Front running / data protection

[domainsagain09]

I've got so fed up of this. I've been buying domains for 10 years and only once had a problem before - when I ordered a .co.uk and a .com at the same time and confirmation of the .com never came through...it appeared in someone elses name a few weeks later. It was 1999, i dont think I'd ever heard of 'whois'. When six years later I sold the .co.uk for five figures (my only large sale)I kind of worked out why the mysterious blip on the .com might have occured. I'd originally bought the names for a project, was pretty new to the internet - I just didn't think it could be more than a technical error. Anyway, no problems since. I came into profiting on domains by accident, out of a portfolio of 80 - I have probably bought only three names with a view to selling them for a profit - the rest are for projects and variations of similar names to protect these projects....so to all extents, I'm a newbie.

I've recently moved to France and have had three obvious examples of front running in the last month. Names bought just hours after mine, also incidences of AFNIC cancelling the domain because the registrar didn't provide the right info and then the domain suddenly coming up as bought by someone else.

I think i can guess the answers to the question 'what can i do'..but to humour a newbie...I just can't understand how this can be legal. Surely they are buying and selling my data (searches / purchases) without my permission.

 

[Spade]

Frankly, I might recommend changing your registrar. Sounds to me like they are the problem.

 

[domainsagain09]

It's getting silly now - I've tied it down to one French registrar.They seem to be using outrageous means to get the full suite of domains (ie to acquire those they didn't manage to swipe off me by front running). For example, by monitoring my searches / purchases they registered a .com - i now notice that in my control panel, next to the matching .fr is a note saying that if i don't pay for the domain by cheque (all payments on thier site are usually by credit card) within 15 days i lose the domain - also that it take 10 days to validate the cheque (so does that give me 5 days!!). All the domains i buy on this site are paid for either by credit card or paypal...the registrar doesn't allow the sale to go through if payment is not made. I got auto confirmation from them that the domain has been processed and I have a receipt from paypal showing teh exact amount and time. The domain is frozen and i cant change DNS etc. They wont answer my emails. What to do?

 

[Spade]

Change Registrars.