information Brent Oxley Loses Access to Create.com, Plus Millions of Dollars Worth of His Domains

alcy said:

someone must be insane to think they care..caring is what out friends or mothers do..this here is just business.

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DomainNameBroker.com said:

Also, I want to advice Brent - if you want to feed a lawyer - there are a countless hungry lawyers on upwork.com and feverr.com ready to be fed at $50 an hour.

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CatchDeleted said:

I dont have such an impressive portfolio like Brent but I can feel the pain and agony. Over the period of time I have acquired some great domains and kept them in Godaddy thinking they will be the protector of my assets (I paid them money for the names and paid a lot of it- Sometime all my savings for a great name)

I look into this issue from 3 angles..

1. As a Domain investor: As a domain investor this is clear sign that Godaddy is not the right registrar for your premium domains. Some crook from far country will get any document in their court and GoDaddy will just lock domains. Over period of time I have put all my savings and investments in digital real estate, and this case seems something similar to having money in American bank but my bank saying your money is frozen because someone in Nigeria says its their money because they sent me those ponzy emails that ‘I won a million dollar in inheritance’. and because they sent those email they have the rights on my bank account. Godaddy should realize that how much credibility they are losing and what value they will provide to their stakeholders by doing this. THEY NEED TO TAKE STAND. I have lost my trust and would be moving my portfolio from Godaddy to a trusted registrar.

2. As a NamePros community member: I have seen his past posts and he is no broker or a domainer.I have never seen him putting anything constructive for community and always ruffling feathers with others. We don’t need such toxic people in our community. They don’t do any good for anyone.

3. As an Indian: I am ashamed that my country has people like Puneet AKA Badri and I am not sure how many such names he has. We are good hard-working people who invest wisely and don’t cheat others. It’s not in our culture and values to swindle and extort money from others .When I see someone doing it I feel ashamed and I apologies to Brent and everyone that some scrupulous guy from India is doing it. Hope this gets resolved and I fully support you and request Godaddy to take consent on the matter.

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Prince. JOSEPH OWOR said:

@CatchDeleted - I believe you can state your points and provide your own meaningful input to this post without subjecting "Nigeria" to such ridicule. Words of advice, choose your words carefully and please, keep
"Nigeria" out of this...

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create.com said:

Hello,

Brent Here. I had to create a new account as the old one had my old company Hostgator in the name. =)

I don't think a lot of you realize how serious this is. A scammer spent a little over $12 in India, and without proof, a contract, or even a court order, was able to abuse Godaddy's policy and lock over $10mm worth of my domains!

These names have been locked for over a year now, and I've spent $10,000's in legal bills trying to get a court order to get them unlocked as Godaddy requires. (covid hasn't made it easy with the courts) The legal fees pale in comparison to the millions in deals I've had to turn down. The lock prevents you from changing a domain's DNS or transferring it, which means you can't sell it.

This scam is pretty genius if you think about it. Just about any scammer in the world can file in their country courts for a small fee; email GoDaddy that the domains are under "dispute," and bam Godaddy will lock whatever domains the scammer asks them to in their email to [email protected]. (at least that's what happened to me)

The scammer doesn't even have to show up for court to keep your names locked and most likely won't. Godaddy will lock the domains without a court order and then require you to get a court order to unlock them all.

Getting a court order to get your domains unlocked is very costly, time-consuming, and can take several years with how backed up most of the courts are from Covid.

If you're with Godaddy and you think your account is safe from this scam, I'd recommend you email them and find out for yourself that your names can be locked from a "dispute." and their UTOS says such.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I had a few moments of weakness and offered the scammer Puneet over $10,000 to drop the "dispute" with Godaddy. I even had some of the potential buyers wanting to pay Puneet $10,000's in extortion money in order to close on the names locked. He was too greedy, demanding millions, and as a result, I'm not going to pay him a dime in extortion money. Instead, I'm paying lawyers in India to make sure he serves prison time for both extortion and fraud.

At one point, I even offered Godaddy full indemnification from the "dispute" if they unlocked my names. This is off the table now, but I can't for the life of me figure out why'd they turn this down and continue to keep my names locked without any proof or court order.

Below is the email in which I found out why my names were locked. In this email Godaddy lied about there being a court order to lock my names. I don't know why they lied about this but I'm guessing it's because the file Puneet attached was in Hindu and they took his word for it.

"Dear Brent,



We have been notified that per documents filed in the District Court in Alwar, Rajasthan, the domain names below are the subject of a legal dispute:

HYBRID.COM, DISTRIBUTE.COM, ADMIRER.COM, DRONE.COM, CIA.COM, DEMOLISH.COM, EMIR.COM, DARM.COM, BRIDE.COM, ADVISE.COM, FLUTE.COM, LOANTAP.COM, JEWEL.COM,

ITEM.COM, PIANO.COM, DEVOTE.COM, VTOK.COM, ATHLETE.COM, BONJOUR.COM, VALENTINE.COM, DUST.COM, DETECT.COM, VIAJE.COM, MESSAGE.COM



The court ordered that the domain names are to be locked pending further order of the court. Accordingly, we have locked the domain names.



If you have any questions regarding these actions or this court case, please contact the Court or Plaintiff’s Counsel directly. Contact information for Plaintiff’s Counsel can be found below:



Puneet Agarwal

** email removed **



Kind regards,



Lisa

Disputes Administrator

GoDaddy"



When I pressed them on there being no such legal ruling or court order, they quoted their UTOS:

"Per Section 14 of GoDaddy’s Universal Terms of Service (“UTOS”), we reserve the right to lock domain names to defend any legal action or threatened legal action without consideration for whether such legal action or threatened legal action is eventually determined to be with or without merit.

"

I had a registrar back in the day named launchpad.com and sold it with the sale of hostgator.com. I don't think anyone could ever picture something like this happening and it really doesn't make sense to have a registrar for less than 150 domains.

Had the domains that I bought before I launched Create been with Namecheap or Epik, this would never have happened!

I'm positive Puneet is insane. He has sent me thousands upon thousands of emails, messages, calls, etc, etc. Many of these messages involve death threats, talking about praying to the devil, drugs, pictures of mutilated naked bodies, and all kinds of craziness. In a few of the messages, he told me he got in trouble for waiting outside Prime Minister Modi's private house and office for trying to talk to him. I'm not sure I would have even believed this if it wasn't for him sending over a document that was an official complaint against the officer that questioned him for harassment!

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alcy said:

well nobody has to assume anything...there are stats and facts... the poorer the area the more crime..scams etc.. it's sad..but true...but we should prolly be back on topic...

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Paul Nicks said:

After reading everything here and in the article, I wanted to address some of the questions swirling around about this.

There were many factors in deciding if we locked domains or kept domains locked in the India case between Mr. Oxley and Mr. Agarwal.

For instance, a U.S. federal court denied Mr. Oxley’s request for an order requiring GoDaddy to unlock the domains. If Mr. Oxley had been able to obtain a court order requiring us to unlock the domains, we would have gladly done it. The fact he was unable to do so suggests how much more complicated this issue is than is mentioned in the article. It’s not just monetary issues, but demands for the cancellation of the domain registrations at issue.

We understand how important your domain names are to you. We don’t make the decision to lock or unlock any domain name lightly. GoDaddy, along with other registrars, like NameCheap, Web.com, MarkMonitor and even VeriSign, reserve the right to lock domains in response to notification of a legal dispute.

In fact, it is the industry standard to ensure that registration rights for domain names are protected and maintained during the pendency of a legal dispute. Locking domains protects all parties until the legal dispute is resolved.

We also want to assure everyone that when a domain is locked, the goal is to keep the registration information at status quo. If the registrant would like to make changes to their DNS, they can contact our team to make them. They are able to renew the domain names. The domain and any associated web/mail services continue to function normally.

We understand Mr. Oxley’s frustration. No one wants to be in this situation, but the systems that we and the industry have in place are there for your protection.

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TheConqueror said:

Not a good response. Brent asks simple yes or no questions which you have to answer simply. for instance is there a court order in india or somewhere else? You have to be on your customers side. It should not be this easy to lock any domain!!

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alcy said:

well nobody has to assume anything...there are stats and facts... the poorer the area the more crime..scams etc.. it's sad..but true...but we should prolly be back on topic...

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DomainBarracksRob said:

This is the same guy is it not!

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DomainBarracksRob said:

This is is from a comment thread on my LinkedIn Account! @create.com headsup! (Also sent you a connect!
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Paul Nicks said:

In the last 36 hours, we've been having some serious discussions about our policies, processes, and ultimately, how we can better serve our customers while protecting everyone's legal rights. We have already engaged the ICA and other industry experts to determine if there are any changes we should and could make.

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"Per Section 14 of GoDaddy’s Universal Terms of Service (“UTOS”), we reserve the right to lock domain names to defend any legal action or threatened legal action without consideration for whether such legal action or threatened legal action is eventually determined to be with or without merit.

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Paul Nicks said:

Thanks for all the feedback on this so far. I've been reading every reply and can understand your concerns.

In the last 36 hours, we've been having some serious discussions about our policies, processes, and ultimately, how we can better serve our customers while protecting everyone's legal rights. We have already engaged the ICA and other industry experts to determine if there are any changes we should and could make. As we make progress, we will keep the community posted.

For Brent, I want you know that no domain name will be deleted. Consistent with our policy, we have paid for renewals and will continue to pay for renewals as necessary. We're keeping them safe, and leaving them up and running.

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Paul Nicks said:

Thanks for all the feedback on this so far. I've been reading every reply and can understand your concerns.

In the last 36 hours, we've been having some serious discussions about our policies, processes, and ultimately, how we can better serve our customers while protecting everyone's legal rights. We have already engaged the ICA and other industry experts to determine if there are any changes we should and could make. As we make progress, we will keep the community posted.

For Brent, I want you know that no domain name will be deleted. Consistent with our policy, we have paid for renewals and will continue to pay for renewals as necessary. We're keeping them safe, and leaving them up and running.

Click to expand...

Paul Nicks said:

Thanks for all the feedback on this so far. I've been reading every reply and can understand your concerns.

In the last 36 hours, we've been having some serious discussions about our policies, processes, and ultimately, how we can better serve our customers while protecting everyone's legal rights. We have already engaged the ICA and other industry experts to determine if there are any changes we should and could make. As we make progress, we will keep the community posted.

For Brent, I want you know that no domain name will be deleted. Consistent with our policy, we have paid for renewals and will continue to pay for renewals as necessary. We're keeping them safe, and leaving them up and running.

Click to expand...

Paul Nicks said:

Thanks for all the feedback on this so far. I've been reading every reply and can understand your concerns.

In the last 36 hours, we've been having some serious discussions about our policies, processes, and ultimately, how we can better serve our customers while protecting everyone's legal rights. We have already engaged the ICA and other industry experts to determine if there are any changes we should and could make. As we make progress, we will keep the community posted.

For Brent, I want you know that no domain name will be deleted. Consistent with our policy, we have paid for renewals and will continue to pay for renewals as necessary. We're keeping them safe, and leaving them up and running.

Click to expand...