advice Do You Leave Your WHOIS Info Public?

[gericsb]

I just recently regged about 8 new domains using promos and coupons between Thanksgiving and today.

I left my WHOIS info set to Public, assuming this would make it easier for potential buyers to find me.

Today I am getting unsolicited marketing calls, texts and some outright spammers and scammers.

What do you all do with your WHOIS settings on your domains?

Thanks!

 

[gericsb]

Thanks, Bob!

I will need to think things through before I register any more names!

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

NetSol omg. I must have gotten 5 million spams due to their $1 deals
Still spammed silly with 20 last night when i slept. i have no names there anymore
You will get spammed indefinitely now. Always create a dummy, active email if u get desperate enough to use them for only them


they will be phoning. I often would search random made up shit to see about discounts codes. I bet they phoned 10 times asking me about the domain i had been searching
Sad people think their saving few $ with these shit registrars. Amount of time manoeuvring around their clunky cp, deleting spam due to NS, couple $ more, save you 100’s in time.
Always privacy, places like epik have great whois privacy and anyone who views it have no problem getting a message to you

 

[pb]

Both ways have their pros and cons but even if you want to keep whois data public, never do that from day one. Turn the privacy on when registering and turn it off after two weeks or so, you will avoid the initial stampede of spammers and scammers who harvest the data from new registrations.

 

[gericsb]

Yes, I am starting to see that. We have similar experiences with NetSol.

I was happy to Reg a few names there from between 2.95 to 4.95 over the holiday weekend, but my goodness!!

I Reg a name. 5 mins later call, call, call, spam...lol

 

[Gube]

Thanks, All.

I would set to Private, but the Network Solutions wants to charge me $9.99 per domain to set Private to On.

I'll just deal with it and transfer the names I want to keep elsewhere when I can.

Oh, I'll mention it then
Here is one that can get the job done and for free, anonymize.com (Linked to your epik account)
They offer it for free to inviduals, all you need to do is login there, create your anonymize whois profile and then use these contacts information at the registrars that don't offer privacy for free.

There are other services doing it too, but not sure it's free at all of these, definitely worth checking out though

 

[poweredbyme]

Mine is private always. But I still receive emails. Some registrars (namesilo, gd, name.com) redirect emails to the protected email address on private whois. Some (sav) just point to a static email address for all domains that doesn't redirect emails.

 

[RGP]

If someone contacted you through your whois info and want to buy domain from your lander page, how does the transaction take place? Is it just a trust or they have to use some third party services like Escrow and Paypal, because they are not using any marketplace, so how it works?

 

[cornell]

To public if you are a domainer, not bad
Not to public if you are in a project,

 

[DuDD]

The whoIS information for great domain names can be properly hidden, the general domain name depends on personal preference.However, be careful to protect your privacy.
I hope you can get a good price

 

[lock]

I do i just don't answer the phone. I am not going to make it difficult to find me you just won't talk to me without an appointment. whoisdatatool.com

 

[WatchDogue]

I

Today I am getting unsolicited marketing calls, texts and some outright spammers and scammers.

What do you all do with your WHOIS settings on your domains?

Thanks!

Here it is privacy settings only for the past decade or so with any newly acquired domain names.

Why do we use " privacy only " ?

Same reasons you cited - seems nothing has changed re spammers, cons et al over the years.

 

[jiy k]

If there are serious buyer, they will contact you through your registrar even when your privacy is on. But with Pri off you have to deal with spammers, opening each mail and reading them. Some carry links too which could be risky.
But yes spammers also contact you thro your registrar but the no of such emails are very less.

 

[kite26]

The only concern about spam is you may lose a lead, just ignoring your spam folder. Ok, go to the rule: always check carefully your spam folder. You never know. It has happened to me at past and I am sure it will happen again.
Otherwise, spam just has to be ignored and periodically be deleted.

 

[Bertrell]

If someone contacted you through your whois info and want to buy domain from your lander page, how does the transaction take place? Is it just a trust or they have to use some third party services like Escrow and Paypal, because they are not using any marketplace, so how it works?

If you have a secure ecommerce site or means to accept payment (with some kind of escrow component), then that would be the way to go. Otherwise, you should direct them to a marketplace where your domain is listed (Afternic, DAN, Epik, ToughDomains, Namesilo, Sedo, BrandBucket, Squadhelp, etc). You might end up with slightly less than the full amount (as you have to factor in whatever commission you'll be giving up to the marketplace) but that's usually the safest bet.

As much as we'd like to make it as easy as possible for serious buyers to purchase/rent our domains, care has to be taken if there's resistance to the recommended/preferred sales venue/method. Serious buyers will generally make an effort to utilize the existing payment methods, while most scammers will not.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I always keep public. No sense of keeping private if the sole purpose is to sell the domain(s).