for weeks with my public email... now (past 2 weeks since I've been checking) *****all Godaddy whois searches shows the following regardless of your privacy settings *****
Email:
Select Contact Domain Holder link at https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=DomainName.com

This is a big deal and again this switch occured under the cover of darkness. I invite you all to check the names in your portfolio at Godaddy that are suppose to display public email contact info. Ask yourself, why does Godaddy want control of our WHOis contact email that these email "issues" keep occuring? Maybe they'll start charging for the right to display your personal email contact info? Godaddy Verified perhaps?

Sorry to hear that after all the efforts you have had, that this issue has arisen. Clearly, this is not good for anyone trying to contact you as the domain holder.

Did GoDaddy customer service have any explanation as to why this happened?

 

[gt88hel]

I want to contact a domainer at Godaddy, but only brokers have replied to me today.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I want to contact a domainer at Godaddy, but only brokers have replied to me today.

How did you attempt to contact the owner? If the have privacy off, the best way is to directly send the message to their email. If privacy is on, an email sent may or many not be forwarded to the owner, depending on their registrar settings. In that case, the brokers may be the only way.

 

[411domains]

I haven't followed up on this for awhile, but I noticed that even if privacy is disabled, they still do not provide your email, which means even if someone tries to contact you, they are forced to either call or complete the Godaddy "Domain Holder Contact Request Form."
This BS is getting old.
What do you know about this @James Iles?

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I haven't followed up on this for awhile, but I noticed that even if privacy is disabled, they still do not provide your email, which means even if someone tries to contact you, they are forced to either call or complete the Godaddy "Domain Holder Contact Request Form."

You are absolutely right! I have privacy off on all my domains. My email shows for the ones at Dynadot and Namecheap, but not for the ones at GoDaddy.

For example, when checking my domain "DoctorMommy.com" through lookup.icann.org, the emails is shown as:

https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=DOCTORMOMMY.COM

For comparison, any of you unfamiliar with the privacy off showings, DrMommy.com, registered at Dynadot, very clearly shows the email contact info.

So, what's the deal, GoDaddy? Why aren't you presented the registrant, admin, and technical actual contact emails. Why block the registrant/admin/tech email contact information, even with privacy off?

Recently, your brokerage was able to contact me regarding a potential sale for a domain I had with a different registrar. Privacy was off, and presumably this made it easier for your broker to contact me and ultimately complete the sale. Please consider that brokers other than with GoDaddy deserve to have the ability to directly reach your domain registrants as well.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

An update:
The issue here appears to be that,registrars normally provide the registrant/admin/tech emails directly. GoDaddy does not. Instead, one has to click to a different page, where the individual attempting to contact the domain owner has to reveal their email address AND the intent of the contact.

So, "privacy off," with GoDaddy, could lead to "privacy lost." In other words, the domain owner is effectively sharing that information with GoDaddy. There are four buttons that one has to click: interest in buying the domain name, Domain name is being using in spam or malware, use violating trademarks or other laws or regulations, or reserach or other purposes.

The point here is that if the registrant has asked for all the contact information to be provided up front, including their email, there is no reason to have an additional step like this involved. Other registrars seem to be able to do this without difficulty, and have other mechanisms that allow for reporting of spam and other issues with domains.

After all, isn't there a potential conflict of interest involved, such as having a brokerage that would benefit by knowledge of a pending sale request? So why not respect the registrant's wishes, and allow their email to be posted along with the other contact information, as other registrars routinely do-- without additional processing of the contact through the GoDaddy servers?

And, note that this is an issue not simply for domain investors. This entire issue was highlighted to me over a year ago, when a business owner using GoDaddy for hosting, was not receiving emails through GoDaddy, despite their belief that privacy was off.

This is the step that is provided.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

Gwhois.org shows your contact info for doctormommy dot com
Edit:

https://whois.domaintools.com/doctormommy.com
Info is there

You are absolutely right! I have privacy off on all my domains. My email shows for the ones at Dynadot and Namecheap, but not for the ones at GoDaddy.

For example, when checking my domain "DoctorMommy.com" through lookup.icann.org, the emails is shown as:

https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=DOCTORMOMMY.COM

For comparison, any of you unfamiliar with the privacy off showings, DrMommy.com, registered at Dynadot, very clearly shows the email contact info.

So, what's the deal, GoDaddy? Why aren't you presented the registrant, admin, and technical actual contact emails. Why block the registrant/admin/tech email contact information, even with privacy off?

Recently, your brokerage was able to contact me regarding a potential sale for a domain I had with a different registrar. Privacy was off, and presumably this made it easier for your broker to contact me and ultimately complete the sale. Please consider that brokers other than with GoDaddy deserve to have the ability to directly reach your domain registrants as well.

 

[Future Sensors]

Gwhois.org shows your contact info for doctormommy dot com

I'm only seeing the link to GoDaddy, there:

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Gwhois.org shows your contact info for doctormommy dot com
Edit:

https://whois.domaintools.com/doctormommy.com
Info is there

The email is the issue. Unlike all other registrars, the email contact instead requires the additional steps. After I had gone through ICANN addressing the issue before with GD and one other registrar, GD appeared to temporarily fix this. Now, apparently, they are requiring additional steps to do the contact, AND still not providing the direct email address for the registrant.

And not that I explicitly checked to make certain that I did not ask for spam filtering. So I did not ask for the email still to be masked or attempts to contact me to be screened.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

Yes, correct. Everything but email is displayed. I was wrøng
Put email as second line of address?
However its wrong they do that.

I'm only seeing the link to GoDaddy, there:
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