HELP - Fraudulent transfer out !

[nRnF]

Hi all,
I need some help from our fellow NPers

Here is the story:
A friend of mine was in hospital (during 3 month).
When he came back his domain HOTELTOKIO_INFO had been transferd out from HOSTWAY.COM to GODADDY.COM on August 14 2007 and shows now a new registrant.
He did not unlock the domain neither solicitated any auth codes or approved any transfer.

He wrote to HOSTWAY and GODADDY informing them about the issue and asked them to investigate what happend, freeze any other transactions on the name and to return the domain into his HOSTWAY account.

Here is the response from HOSTWAY:
"Please note that the transfer was approved by the admin contact shown in the whois record. For further investigation, please contact your current registrar.
We do not approve domain transfers away from us."

Here is the response from GODADDY:
"Thank you for contacting us. Unfortunately, we will not be able to assist you with your request. Please contact the domain's previous registrar for assistance."

Basically either HOSTWAY and GODADDY say that it is not their problem.


So here I have some questions.
1) What is the leagal responabilities of the regesitars in those cases ? / Who is pesponsable to act ?
2) What is the best way to act for the customer (my friend) ?
3) Does anyone have access to historical whois data for HOTELTOKIO_INFO (last 5 month) ?

Thank you for your help.

 

[PowerUp]

For question 3, try domaintools.com

 

[shemaine]

you should now ask godaddy to return back the domain to hostway.

 

[Daniel]

you should now ask godaddy to return back the domain to hostway.

They've already replied saying "We do not approve domain transfers away from us." - What would the advantage of this be?

 

[verbster]

Something is a bit off here. Here is the domain history:

Domain ID:D15977941-LRMS
Domain Name:HOTELTOKIO.INFO
Created On:03-Jan-2007 04:50:24 UTC
Last Updated On:13-Jun-2007 14:34:25 UTC
Expiration Date:03-Jan-2009 04:50:24 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Domain People, Inc. (R128-LRMS)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:dp-6889726
Registrant Name:Jordi Planas Manzano
Registrant Organization:Jordi Planas Manzano
Registrant Street1:Tarragona
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Tarragaona
Registrant State/Province:Tarragona
Registrant Postal Code:007
Registrant Country:ES
Registrant Phone:+34.34123456789
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:[email protected]
Admin ID:dp-6889710
Admin Name:Jordi Planas Manzano
Admin Organization:Jordi Planas Manzano
Admin Street1:Tarragona
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Tarragaona
Admin State/Province:Tarragona
Admin Postal Code:007
Admin Country:ES
Admin Phone:+34.34123456789
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:[email protected]
**************************************************************

Domain ID:D15977941-LRMS
Domain Name:HOTELTOKIO.INFO
Created On:03-Jan-2007 04:50:24 UTC
Last Updated On:15-Aug-2007 07:07:16 UTC
Expiration Date:03-Jan-2010 04:50:24 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com Inc. (R171-LRMS)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:GODA-035890227
Registrant Name:Doru Tarita
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street1:Nussdorfer Str. 5/0
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Wien
Registrant State/Province:AT
Registrant Postal Code:1090
Registrant Country:AT
Registrant Phone:+43.436768332222
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+43.436768332222
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:[email protected]
Admin ID:GODA-235890227
Admin Name:Doru Tarita
Admin Organization:
Admin Street1:Nussdorfer Str. 5/0
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Wien
Admin State/Province:AT
Admin Postal Code:1090
Admin Country:AT
Admin Phone:+43.436768332222
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:+43.436768332222
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:[email protected]

 

[Domagon]

Hostway's response makes perfect sense because they were not the registrar - Domain People were.

Contact Domain People and research who / how / why it was transferred out to GoDaddy.

At first glance, this looks to be a typical hijacking situation. If so, GoDaddy has an obligation to transfer the domain back to Domain People, or at minimum change the ownership back to your friend's.

Ron

 

[nRnF]

Hostway's response makes perfect sense because they were not the registrar - Domain People were.

Contact Domain People and research who / how / why it was transferred out to GoDaddy.

At first glance, this looks to be a typical hijacking situation. If so, GoDaddy has an obligation to transfer the domain back to Domain People, or at minimum change the ownership back to your friend's.

Ron

domainpeople.com seems to be a hostway.com reseller.
At least all oficial mails come from hostway.

 

[Domagon]

No. Hostway sells webhosting ... DomainPeople registers domains.

DomainPeople is the company you / your friend should contact ...

http://www.domainpeople.com/contact.html

Ron

 

[tricolorro]

No. Hostway sells webhosting ... DomainPeople registers domains.

DomainPeople is the company you / your friend should contact ...

http://www.domainpeople.com/contact.html

Ron

:hi: Domagon,

Just FYI.

Hostway also registers domains.

I transferred a domain there a while ago so you can both Reg or Transfer.

Patrick

 

[Dave_Z]

1) What is the leagal responabilities of the regesitars in those cases ? / Who is pesponsable to act ?
2) What is the best way to act for the customer (my friend) ?

The contract of the service provider essentially dictates those responsibilities.
Who is responsible to act depends on what happened.

If your friend was the one listed on that domain name, the provider will likely
want to deal with him/her instead of you, although you can sit in.

:hi: Domagon,

Just FYI.

Hostway also registers domains.

I transferred a domain there a while ago so you can both Reg or Transfer.

Patrick

What Ron means is that DomainPeople is the actual registrar while Hostway is
reselling for them. Unfortunately DP will likely tell the OP's friend to deal with
Hostway instead due to their registrar-reseller agreements.

 

[labrocca]

HOTELTOKIO.BIZ is available..I suggest you register it asap and move the site.

There appears to be no history or site for the domain. The info was registered just 8 months ago. Doesn't seem like anything to care about actually.

This is a case of choosing your battles carefully.

 

[Erdy]

This domain was sold at sedo auction in 16th January 2007 for 110 usd.

Open this link and type HOTELTOKIO in the first box.
http://dnsaleprice.com/SalePrice.aspx

I'm guessing that the buyer was OP's friend. It appears buyer was not happy with that purchase and tried to sell the domain for 40 USD in 1st April 2007 in some forums.
http://www.v7n.com/forums/domains/52497-hoteltokio-info-sale-40-usd.html

From his trader rating it appears OP's friend is new to domaining. I'm guessing that he didn't have many domains. This domain is not a very desirable one but if it was his only domain then this would explain why it was stolen.

I have two theories on this:
1. The person who sold the domain to OP's friend at sedo has used the same auhtorization key to get the domain back to his account or
2. Somebody hacked OP's friend's email account and used this to gain access to the registrar.

While this particular domain might not be important, it is important to find out how this could happen.

 

[nRnF]

Yes, domain was sold in January for 110 $
Afterwards I bought it at DomainState for low XX (june or something)
Then I passed it to my friend (push), as he has lots of "hotel" domains and had a use for it.
Untill here everything is fine and 100% correct.
Then it was transfered out fraudulently on 14 August to GD.

Since then we try to find some "responsable" at Hostway, DomainPeople and GD without any sucess (they pass te ball between each other).

Thx to al for the answers.

 

[chelsea]

Obviously the new owner of this domain is a NamePros member : Teddy7.

Never had any probs with her, you might want to check this up with her.

 

[Teddy7]

Hi Folks!
What is going on here?
I buy this Domain name from here!

http://www.namepros.com/domains-for-sale-fixed-price/338701-8-hotel-directory-domains-for-sale.html

Nothing illegal!

Here The PM

Hi

All other domains ( 7) is from hostway.com

I have one more hotel directory related domain.. which i was not thinking to sell.. hoteltokio.info... since i am selling all i think i should also sell this domain... please transfer whatever you feel good for this domain... this domain is very valueble..

I have changed the Account details, including control email ids

Hear is the control panel details

https://sitecontrol.hostway.com/

Login- mishraCCCCCCCCC
Password- rohiniXXXXXXXX

You will just need to change the Whois information...

Please change the paasword...

Now its all yours...

Thank you...

Kind Regards,

Amrendra



Originally Posted by Teddy7I recived only hotelus.info.

I wait for
hotelmanila info
hotelreno info
hotelminneapolis info
hotelindianapolis info
hotelsacramento info
daytonhotel info
hotellexington info

 

[nRnF]

This gets interesting !

Teddy7,
Sorry to tell you, but the domain hoteltokio.info was SOLD to me by a person called Amrendra_Mishra and eaven pushed into my hostway account on 28 April 2007.
Then I pushed it to a friends account "Jordi_Planas" at hostway (see historical WHOIS above)
From where it was transfered out fraudulently on 14 August 2007
And it seems this is the time of your purchase.
Fact is, that at your time of purchase the domain belonged to "Jordi_Planas" and not "Amrendra_Mishra" as seen in the historical WHOIS.

Now the interesting news:
I bought it from the same seller as you (ebuzconsultant / Amrendra Mishra) at DomainState.com on 28 April 2007, based on this thread:
http://domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=75874&highlight=hoteltokio.info
(I have all original mails, PMs and paypal confirmations here)

I have send PMs/eMail out to all implicated, and expect that "ebuzconsultant" replies soon.
I hope it is a simple glitch, and we resolve it soon.
Meanwhile I ask you not to transfer ownership of the domain to someone else.

PS:
Only question is:
How can it be transfered out from another hostway account without a UNLOCK or giving any auth codes ?

 

[ebuzconsultant]

hotelus info
hotelmanila info
hotelreno info
hotelminneapolis info
hotelindianapolis info
hotelsacramento info
daytonhotel info
hotellexington info


Were SOLD to Teddy...

HotelTokio.info was sold to nRnF

 

[Teddy7]

You sold it also to me! So twice! See your PM

 

[nRnF]

And eaven more .....
Then somehow you took it away from Jordi Planas hostways account (the guy I pushed it to after you sold it to me) and transfered it to Teddy.

Please check your files, and find a solution that Teddy can/will transfer the domain back to the rightful owner Jordi Planas.

PS:
I have to say here , that Teddy is really colaborating to resolve the issue.
Thumbs up !

 

[Erdy]

I think somebody thought he bought the domain while he actually didn't. It looks to me like a sub-account case.

Some registrars let you open sub-accounts where somebody else can manage the domain but is not the owner.

When you buy or sell a domain name the domain should be pushed from one account to another. Everytime somebody is giving you a username and password you might think that you own the domain but actually it might be a sub account.