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information A warning to all my fellow tadpoles about domain extensions and (no) privacy

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turbo funk

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make sure your domain extension is eligible to be made private before comfortably filling out your info.. holy hell i was not prepared for the amount of spam that comes with leaving a domain public. i guess .us is in that category and i wasnt aware cause i now i have everyone's favorite logo makers and seo experts spamming my phone and email every hour. thankfully i just switched to android a month ago and its given me access to calls blacklist and apps like that.

also why is it not required for services to privatize your information from the public? now that ive experienced that^, it feels like blackmail lol
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
also why is it not required for services to privatize your information from the public?

if so, how could some domainers find emails, to send outbound solicitations?

holy hell i was not prepared for the amount of spam that comes with leaving a domain public

logo makers and seo experts spamming my phone and email every hour.

now just imagine, how the people who receive those out the blue emails and phone calls are feeling.

:)

btw: I still get same emails you are getting

imo...
 
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if so, how could some domainers find emails, to send outbound solicitations?
sorry im not entirely sure i understand what you mean. is a domainer an ind, but i feel like it should be up to the owner of the domain to decide what information is available to the public. which it is... sometimes.... for a price.
like a 'no solicitors' sign on your domain or somethin :spam:

edit: lol wasnt sure if domainer was an individual or the company you buy domains from, but just remembered those are called registrars, right?
 
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SPAM welcome to the world of domaining. Indeed no problem listing your domains for sale or mentioning in a thread, providing your WHOIS information is private.

It can be quite easy to find an email address from name and address details search, though this is usually far easier for a business profile than an individual.

Expect: fake invoices,
Similar domains (to yours registered) being offered
All sorts of web services
And a myriad of other unrelated trash
 
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make sure your domain extension is eligible to be made private before comfortably filling out your info.. holy hell i was not prepared for the amount of spam that comes with leaving a domain public. i guess .us is in that category and i wasnt aware cause i now i have everyone's favorite logo makers and seo experts spamming my phone and email every hour. thankfully i just switched to android a month ago and its given me access to calls blacklist and apps like that.

also why is it not required for services to privatize your information from the public? now that ive experienced that^, it feels like blackmail lol


Tip of the day:

use a spam filter
and keep privacy disabled
 
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holy hell i was not prepared for the amount of spam that comes with leaving a domain public

Welcome to the wonderful world of domaining! ;)
 
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also why is it not required for services to privatize your information from the public

It is a profit center for many registrars (cash cow). That is one of the reasons I use Epik...the privacy is free.
 
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It is a profit center for many registrars (cash cow). That is one of the reasons I use Epik...the privacy is free.

privacy is free at many registrars

dynadot
namesilo
hexonet
cloudflare

and many more

but when you want to sell your domain
you don't want privacy


you want the buyer to be able to contact you
and
you want the buyer to verify your identity as an owner
 
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The SPAM is nothing compared to the hacking attacks that will follow. And they will follow, with scammers calling various banks, online payment sites, crypto-banks, etc. all using your WHOIS data and looking to play the "Me Joe Smith, me lost password, me need to reset" social engineering game and hoping the CSRs play along.

This is why the EU enforced WHOIS privacy, as there is no valid reason for a private citizen's entire address, phone/cell number and email to be available to the world's growing number of scammers, hackers and social engineering factories.
 
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but when you want to sell your domain
you don't want privacy


you want the buyer to be able to contact you
and
you want the buyer to verify your identity as an owner

All this is possible with WHOIS privacy - you can contact through the WHOIS form and confirm ownership using a DNS text code.

What you won't get is Nigerian scammers calling banks and using your WHOIS data to "bad act" their way into your finances or possibly stealing your domains from an offshore CSR with no clue.

Go buy a .US domain (privacy is not allowed), use your real address and email, and then watch what happens. I did it once, and never again. I got a million SPAM emails and later my security measures got flagged with a ton of potential intrusions.
 
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The worst is not spam by email
It's spam by calls
People won't stop calling you to know if you want to hire a graphic designer, a web developer, if you want to rank higher in search results..
This is the worst, because they call you at anytime, even at night. They don't care about you, they just want to take your money.
 
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Does someone ever hire those "SEO experts" and "web design companies" who make those unsolicited calls and emails? It's beyond annoying and it really doesn't look like a good business practice, but they keep on doing it, so it must be effective. I just can't imagine doing business with a "professional" who uses those methods.
 
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Does someone ever hire those "SEO experts" and "web design companies" who make those unsolicited calls and emails?

I think a lot of them are just looking to find a live person on the other end, then you get your email/phone added to about a thousand other lists. I'd be surprised if many of them even offer any services other than detecting live ones.
 
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A solution to this would be to get a phone number just for domaining, same for the email.
 
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you want the buyer to be able to contact you and you want the buyer to verify your identity as an owner

That may be how you choose to operate...I do not.

I don't have time for all the marketing clowns, phishing links and random 'male enhancement' promoters.

If a person owns a domain of any interest or value, a prospective buyer will type it in and unless the domain owner doesn't know how to use parking, he/she (prospective buyer) will find a link to buy or make an offer.
 
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If a person owns a domain of any interest or value, a prospective buyer will type it in and unless the domain owner doesn't know how to use parking, he/she (prospective buyer) will find a link to buy or make an offer.

And if a buyer wants to confirm ownership even further, then ask him/her for a code (any code) and enter if a TEXT into the DNS record, then they can either confirm it themselves or use one of the many online utilities like:

https://mxtoolbox.com/TXTLookup.aspx
 
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And if a buyer wants to confirm ownership even further, then ask him/her for a code (any code) and enter if a TEXT into the DNS record, then they can either confirm it themselves or use one of the many online utilities like:

https://mxtoolbox.com/TXTLookup.aspx

I have not tried this method but I think it is time to give it a shot...it can only help!
 
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My domains' at Epik, privacy always on, and yet I still get all that (email) spam...

EU didn't stop GD from charging exorbitant privacy charges...

In the end, many real (and stupid) scammers benefited from the EU enforcement, and made it much much harder to expose them...

The best are those registrars that allow the option for partial privacy, but those are far and few...

Sig-H?
 
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My domains' at Epik, privacy always on, and yet I still get all that (email) spam...

EU didn't stop GD from charging exorbitant privacy charges...

In the end, many real (and stupid) scammers benefited from the EU enforcement, and made it much much harder to expose them...

The best are those registrars that allow the option for partial privacy, but those are far and few...

Sig-H?
At GD, if you check the whois of my domains, you won't see my email
I didn't pay for privacy (That's because I'm in Europe, for others It's different)
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That may be how you choose to operate...I do not.

I don't have time for all the marketing clowns, phishing links and random 'male enhancement' promoters.

If a person owns a domain of any interest or value, a prospective buyer will type it in and unless the domain owner doesn't know how to use parking, he/she (prospective buyer) will find a link to buy or make an offer.

I own about 6K domains w/o whois
few of them are .us

I can handle the 3 calls / week

no idea what kind of domains you buy ...
 
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At GD, if you check the whois of my domains, you won't see my email
I didn't pay for privacy (That's because I'm in Europe, for others It's different)
Show attachment 127015
Don't check on whois.com, check at GD itself. You might be surprised...
 
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Show attachment 127016
Nothing wrong from my side, You don't get the same result ?
D@mn, lucky you in the EU then. Domains from the rest of the world will show the same thing in whois.com but in GD everything's revealed. Maybe I should get an EU GD account? :-D

Never knew the unequal treatment, but are reg prices the same?
 
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Well, I'm moving to epik; But if you have an address in the EU, then use it as your domain contacts and GD won't be allowed to publish them because of RGPD rules.
Not sure if it's allowed, but why not renting an address on a service like sedomicilier.fr (Domiciliation in Europe)
 
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