Anyone knows AcquireThisName.com?

[dreamer2008]

Has anyone ever bought a domain through AcquireThisName.com?

I'm considering buying an already registered domain name for a project of mine. The current owner has a landing page up with the words "Domain For Sale" (same landingpage as cabaretekiteboard2002.com - this is not the actual domain). The domain is sold through AcquireThisName.com (bidding page).

First I submitted a (low) bid, and received the following response:

Hello,
We have received your email regarding the domain *******.com.
The owner of the domain has listed the sales price of $ x,xxx for this domain.
If your next offer is reasonable for this domain, an AcquireThisName.com (ATN) representative will contact the owner on your behalf. Upon hearing from the domain owner, we will notify you.
Please note: Owners of valuable domains will often receive several offers per week. You offer should be great enough to motivate the domain owner to reply.
Best regards,
Trevor
AcquireThisName.com​

I then submitted a new offer, about half the asking price and received the following response about 48 hours later:

I am following up in regards to your offer on the domain *******.com.
The seller of this domain has extended the auction window for this domain till June 1, 2008.
If you would like to participate in bidding for this domain name, the minimum bid is $ xxx
To participate, please reply with your maximium offer and an AcquireThisName.com agent will work with the seller to negotiate the lowest price on your behalf. We will keep you updated on the status of the domain during the auction period.
Please have your offer in before May 31, 2008 midnight PST to participate in the auction.
If you wish to no longer receive notices for this domain, please reply with the subject line "unsubscribe."

Kind Regards,
Elida
AcquireThisName.com​

I thought this was a really strange response.

- If I'm negotiating one-to-one with the owner, why is it suddenly an auction?

- Is there any other participants in the auction?

- "an AcquireThisName.com agent will work with the seller to negotiate the lowest price on your behalf"... Really?? The owner's agent will try to negotiate the lowest price for me? Hard to believe.

I've googled AcquireThisName and there's very few results. Anyone ever heard about this company before? Anyone participated in one of their auctions before? Are they trustworthy?

Wondering if they're a working as a middleman between some bigger domain reseller like SEDO or TDNAM.

Any info would be appreciated.

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Well, has anyone been harmed or damaged in any way by what they're doing?

Anyone who has a TM that ATN is profiting from/squatting on/holding hostage, no?

 

[jackwilliambell]

Yet another new poster here because of AcquireThisName.com

I use my full name for everything on the Internet, because I am the only Jack William Bell out there so far as I can tell. (It makes it much easier to ego-google.)

AcquireThisName.com apparently glommed onto my personal domain of jackwilliambell.com and I have been having the same issues others have related here. I posted about it in detail on my LiveJournal. Readers of this forum might enjoy the post and the lively discussion there... (I refer to a 'whiff of carrion' in it.)

In any case, the stupid thing is that I am just an average guy. Not famous. Not using my personal domain for business. And they actually expect me to fork over significant bucks in ransom for a domain name no one else can use? What kind of business model is that?

 

[Dave_Z]

Anyone who has a TM that ATN is profiting from/squatting on/holding hostage, no?

Definitely TM holders. But if this case's update is anything go on:

http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2008/12/vulcan_golf_v_g.htm

It'll probably be difficult, if not impossible, to file a class-action for them.

 

[WORDSWORTH]

My only experience of AcquirethisName.com is that they secure a large proportion of the good LLLLL.com drops with eNom drop catchers. The names they keep always revert to a private whois but display a parked page with a 'for sale' link.

 

[dosadi]

well, that was an interesting discussion. I understand, after reading the article about Google Adsense and domainers, why a class-action suit would be unlikely.

I just wish we could organize everyone who has been pirated by eNom or other domain companies in this way. I understand that the $300 Verisign recovery period was one way of trying to deal with this issue, but it really isn't a good solution. A good solution would be laws / policies that prevent cybersquatting outright.

What I'm saying is that domain registrar companies are playing both sides, like Caesar having his private militias riot and uprise while using Roman legions to crush the rebellion and institute a martial-law regime. In the end, the laws and regulations related to domain name recovery are designed to extract money from people who carelessly fail to renew our domains. In my case, they screwed someone who couldn't afford to pay the bill for a little over a month, and now my domain's gone maybe for good.

At any rate, I'd like to see how effectively we could institute a boycott of eNom. How many people would that take and how could we attract attention to the issue?

 

[Dave_Z]

A good solution would be laws / policies that prevent cybersquatting outright.

Some countries such as the U.S. has such a law. Look up Anticybersquatting
Consumer Protection Act (ACPA), though it mainly applies to TM holders and
only within the country.

You can probably ask Wikileaks how to go about boycotting eNom. I'd imagine
eNom has enough resellers doing their legwork for them, though.

While I understand analogies can only apply so far, a big difference between
Caesar and this is Caesar enforced his will that caused demonstrable harm
to others. That's why I asked earlier how eNom or AcquireThisName has done
similarly other than trying to sell someone something ATN hadn't solicited for,
outside of trademarks which has been pretty much established.

 

[bbrez1]

... posting in EPIC thread. Probably same guy replying to himself :gl:

 

[gemstar]

Any company that needs privacy protection is not to be taken as honest. This smells like another deception in the domain business.As we seen with Snapnames.

 

[DotUSDomains]

This company is as dishonest as they come,

set up a deal a few months back, for $3000 or there abouts,

ready to sign the contract, payment in escrow, deal confirmed both sides,

then they want more money as they have another "buyer" who has offered more, but they want to sell to me so they ask for lots more money, domains still belong to the same person to this day.


there an enom company, shady practice, dont go anywhere near them.

Someone high up in enom.com owns (his whois details are all over some domains) a few good names listed for sale through them.

 

[gemstar]

Too bad people let them get away with it. This is not right.

 

[etilley]

Here is how ENOM and AcquireThisName.com got my URL...

My wife is a realtor - with a small but enthusiastic clientele and business.

I administered her site for six years with ENOM through DNBUY.com - but this year (January 15th) I fell victim to a scam that I've read about again and again throughout internet forums since. This really needs prompt correction.

Here is how the scam worked for me:

1. The Domain comes up for renewal - I recieved ENOM's 2 notices. I went online and paid the renewal with my credit card through their payment gateway.

2. The Domain expires - the credit card payment didn't register with ENOM nor my credit card company and I recieved no notice or warning it didn't work. Worse I have an internal-DNS server and an internal web server - so I cant see that the site is no longer online. Everything looks fine.

3. Redemption - 15 days later - a state of redemption is enacted where only a $250 charge will recover the URL. A client of my wife tells her that her site is offline at this point. After research I find the problem - but on principal I refuse to pay the ransom - so I am forced to wait twice the normal time for the url to drop. Its now early July.

4. The URL is picked up immediately by a company with a homepage identical to the ENOM suspension homepage - and so I assume ENOM is implicated. A call to ENOM tech support tells me that although ENOM hosts the domain name, another company is responsible for this - perhaps NAMEJET.com or similar.

5. I contact the ENOM domain reseller from their link on heathertilley.com ( http://www.acquirethisname.com/Default.aspxdomain=heathertilley.com ). Although the domain name is completely worthless to anyone else - I am informed that it will cost me $5000 to get the URL back.

Clearly the ICANN and Internic system that was put in place with best intentions is now abused to beyond any grounds worth defending.

This name-company has self-administered redemption and cybersquatting into petty larceny. The situation demands attention - but for my immediate needs I want my wife's Domain name transferred back immediately.

I wondered can the Internic and ICANN assist me - and so I sent this above message as a letter of complaint to ICANN. ICANN is infamously inactive so I think I agree with folks on this thread that a lawyer's letter is all that will work with these pirates.

 

[Spearseven]

eNom being investigated by ICANN. "ICANN asks Demand Media for answers after report"

http://http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/357833/icann_asks_demand_media_answers_after_report/

Spearseven

 

[nipper1924]

eNom being investigated by ICANN. "ICANN asks Demand Media for answers after report"

http://http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/357833/icann_asks_demand_media_answers_after_report/

Spearseven

Just a wee correction for the above link - http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/357833/icann_asks_demand_media_answers_after_report/

 

[Spearseven]

Thanks Nipper! Sorry about that all!

Spearseven