advice Domain possibly owned by scammer/shady actor - thoughts?

[itdirector]

Hello,

My company wants to purchase the best domain that matches our name which we don't have. The domain is a .com with two simple words that could be related to the gaming/gambling industry (we are not in that industry.) Domain has been registered for almost 30 years. Registration is currently private and looks to have been sold in the last year or two, currently with godaddy/domains by proxy. Here's where it gets interesting (to me anyway). Bear with me and sorry in advance if this is long.

The website is blank and there are no MX records, no records other than apex and NS. We have not yet tried contacting them through godaddy. The apex IP address points to a large a cloud provider in the US and hosts a few other websites that all appear to be run by a very small/not well known ecommerce platform, not sure if any of the other websites are real/active. When you look at the certificate listening on the blank site (expired), it was issued to another domain that is also private listed and registered in asia. It is not the default certificate for the IP address (the ecommerce platform is) so I do believe the sites are or were related.

If you go to the domain listed in the certificate on http it claims to be run by a government agency and there are some links for shady/probably scam gambling sites. No contact info. If you go to the domain on https it automatically redirects you to one of the gambling links (different domain) that is blocked from the US. I had a colleague in that region look at both http and https and he said absolutely the site(s) are a scam and not affiliated with the government at all. The gambling site has the name of a real TV network in it but not their actual website and on a lesser used TLD. At the bottom of the gambling site there is a contact email at yet another domain (we have not emailed it). All of these domains are registered privately.

Here are my basic questions and I know they may be hypothetical or subjective:

1. Do you think there's a decent chance that since they aren't actively using the site, for whatever reason, the shady/scam people might sell it for a decent chunk of change? Like 10 grand. Any personal experience with this?
2. My company is a small enterprise, not a common name by any means but well-established for over 50 years. I was told that we do not have a trademark on the company name. Would there be any sort of mechanism where we could take over the domain by proving that it is or was being used for deceptive or illegal purposes? I understand it might be a stretch and I don't have any proof that there was ever a redirect in effect, in fact the only thing in years on the website in wayback was "coming soon" written in english and chinese.

So yeah those are my questions in a nutshell, do shady people/scammers legitimately sell websites they've managed to acquire, and/or could we get the domain based on it being our company name and them being shady or shady-adjascent?

Thank you!

 

[biggie]

Domain has been registered for almost 30 years

Hi

and you are calling them, "shady"?

if your company was in business for 50 years, then why didn't you register it before they did?

maybe use domainagents.com and see if they can reach them to negotiate.


imo...

 

[itdirector]

Hi

and you are calling them, "shady"?

if your company was in business for 50 years, then why didn't you register it before they did?

maybe use domainagents.com and see if they can reach them to negotiate.


imo...

i can’t speak about 30 years ago. we are a successful B2B with a small web presence. At the time they must not have known or cared. Then someone else legitimate in another industry had it for about 20 years it looks like.

I was mostly asking about whether anyone had experience dealing with bad actors and buying a domain from them. And also if we had any claim to take it.

 

[biggie]

dealing with bad actors

Hi

i know what you are asking, but have a problem with you labeling them as such, as a pretext to filing some kind of claim against their usage of the name.

also, you mention that the "website" is blank, but "domain" redirects to an affiliate site.

they aren't actively using the site,

if the domain redirects to an affiliate site, then they are, actively using the domain.

imo...

 

[winst]

Don't over think it.

You can use a third party to initiate contact and negotiate if you have the budget. It can be your marketing agency, attorney, or a domain name broker.

Have a hard number in mind and just walk away if you can't reach a deal.

p.s. As I mentioned in other threads, I was with a startup and tried to negotiate an exact match of a made-up word. The price went up and down, and the domain changed owners. Then someone contacted us via email directly for $20k. We walked away.

On the flipside, an international sports equipment company wanted one of my domain names and tried to get it for close to 3 years. I know because I have analytics on the landing page. I eventually sold it via a domain broker to the company.

Good luck.

 

[itdirector]

Hi

i know what you are asking, but have a problem with you labeling them as such, as a pretext to filing some kind of claim against their usage of the name.

also, you mention that the "website" is blank, but "domain" redirects to an affiliate site.


if the domain redirects to an affiliate site, then they are, actively using the domain.

imo...

sorry to clarify the domain i want isn’t redirecting its black. however the expired certificate was issued to another domain which I suspect is related to them. Could be wrong, they could have been hacked.

 

[OnlineProxy]

Yeah, sometimes folks sitting on shady or scammy domains are willing to sell, especially if they’re not making any cash off them.Throwing out an offer around $10K through a trusted broker with escrow its a way get their attention,since your company doesnt have a trademark,the usual legal stuff probably won’t work, but if the domain was clearly used for sketchy stuff,you might be able to take it to court or file a complaint with the registrar.Just know that routes slow and kinda hit or miss,If you do end up buying it,be ready to do some cleanup work on the yours domain rep

 

[william]

You're not going to get the domain just because you don’t like how it's being used or because the current owner seems shady. Unless you have a registered trademark and can prove clear bad-faith use that specifically targets your brand, there's no real legal path to claim the name. For a generic two-word .com, that bar is very high.

It's also worth reconsidering how you're framing the situation. Assuming the owner is shady doesn't help your case and might lead you to approach this in a counterproductive way. A more useful mindset is to see this as a potential opportunity. If you treat the domain as a valuable asset and the owner as a potential seller rather than a villain, you're more likely to approach with respect—and get a response.

As for price, $10,000 might be a fair offer in some cases, but for a well-aged two-word .com, it could easily be seen as low. Without knowing the exact name, it's hard to say, but if you come in with an arrogant tone or assume the seller is doing something wrong, you risk burning the bridge before the conversation even starts.

Be professional, be realistic, and treat this as a negotiation. That approach gives you your best shot.