Domain Stolen from GoDaddy Account? (Update: Sold through my GoDaddy Premium Listing)

[Josh R]

Fellow members,

Today I woke up to an email from GoDaddy saying that one of my domains had been canceled. I thought this was very strange because I just renewed it on January 12th.

I immediately checked my account and it was completely gone.

I proceeded to call GoDaddy, who essentially didn't have a clue what was going on and said there were ZERO notes in the system that would suggest it had changed accounts. They asked me to forward them the cancellation notice, which I did.
I checked the whois, and it's at GoDaddy still, but now under privacy.

I told them it seems clear to me that the domain has been stolen despite having two-factor authentication.

I was told that all communication needed to be conducted via email in order to create a paper trace. So we proceeded through email.

An hour or so later, I received a call from one of the GoDaddy reps telling me that my domain had been sold through Afternic but there were no further details available. This was interesting, because the domain had no Buy It Now price on my Afternic account AND I hadn't received any emails from Afternic about an offer. The domain is actually still listed on afternic with no price, but the ability to make an offer. (I just checked my afternic account).

Anyway, the rep tells me to call afternic, so that's exactly what I do. I get on a long hold for 35 minutes, only to get a rep on the phone that tells me afternic is not open on the weekends and nobody can help me until Monday. He can't even confirm if they have sold it.

Now, what I don't understand is how Afternic have managed to remove my domain from my GoDaddy account without my consent and How GoDaddy are not able to put it back?

Essentially my domain has been stolen, but from GoDaddy/Afternic...
I'm extremely frustrated at this point, and really have no clue what's going on. How can afternic first of all sell a domain that wasn't for sale? and secondly, how can they then remove it from my GoDaddy account overnight without any kind of warning or consent?

This is worrying and I think that I'll have to move all of my domains out of GoDaddy after this experience.


Update: At this GoDaddy can't do anything and I need to wait until someone is available during business hours at Afternic... (despite the fact that GoDaddy owns afternic)

 

[wwwweb]

Email the privacy email, and let them know the domain is considered stolen, and if they have proof of purchase to forward it you immediately, as you will be taking further action.

This might provoke a response.

 

[carob]

Unless you have gone into settings and unchecked what shows on your profile. Which i did many years ago.

The only setting I can alter for my profile is whether or not it displays a photo - by default it does not.
These settings options may have changed - for example Sedo used to have an option to make all sales private, seems to have disappeared from the interface.

I am sure if they want to Godaddy can just take a domain out of an account and put it back where it came from, they just have to get their facts right first. 'And their ToS let them remove privacy any time without warning.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

Its there if you look

 

[Josh R]

Update.
Got a call back from GoDaddy auctions.
The rep was very nice, but it took way too long to actually get someone on the phone that had answers.
Fyi - @Keith , I agree that GoDaddy are normally great with customer support, but in this instance it was not up to Par.

The conclusion is that the name was sold through my GoDaddy Premium Listing, but I was never notified or paid. You'll be shocked to know that they actually paid the previous owner that I purchased the name from at the beginning of 2016...

They are working on getting me paid for the sale.

 

[rockefeller]

Update.
Got a call back from GoDaddy auctions.
The rep was very nice, but it took way too long to actually get someone on the phone that had answers.
Fyi - @Keith , I agree that GoDaddy are normally great with customer support, but in this instance it was not up to Par.

The conclusion is that the name was sold through my GoDaddy Premium Listing, but I was never notified or paid. You'll be shocked to know that they actually paid the previous owner that I purchased the name from at the beginning of 2016...

They are working on getting me paid for the sale.

I've had a few slip ups from Godaddy before as well but I've also sold probably 100 premium listings through them too. A few times a payout would be hung up for a few weeks for no apparent reason, another time the auctions dept and even my rep said they have no idea when I'd be paid and no idea what was delaying the payment (it paid out after 21 days), once I received an extra payment but other than that my rep typically expedites the payouts for me so I don't have to wait a week, which is nice of him. Just curious, how much was the sale? Are we talking xxx, xxxx, or what?

 

[Josh R]

I've had a few slip ups from Godaddy before as well but I've also sold probably 100 premium listings through them too. A few times a payout would be hung up for a few weeks for no apparent reason, another time the auctions dept and even my rep said they have no idea when I'd be paid and no idea what was delaying the payment (it paid out after 21 days), once I received an extra payment but other than that my rep typically expedites the payouts for me so I don't have to wait a week, which is nice of him. Just curious, how much was the sale? Are we talking xxx, xxxx, or what?

$2,000 ...so nothing crazy.

How can I find out who my rep is?

 

[Keith]

$2,000 ...so nothing crazy.

How can I find out who my rep is?

If you have one it'll show when you click the account tab. Not everyone has one though.

 

[pchip]

Unless you have gone into settings and unchecked what shows on your profile. Which i did many years ago.

Thanks for the tip! Strange that Afternic chose to default those settings to public.

 

[Josh R]

If you have one it'll show when you click the account tab. Not everyone has one though.

Don't have one.

Sounds useful though and I would certainly like one.

 

[Keith]

Don't have one.

Sounds useful though and I would certainly like one.

Yea I've had an account exec for as long as I can remember. Not sure if it's how much you spend, number of domains...?

Anyhow, did you list it as a premium? I did that once and will never do it again. The fees are outrageous.

 

[forge]

The $2000 Question: The previous owner accepted the payment and decided not to question or report it?

 

[campout]

the name was sold through my GoDaddy Premium Listing, but I was never notified or paid. You'll be shocked to know that they actually paid the previous owner that I purchased the name from at the beginning of 2016...

They are working on getting me paid for the sale.

@Axorees did you who created the GD Premium listing or had it carried over from the previous owner?

 

[rockefeller]

@Axorees did you who created the GD Premium listing or had it carried over from the previous owner?

Premium listings automatically cancel once the domain is pushed to a new account or transferred out

 

[Josh R]

@Axorees did you who created the GD Premium listing or had it carried over from the previous owner?

Yes, I created it.
Fee is now 20% rather than 30%

 

[rockefeller]

Yea I've had an account exec for as long as I can remember. Not sure if it's how much you spend, number of domains...?

Anyhow, did you list it as a premium? I did that once and will never do it again. The fees are outrageous.

Not really, you just add their commission on top of your price. Paying 20% to have the domain displayed to potentially millions of people isn't outrageous.

 

[Joe Styler]

Sorry for the delay I've been away at namescon and am trying to catch up on over 50 account alerts here. I am glad that it was resolved sorry for the delay again.

 

[forge]

Was it resolved?

 

[Josh R]

Sorry for the delay I've been away at namescon and am trying to catch up on over 50 account alerts here. I am glad that it was resolved sorry for the delay again.

No problem @Joe Styler .. Hope you enjoyed Namescon.

This was quite concerning though Joe, so if you could look into making sure these kind of things are prevented moving forward, it would certainly make me and many of the other members feel a lot more comfortable.

 

[bobbarato]

they actually paid the previous owner that I purchased the name from at the beginning of 2016...

That person is all like "I LOVE GODADDY!"

And that Afternic public page display is nuts and so 90s. I recollect once in the late 90s a fella posted PG-rated pics of his girlfriend - sadly, trimming the URL lead to some X-rated stuff.
I'm going to go visit some Afternic pages just for fun.

Ultimately, one thing that is nice about domains is that the ultimate authority can return them to you, unlike diamonds, art works, etc that can be hidden.

Glad to see that Axorees gets a happy ending.

 

[carob]

Unless you have gone into settings and unchecked what shows on your profile. Which i did many years ago.

Hi very useful info about Afternic, thanks. The setting is hard to find there because under the Profile tab you can only edit your picture... but scroll down the page to the Privacy section, open that and there is a button to hide the whole profile. But if they really want to offer a public profile, it should be private by default and not contain the username in the url.

They really need to fix the weak passwords and offer 2FA.

 

[Joe Styler]

No problem @Joe Styler .. Hope you enjoyed Namescon.

This was quite concerning though Joe, so if you could look into making sure these kind of things are prevented moving forward, it would certainly make me and many of the other members feel a lot more comfortable.

We have a new process coming out this year which will prevent anything like this as a side effect of a bigger release which will make the buying and selling process easier for everyone.

 

[TopRankedDomains.com]

Wow....sorry to hear about this, i'm having the same issues. Two days ago a domain name was stolen from my account either by Afternic or Godaddy and is currently under whois protection at Godaddy. The domain name is iCloseLoans.com. I actually received an email from my registrar name.com stating that it was being transferred out without my authorization. Upon further investigation i found that the domain name was actually sold through he Afternic/Aftermarket program at a price of $999.00 ...a price I would have never agreed to. In any case I explained to Afternic that as of 2 months ago, i had removed all my domain names from their system and placed them on the Undeveloped.com platform so they have no authority to sell this domain regardless if I ever opted in any type of aftermarket program. In addition, i stated that I never priced this domain name at a paultry price of $999.00 as it is worth much more....I proceeded to tell him that this 20% commission on this sale will end up costing his company quite a bit more if that domain is not returned immediately. This is a serious flaw in their system and serious issue for all domainers if businesses such as Afternic/Godaddy can arbitrarily remove your domains from your account and sell them off at a price they feel is sufficient to whatever "buyer" they put in place.. I will give them a few days to correct the issue otherwise I intend to escalate matters....

Fellow members,

Today I woke up to an email from GoDaddy saying that one of my domains had been canceled. I thought this was very strange because I just renewed it on January 12th.

I immediately checked my account and it was completely gone.

I proceeded to call GoDaddy, who essentially didn't have a clue what was going on and said there were ZERO notes in the system that would suggest it had changed accounts. They asked me to forward them the cancellation notice, which I did.
I checked the whois, and it's at GoDaddy still, but now under privacy.

I told them it seems clear to me that the domain has been stolen despite having two-factor authentication.

I was told that all communication needed to be conducted via email in order to create a paper trace. So we proceeded through email.

An hour or so later, I received a call from one of the GoDaddy reps telling me that my domain had been sold through Afternic but there were no further details available. This was interesting, because the domain had no Buy It Now price on my Afternic account AND I hadn't received any emails from Afternic about an offer. The domain is actually still listed on afternic with no price, but the ability to make an offer. (I just checked my afternic account).

Anyway, the rep tells me to call afternic, so that's exactly what I do. I get on a long hold for 35 minutes, only to get a rep on the phone that tells me afternic is not open on the weekends and nobody can help me until Monday. He can't even confirm if they have sold it.

Now, what I don't understand is how Afternic have managed to remove my domain from my GoDaddy account without my consent and How GoDaddy are not able to put it back?

Essentially my domain has been stolen, but from GoDaddy/Afternic...
I'm extremely frustrated at this point, and really have no clue what's going on. How can afternic first of all sell a domain that wasn't for sale? and secondly, how can they then remove it from my GoDaddy account overnight without any kind of warning or consent?

This is worrying and I think that I'll have to move all of my domains out of GoDaddy after this experience.


Update: At this GoDaddy can't do anything and I need to wait until someone is available during business hours at Afternic... (despite the fact that GoDaddy owns afternic)

 

[BrandChimp]

wow,

Another reason to protect your domains with a safer registrar..

Sadly, a lot of people continue to renew their names at Godaddy for whatever reason.. Price? Definitely not! There are cheaper alternatives that doesn't require you to PAY to get better pricing..

 

[ben pedri]

Wow....sorry to hear about this, i'm having the same issues. Two days ago a domain name was stolen from my account either by Afternic or Godaddy and is currently under whois protection at Godaddy. The domain name is iCloseLoans.com. I actually received an email from my registrar name.com stating that it was being transferred out without my authorization. Upon further investigation i found that the domain name was actually sold through he Afternic/Aftermarket program at a price of $999.00 ...a price I would have never agreed to. In any case I explained to Afternic that as of 2 months ago, i had removed all my domain names from their system and placed them on the Undeveloped.com platform so they have no authority to sell this domain regardless if I ever opted in any type of aftermarket program. In addition, i stated that I never priced this domain name at a paultry price of $999.00 as it is worth much more....I proceeded to tell him that this 20% commission on this sale will end up costing his company quite a bit more if that domain is not returned immediately. This is a serious flaw in their system and serious issue for all domainers if businesses such as Afternic/Godaddy can arbitrarily remove your domains from your account and sell them off at a price they feel is sufficient to whatever "buyer" they put in place.. I will give them a few days to correct the issue otherwise I intend to escalate matters....

Don't doubt this happened ,but that's a good sale. take that grand and buy 20-30 just as good,in 2 hours

 

[TopRankedDomains.com]

Don't doubt this happened ,but that's a good sale. take that grand and buy 20-30 just as good,in 2 hours

Sorry Ben..that's a crappy price and I've never sold a financial domain name less than $4,500 especially one that is as extremely marketable as iCloseLoans.com...I'm actually in the financial business and understand the commissions earned through a financial transaction and I can assure you that a 1 typical converted lead through this domain portal can easily generate a commission of 6k-15k depending on the type of loans offered. You will never convince me that 999.00 is a fair price...not even close.