question Altered Whois history??? Is this fraud or something?!?!?

[NameHose]

URGENT! Someone please help.

Here is my problem. Nearly every time I register a really excellent name, a few days later, I get a DomainTools registrant alert that tells me that the whois record has been updated. When I check, sure enough, historical data is added to the whois. It sometimes even makes it appear that I somehow stole domains from people because the alleged prior owner will fraudulently alter the record to make it appear as though the domain should still be owned by them because of the way in which the expiration dates are tampered with.... is someone trying to frame me or something? How can a domain name initially have no whois data and it says its created on the date that I innovate it, and then a week later, it suddenly allegedly belonged or should belong to someone else?

It's really frustrating to invest my time and money into innovating and purchasing domains that are constantly stolen from me.

Any tips or leads in regards to my issue are greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[Xiberia]

Your post doesn't make any sense to me, so I'll just say this:

If you buy a domain then you're having it created or moved to your account at a registrar (Godaddy or Namecheap or whatever). You change the whois info at that registrar.

When you type "whois yourdomain.com" into a terminal, or check your name at a whois website, if it's your info and email address on the whois result then you own it and nobody has changed it.

I don't know what DomainTools has to do with this (maybe you're subscribed to something there and they're just emailing you because the whois changed because you bought it), but historical whois data they may collect about domains is irrelevant.

What matters is who controls the domain now, ie, what info is on the whois result now.

Edit: And BTW, how can a domain have no whois data (ie, be unregged) but then have historical data (presumably you mean at DomainTools)?

If I understand you correctly, easily, if it was regged before, and has whois data archived at DomainTools, then it dropped, so no longer had whois. So you'd check whois, it would have no data (ie, it would be available), but it would still have historical whois data from whatever period.

Again though, what DomainTools says is irrelevant; what matters is what it says when you do a whois lookup (on the web or via terminal).

 

[TRY]

Or maybe you're checking past who is results instead of current.

You said "It's really frustrating to invest my time and money into innovating and purchasing domains that are constantly stolen from me."
Details?

 

[cmdomains]

You're talking about Domaintools.com alert? I had an issue on one of my names using this tool a while back. When I did update on a sedo listing, Domaintools would still show the previous. I haven't checked since, I better.

Also, when I was first starting, I used DomainTools to check my whois but it doesn't update on real-time so I'd have to use other tools to see. It does seem something's wrong with their platform on these instances.

It's odd though that happens to you. Those names you mention that get these alerts, did you get them as backorder or any way else other than hand-reg? Maybe someone here knows if there's any relevance to what I ask.

 

[cdboard]

use godaddy's whois lookup to see what the current information is.

also, lock the domains in your accounts.

 

[DU]

use godaddy's whois lookup to see what the current information is.

also, lock the domains in your accounts.

Check the whois server of your registrar - that should provide the correct values.
Godaddy isn't real time either.

 

[cmdomains]

^What if OP's registrar is GoDaddy?

 

[DU]

^What if OP's registrar is GoDaddy?

Maybe it is real time but it's not a good solution anyway for checking the information.

If your name is .com you want the full data including the name etc. then you need to go to your registrar who are the official record of the "thick" data. .com/.net are thin registries meaning that they don't store the full information and only the basic pointer to the registrar.

Going to GoDaddy when your name is at Dynadot won't show the full information.

The idea of someone updating historical information to do something is bizarre because it's not an official record anywhere. Domaintools is a 3rd Party service and not liked by many at that. Any updates there won't match anywhere else and I can't see any reason why they do this. I think the OP is just confused =).

The best solution is to use Internet.net or verisign.com/en_US/whois/index.xhtml to check the correct registrar is in play.. then the appropriate registrar to get the full whois. An alternative would be to use something like who.is which has a "refresh" button that allows you to force a real time lookup.