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analysis How can we research domains without losing them to our registrar and their employees!

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oldtimer

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I have been hand registering domains for a long time now and over the years I have lost many domains that were available at the time that I was doing my research and shortly afterwards were taken by someone who put their info under whois privacy. This subject has come up before on the forum, but there are those members here that always rush to tell us that we are imagining this and it's just coincidence that someone else must have also thought of the same domain as we have, which in some cases they might be right, but when we are talking about very specific and niche domains that are kind of obscure then it makes one wonder about the coincidence factor. After hearing so many stories on the forum about people losing domains that they have researched for I am beginning to wonder what could be done about this problem. I myself have had domains taken right out of my cart which I was planning to register in the following days. Now I understand that just by checking a domain and or even by putting it in in your cart you are not granted any rights to that domain until you actually register it, but even though you have no legal right to the domains that you have researched for, but shouldn’t the registrars respect the fact that it probably has taken you a lot of time and effort to find a domain that was available and as a long term customer shouldn't they give you ample time before they allow their employees to take advantage of their insider knowledge and take the domains for themselves, some people might want to research domains all through the month and wait till a later date to register them I don't think that it's fair for all their efforts to go to waste. I have heard that some of the registrars (or their employees) sell the list of the valuable domains that have been checked for availability through their home page search box or through the whois inquires.
I hope that the registrars can come up with some kind of a solution for this problem soon but meanwhile if you want to know whether a domain is available or not don't check it at your registrar specially when you are logged in, because if you happen to be good at hand registering new domains there is a good chance that someone is monitoring your searches and will snatch away any good domains that you have thought of although they usually only take one domain at a time as to not raise any suspicions, because if they took all the good domains that you have searched for then they cannot claim that it was a coincidence, they usually take the best domain on your list that you have done research on and wait for the next batch that you are going to do research on later, the better you are at hand registering domain names the more domains they will snatch away from you and over time a pattern will become noticeable that no matter how hard their paid operatives on this forum try to convince you that this is just a coincidence the big picture that will emerge after we hear other people's complains about this problem can no longer be ignored by the registrars. I estimate that over 5 million domains might have been taken this way over the last 10 years from people who have looked up available domain names and wanted to wait until a later date to register them.

If you have had similar experiences with domains that you have researched on please sound off so that it can be shown that this is not an isolated situation.

Keep all comments constructive, professional and on topic. This is an Industry wide problem so don't single out any one registrar, we need the registrars help to come up with a solution for this problem.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Happened to me.

I was going to register a domain through my German registry and then went out for the night. When I tried in the morning the domain was taken. Taken the day before!!!

A week later I was in my Godaddy account ... and then it hit me!!!
 
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if I would be in the place of the spy
I would give up soon
as most handregs are worthless anyway
so to filter through thousands of BS domains
on a consistent basis is extremely stupid

and registering those names is even more stupid

and even more stupid is it
to have identified a domain of value that is available
and let it sit in the shopping card for more then 1 minute

don't blame the registrar
others ( thousands ) are doing the same as you do
and may eventually come up with the same domain
... and the only difference maybe they actually register it

It's not very Intelligent of you to give up on your rights as a potential registrant so easily.

You shouldn’t give a pass to the Registrars and blame their customers for not being quick enough to register their keyword idea because then you will be contributing to the continuation of such practices by the Registrars and thus make yourself a part of the problem instead of helping to come up with a solution here. If a person comes up with a keyword idea that they want to use as a domain name, the Registrars should be obligated to protect and safeguard their customers at least for a certain period of time before they allow the insider information to be used or sold.
 
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I was going to say a few things .. but @Kate beat me to it for just about every point .. what she posted likely accounts for 99% of the cases where people "suspect" someone stole their domain!

Often, people have made accusations of front-running but ...

My personal opinion is that there are likely cases of this, but that they are the minority of cases where people claim it happens.

Also as mentioned above, definitely search while not logged in to your registrar. I'm not sure how many registrars do this, but at GoDaddy, when you're logged in they keep the data to send you an email at a later date inviting you to buy the domain.

That being said .. I'm fairly confident that GD does not allow staff to use that list. However .. like all data .. nothing is perfectly secure. I've had a few exchanges with @Rob Monster and can say I trust HIM 100% .. but what's to say there isn't a renegade employee (at ANY registrar), or a security issue/bug. It doesn't even need to be a technical problem .. weak passwords or someone seeing a password written down likely account for far more security breaches than actual forced hacks.

While I have a ton of technical issues with GoDaddy, I don't doubt their intended integrity any less than the 100% I don't doubt Rob's. But at the end of the day, I don't open Word documents from my Mom ... lol .. it doesn't mean I don't trust her intentions .. it's just that ..

If you don't have complete control over a computer, data, access and usage .. then you can NEVER be 100% sure about the integrity of data. It's the one fact of the digital world that will likely never change because of the human element in both coding and usage.

The only real long term way to know which registrars are really doing this (or are having their employees doing it) would be to actually publicly list and share the suspect domains. Eventually use that list to figure out patterns. With a long enough list then MAYBE we could draw stronger conclusions ... but at this point we still can't even be certain it's really even being done at all.


@wormfood and @frank-germany .. Just because someone is "stealing names" does not in any way mean they are stealing all of them. Any potential "domain thief" likely would go through their list and only buy a tiny fraction of names they see. While it means they do need to go through a lot of garbage, ultimately they will find a handful of good ones worth registering. Using these lists will DEFINITELY get them a few good names in the long run. The quality is likely less than the lists of names going to expiration auctions, but the big advantage is that they wouldn't be competing against anyone else at auction .. and that their cost is a simple handreg. There is absolutely no doubt that a domainer with a good judge of domains would be able to profit very well by having access to this data.

It's all a numbers game. For example .. from the daily expiration lists I usually post what I consider about the top 1% on my daily lists here at NamePros and at NameCult. Of those 1% I keep about 1% (0.01% overall) to bid/buy myself. Of those I usually only end up getting another fraction. Despite getting only a fraction, I can only imagine how many great domains I would grab if there was nobody else competing for the same names.
 
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I was going to say a few things .. but @Kate beat me to it for just about every point .. what she posted likely accounts for 99% of the cases where people "suspect" someone stole their domain!



My personal opinion is that there are likely cases of this, but that they are the minority of cases where people claim it happens.

Also as mentioned above, definitely search while not logged in to your registrar. I'm not sure how many registrars do this, but at GoDaddy, when you're logged in they keep the data to send you an email at a later date inviting you to buy the domain.

That being said .. I'm fairly confident that GD does not allow staff to use that list. However .. like all data .. nothing is perfectly secure. I've had a few exchanges with @Rob Monster and can say I trust HIM 100% .. but what's to say there isn't a renegade employee (at ANY registrar), or a security issue/bug. It doesn't even need to be a technical problem .. weak passwords or someone seeing a password written down likely account for far more security breaches than actual forced hacks.

While I have a ton of technical issues with GoDaddy, I don't doubt their intended integrity any less than the 100% I don't doubt Rob's. But at the end of the day, I don't open Word documents from my Mom ... lol .. it doesn't mean I don't trust her intentions .. it's just that ..

If you don't have complete control over a computer, data, access and usage .. then you can NEVER be 100% sure about the integrity of data. It's the one fact of the digital world that will likely never change because of the human element in both coding and usage.

The only real long term way to know which registrars are really doing this (or are having their employees doing it) would be to actually publicly list and share the suspect domains. Eventually use that list to figure out patterns. With a long enough list then MAYBE we could draw stronger conclusions ... but at this point we still can't even be certain it's really even being done at all.


@wormfood and @frank-germany .. Just because someone is "stealing names" does not in any way mean they are stealing all of them. Any potential "domain thief" likely would go through their list and only buy a tiny fraction of names they see. While it means they do need to go through a lot of garbage, ultimately they will find a handful of good ones worth registering. Using these lists will DEFINITELY get them a few good names in the long run. The quality is likely less than the lists of names going to expiration auctions, but the big advantage is that they wouldn't be competing against anyone else at auction .. and that their cost is a simple handreg. There is absolutely no doubt that a domainer with a good judge of domains would be able to profit very well by having access to this data.

It's all a numbers game. For example .. from the daily expiration lists I usually post what I consider about the top 1% on my daily lists here at NamePros and at NameCult. Of those 1% I keep about 1% (0.01% overall) to bid/buy myself. Of those I usually only end up getting another fraction. Despite getting only a fraction, I can only imagine how many great domains I would grab if there was nobody else competing for the same names.

You have brought up some very good points and as you said there is already some good advice given here, but we also have to consider what is happening with all the regular people who don't have a clue as to why they lost the chance to register a domain that they found to be available just a day earlier. As you mentioned there is a percentage of good domains on the lists that the registrars are privy to have from their customers' searches that makes those list very attractive to their employees and those who are willing to pay for that insider information. Although most Registrars might not be participating in this practice directly, but the fact that their legal department is very relaxed about this issue makes their employees to be able to pass around these lists at the end of the day like hotcakes, and for a few who are daring enough to even go as far as tailing certain accounts.

We need a commitment from all Registrars that they are going to stop being so relaxed about what their employees are doing with insider information and that any lists that are produced from the customers domain searches or whois searches will not be used or sold at least for 30 days (60 days is even better).
 
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Great points are being brought up! For clarity, It's just a suspicion and there's no proof. I can relate to the thought that someone else may just have had the same idea and beat you to it. However:

This subject has come up before on the forum, but there are those members here that always rush to tell us that we are imagining this and it's just coincidence that someone else must have also thought of the same domain as we have, which in some cases they might be right, but when we are talking about very specific and niche domains that are kind of obscure then it makes one wonder about the coincidence factor

If you're looking at new handregs this is suspicious to say at least. Concerning expired domains, chances are high that someone just beat you to it.

Also, for a registrar it would be fairly easy to script something into their backend to register 'valuable' or 'wanted' domains. You could 100% automate this then match against keywords and previous sales data and your bot is set. I imagine some domainers use the same kind of data exept they dont have access to whois search data.

Having access to whois search data would give you valuable info that can be used to create quite an intelligent bot to participate on auctions and backorders as well.
 
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We need a commitment from all Registrars that they are going to stop being so relaxed about what their employees are doing with insider information ...

But you're ignoring the primary issue that I and others have brought up ... being .. Is it really actually an actual problem that is really happening? You've thrown around some numbers like 5 million domains in the last 10 years .. but where do you get this number from? The fact of the matter is that you just guessed-assumed this number based on zero evidence or facts. I'm not saying it doesn't happen .. but the truth of the matter that it's impossible to know without any actual data.

I think every domainer here will agree with you that it's very important for our search data to kept private.

But at the end of the day nobody knows if this is actually a real problem? You didn't even mention the domain in question so we can't even judge if it even really happened to you or not?

Without sharing the domain(s) and exact search time and location I think most people will assume what happened to you is one the the many possibilities @Kate mentioned.

In most cases where this appears to happen it actually is not at all the case. Other times there are legitimate reasons (maybe another domainer saw the same news/article that inspired you to think of the domain). Sometimes it is a technical issue. Again .. without any hard facts or data it's not really appropriate to throw around accusations.

If you really think it's an issue and a problem, then take tangible steps ... post the domains in question and EXACTLY when/where you searched for them .. even with that information you'll have a hard time convincing people that this is 100% definitely happening .. but without such data, any such accusations are effectively meaningless I'm sorry to say.

Please don't take this as me saying you're wrong about being concerned, or that there even is or isn't a problem .. but you're getting all worked up over something extremely intangible .. unless you or someone can get hard data or inside information then there is nothing more to this I'm sorry to say ...
 
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I have been reading TOS & Legal from a couple of the bigger registrars and basically it's the same mumbo jumbo any website publishes these days. They can sell your data to the devil if they like :)

I did not find a direct reference (yet) to whois search data. It'd be interesting to know how they handle this. Like @Ategy.com said: To be able to judge whether there's a real problem we need data.

I'm curious if they would even be willing to answer a couple of questions regarding this matter so I'm going to contact a few and ask:

Do you store data collected from website visitors performing whois searches and/or domain availability checks on your website in regards to the domainname they quiry?

if so:
a) What data do you store and for how long will you keep the data?
b) What will this data be used for?
c) Will you share or sell this data to third parties?

a should be a yes but not for long, b will be interesting, c is a big no no :).

additions and thoughts are welcome.
 
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I have been hand registering domains for a long time now and over the years I have lost many domains that were available at the time that I was doing my research and shortly afterwards were taken by someone who put their info under whois privacy. This subject has come up before on the forum, but there are those members here that always rush to tell us that we are imagining this and it's just coincidence that someone else must have also thought of the same domain as we have, which in some cases they might be right, but when we are talking about very specific and niche domains that are kind of obscure then it makes one wonder about the coincidence factor. After hearing so many stories on the forum about people losing domains that they have researched for I am beginning to wonder what could be done about this problem. I myself have had domains taken right out of my cart which I was planning to register in the following days. Now I understand that just by checking a domain and or even by putting it in in your cart you are not granted any rights to that domain until you actually register it, but even though you have no legal right to the domains that you have researched for, but shouldn’t the registrars respect the fact that it probably has taken you a lot of time and effort to find a domain that was available and as a long term customer shouldn't they give you ample time before they allow their employees to take advantage of their insider knowledge and take the domains for themselves, some people might want to research domains all through the month and wait till a later date to register them I don't think that it's fair for all their efforts to go to waste. I have heard that some of the registrars (or their employees) sell the list of the valuable domains that have been checked for availability through their home page search box or through the whois inquires.
I hope that the registrars can come up with some kind of a solution for this problem soon but meanwhile if you want to know whether a domain is available or not don't check it at your registrar specially when you are logged in, because if you happen to be good at hand registering new domains there is a good chance that someone is monitoring your searches and will snatch away any good domains that you have thought of although they usually only take one domain at a time as to not raise any suspicions, because if they took all the good domains that you have searched for then they cannot claim that it was a coincidence, they usually take the best domain on your list that you have done research on and wait for the next batch that you are going to do research on later, the better you are at hand registering domain names the more domains they will snatch away from you and over time a pattern will become noticeable that no matter how hard their paid operatives on this forum try to convince you that this is just a coincidence the big picture that will emerge after we hear other people's complains about this problem can no longer be ignored by the registrars. I estimate that over 5 million domains might have been taken this way over the last 10 years from people who have looked up available domain names and wanted to wait until a later date to register them.

If you have had similar experiences with domains that you have researched on please sound off so that it can be shown that this is not an isolated situation.

Keep all comments constructive, professional and on topic. This is an Industry wide problem so don't single out any one registrar, we need the registrars help to come up with a solution for this problem.
We have experienced this same issue many times and also a similar issue where a letter is changed in the spelling after it is in your cart. We have also purchased a domain name, built a website and had the registrar take our property back on the name basis that we didnt have the right to buy it even though it was available for them to sell. All this has been done at the worlds biggest registrar.
 
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But you're ignoring the primary issue that I and others have brought up ... being .. Is it really actually an actual problem that is really happening? You've thrown around some numbers like 5 million domains in the last 10 years .. but where do you get this number from? The fact of the matter is that you just guessed-assumed this number based on zero evidence or facts. I'm not saying it doesn't happen .. but the truth of the matter that it's impossible to know without any actual data.

I think every domainer here will agree with you that it's very important for our search data to kept private.

But at the end of the day nobody knows if this is actually a real problem? You didn't even mention the domain in question so we can't even judge if it even really happened to you or not?

Without sharing the domain(s) and exact search time and location I think most people will assume what happened to you is one the the many possibilities @Kate mentioned.

In most cases where this appears to happen it actually is not at all the case. Other times there are legitimate reasons (maybe another domainer saw the same news/article that inspired you to think of the domain). Sometimes it is a technical issue. Again .. without any hard facts or data it's not really appropriate to throw around accusations.

If you really think it's an issue and a problem, then take tangible steps ... post the domains in question and EXACTLY when/where you searched for them .. even with that information you'll have a hard time convincing people that this is 100% definitely happening .. but without such data, any such accusations are effectively meaningless I'm sorry to say.

Please don't take this as me saying you're wrong about being concerned, or that there even is or isn't a problem .. but you're getting all worked up over something extremely intangible .. unless you or someone can get hard data or inside information then there is nothing more to this I'm sorry to say ...

This matter has now gone beyond what I have personally experienced with researching domains to register. We are now talking about an Industry wide problem which has been confirmed earlier in this thread by Rob who operates a Registrar himself.
 
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Unfortunately what the registrars do or don't say "officially" is virtually meaningless if it's a renegade employee or an outside hacker. But yes .. it would be nice to get the "official version" from all registrars.

Like @Ategy.com said: To be able to judge whether there's a real problem we need data.

What I actually meant by "data" is the actual suspected domain(s) AND the exact time AND location of the search. With a long enough list we *MIGHT* be able to see some patterns .. but if nobody ever wants to post their suspect domains in question, then it'll be impossible to ever come to any conclusions.
 
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The practice is called front-running. Registrars should not allow it. I am not sure why some registrars allow their staff to run a tail on customer domain search activity but I am sure that it happens. There are too many anecdotal stories of it happening.

Anyway, at Epik, I am sure this does not happen. You can use the free bulk search tool even if you don't have an account with us:

https://registrar.epik.com/index/bulk-register-domain

Also, at Epik, we do allow a limited amount of domain tasting. If you register a domain and delete within 5 days, we let you have the refund to your account balance minus the ICANN fee. You can also enable your account for Express checkout which is fast enough for use with dropcatching.

Good luck.
Wow and thanks for the info. That is astounding to say the least! Wish we would've have known about Epik long ago as it seems like your customer friendly policies are fantastic!
 
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Lets assume that it's just a suspension and lets forget what has been going on up to this point, but can the Registrars put our suspicions to rest by reassuring us that they are not going to allow the data that they collect from domain searches and whois searches to be used or sold for at least 30 days. (as I said before 60 days is even better).
 
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Unfortunately what the registrars do or don't say "officially" is virtually meaningless is it's a renegade employee or an outside hacker. But yes .. it would be nice to get the "official version" from all registrars.

What I actually meant by "data" is the actual suspected domain(s) AND the exact time AND location of the search. With a long enough list we *MIGHT* be able to see some patterns .. but if nobody ever wants to post their suspect domains in question, then it'll be impossible to ever come to any conclusions.

Thanks for the clarification. That would be interesting to know for sure. At this point I'm much more interested in a registrars official stance as if per their norm it is ok to collect domain searches and pass it on to an associated registrar or third parties we can stop discussing this altogether :).

I don't even mind if that's the case as long as they're open about it.
 
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Thanks for the clarification. That would be interesting to know for sure. At this point I'm much more interested in a registrars official stance as if per their norm it is ok to collect domain searches and pass it on to an associated registrar or third parties we can stop discussing this altogether :).

I don't even mind if that's the case as long as they're open about it.

Or we can demand for those norms to be changed.
 
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This matter has now gone beyond what I have personally experienced with researching domains to register. We are now talking about an Industry wide problem which has been confirmed earlier in this thread by Rob who operates a Registrar himself.

@Rob Monster did NOT confirm this in any way what-so-ever.
What he stated is his personal opinion with ZERO data or proof aside from there being too many stories that he's heard. Again you are getting way too far ahead of yourself and you're going to lose everyone's interest in this topic and discussion by making incorrect insinuations without hard domain data and/or proof.

The practice is called front-running. Registrars should not allow it. I am not sure why some registrars allow their staff to run a tail on customer domain search activity but I am sure that it happens. There are too many anecdotal stories of it happening.

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At this point I'm much more interested in a registrars official stance ...

What they say and what actually happens are potentially two very different realities. Sure it would be great to know .. but *IF* this sort of thing does happen, I'd guess more often than not it's by renegade employees breaking the rules or hackers .. neither "Terms of Service" nor "Employee Policies" will change anything on that front.

Again .. the ONLY potential way to even get a chance of knowing if this is a thing or not, is to actually start sharing suspect domains .. otherwise it's to audit registrar platform software (which is never going to happen .. lol)
 
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@Rob Monster did NOT confirm this in any way what-so-ever.
What he stated is his personal opinion with ZERO data or proof aside from there being too many stories that he's heard. Again you are getting way too far ahead of yourself and you're going to lose everyone's interest in this topic and discussion by making incorrect insinuations without hard domain data and/or proof.



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What they say and what actually happens are potentially two very different realities. Sure it would be great to know .. but *IF* this sort of thing does happen, I'd guess more often than not it's by renegade employees breaking the rules or hackers .. neither "Terms of Service" nor "Employee Policies" will change anything on that front.

Again .. the ONLY potential way to even get a chance of knowing if this is a thing or not, is to actually start sharing suspect domains .. otherwise it's to audit registrar platform software (which is never going to happen .. lol)

Whether it's just coincidence or is being done by renegade employees the Registrars should indicate officially that they are not going to allow the data that they collect from domain searches and whois searches to be used or sold for a certain period of time . (as I said before maybe for 30 days although 60 days is even better).
 
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What they say and what actually happens are potentially two very different realities. Sure it would be great to know .. but *IF* this sort of thing does happen, I'd guess more often than not it's by renegade employees breaking the rules or hackers .. neither "Terms of Service" nor "Employee Policies" will change anything on that front.

Unfortunately you're right. Nothing that can be done about rogue employees. How about hacks though? EU based companies are required by law to report hacks so it'd be good to know if they are known to store this kind of data. I'm not sure about US companies though.

Again .. the ONLY potential way to even get a chance of knowing if this is a thing or not, is to actually start sharing suspect domains .. otherwise it's to audit registrar platform software (which is never going to happen .. lol)

This can be done I guess but it's hard. Who tracks all their whois quiries these days? :) A possibillity would be to write a script that uses a registrars whois to check for availability for a couple of thousand domains on a set frequency and follow what happens to the names over a bigger period of time.
 
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Happened to me with GoDaddy a whole back...
 
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Hi

I know you didn't want to name and shame a specific registrar, but....

if everybody is using GD for instance and only those people are having issues

then either GD is taking the name or the name was already registered.

I never had that issue at enom, fabulous or dynadot, but did years ago at netsol.

when was last time it happened?

imo...
 
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I use a who-is utility from my desktop that connects to the who-is database directly, bypassing the

registrar. Sometimes I get lazy, especially when I have a very large list and I will use a registrar to check.


I have posted on this forum in the past of my experiences losing domains I have searched - within minutes

of searching them at a registrar. I believe front-running still happens and smaller registrars are the worst

when it comes to employees front-running domains.
 
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I used to sell lists of unregistered exact match domains.
My clients would get hit with these random oops it got registered scenarios all the time. It was really common and straight up eye brow raising.

I don't really believe in the rogue employee hand registering as a narrative. The scale of the issue makes them inconsequential. It's also not necessarily the registrars. Its kinda amazing how much data rogue apps, browser addons, and adware vendors package up and resell as automated data services.

Highly automated portfolios being able to access this data, and using it in their models is the foundational problem.




This can be done I guess but it's hard. Who tracks all their whois quiries these days? :) A possibillity would be to write a script that uses a registrars whois to check for availability for a couple of thousand domains on a set frequency and follow what happens to the names over a bigger period of time.

Screw it, I'm going to go do it. Plus post the full dataset with the Names, and the registrars + domain tools used here. I'm kinda curious.

Honestly, this should be done on a regular schedule. Surprised nobodies thought of it before.
It would be great for industry accountability.
 
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Whether it's just coincidence or is being done by renegade employees the Registrars should indicate officially that they are not going to allow the data that they collect from domain searches and whois searches to be used or sold for a certain period of time . (as I said before maybe for 30 days although 60 days is even better).

You mean that they should put a lock on all searches for 30 days? This is hardly going to help. If there is anything interesting worth registering, the miscreants would know this and just go to another registrar. I don't think a registrar is going to turn away that business for 30 days. It's survival of the fastest, when it comes to domain registrations. Besides. They are probably trouncing over all sorts of liberties, of potential customers.

And on the flip side. It means I can do a search for 10k of domains and lock them down for 30 days with no chance of any other person registering them at that particular registrar. This doesn't sound right to me, either.

I think this is containable with the current system we have in place. We just don't use the searches feature of any suspected registrars who allow front-running. Now. Which registrars allow any form of front-running. Well we won't know, unless people are willing to report these abuses. By naming registrars and domains as @Ategy.com points out.. And you can be sure. Most of the cases would turn out to be like @Kate says. A set of unfortunate circumstances.

Without people actually reporting registrars and domains and circumstances, so that some other whiz-kid can launch an investigation, then the easiest solution, is don't use ANY Registrar's whois lookup or searches. It's an easy and quick solution to the problem.
 
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I’m not a tech person, but nobody seems to have mentioned that each registrar must have to check the central database before displaying that your domain is available or not.
So if you search for RegControversy.com at say Godaddy, Godaddy must check Verisign’s database to see if it is available before offering it to you. So a second party already knows about your search - Verisign. Maybe ICANN can see it too?
I’ve always suspected that any of the thousands of registrars might be able to “reverse engineer” the searches to the central database - but this is entirely speculation without any evidence whatever. So be careful who you blame.
Wouldn’t Verisign have to check with all the thousands of registrars to see if RegControversy.com has just been regged by one of them in the last 3 seconds? Then, all registrars might be able to see your search. I may well be wrong here.
I did actually talk about this problem with a master tech guy many years ago, maybe it was in the days of domain tasting. Godaddy used to call it “domain kiting” if I remember correctly.
He said he had had the same experience, so as proof he searched for a bunch of worthless made up names that he quickly invented - and sure enough a day later some of them were mysteriously registered!
Whatever, I comply with the advice of @frank-germany where he says to never…
“let it sit in the shopping card for more then 1 minute”
Really, if you have conviction on a hand reg, buy it immediately. Decide on a piece of paper which names you want to actually buy at your leisure, but once you search, buy instantly. (Don’t hesitate on urgent “news” related names etc.)
Funnily enough, I lost a name years ago that I had checked availability on then waited a few days to buy. Someone had registered it.:wtf:
I don’t know why, but I checked the domain a while later, and the name had been dropped - so I registered it! The name was facuum.com which I regged about 11 years ago, maybe that was in the era of domain tasting.:xf.smile:
I am absolutely certain someone was intercepting and regging "searched for" domains.
I also agree with other commenters that it would be hard for registrars to stop an employee from monitoring searches.
 
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Some people have mentioned Verisign. OK that might take care of .com, .net, .cc, .tv. What happens to the many thousands of other registries? .org, cctlds, ngtlds, or even the other gtlds? Do these get left behind? I don't think so :(
 
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