I believe that this is a fraud attempt. Am I correct?

[richterbg]

I have a single dictionary word .info domain name, registered at DynaDot. This is the second time that I'm receiving this name:
========================================

Afternic Confirmation Needed (account myDynaDotUsername)

Dear (my name),

This email is in response to your request to enroll the domain name(s) below for sale on the Afternic secondary marketplace:

Afternic need-confirm domains: xxxxx.info

If you have requested this action via Afternic, you need to finalize the process by giving your permission for the for-sale listing by logging in and following these steps:

1. On the "Manage Domains" page, check the boxes next to the domain(s) requiring confirmation.
2. From the "Bulk Action" drop down menu, choose the "Set Afternic" option.
3. Select "Confirm Afternic" from the drop down list.
4. Click on the "Save Settings" button.

Please note that by clicking on this link, you are pre-authorizing the sale and transfer of this domain name to the buyer should the buyer agree to pay your buy now price without further authorization from you. You also agree to opt out of the 60 day ownership change lock which would usually be applied after a sale has been completed.

If you did not initiate the listing process of this domain on Afternic, please disregard this email. If you have any questions or need further information, you can contact us at [email protected].

Best Regards,
Dynadot Support Team​

==========================================

I believe that someone is trying to dupe me to submit my permission to pre-authorize the sale, thus allowing the offending individual to buy the domain name at the buy now price that they set. At least, the message sounds like this. Am I right?

 

[NickB]

If you listed the domain on Afternic with a BIN it needs authorising by Dynadot

If you have not submitted the domain to Afternic and someone else has then it would make sense - pretty despicable if the case

Have you checked Afternic to see if your domain has been listed by someone else as a make offer listing?

Contact both companies support to see where the request is coming from

 

[carob]

As Nick said, if you list a domain at Afternic and set a fixed price below 100k and have owned the domain for more than 60 days, at some registrars you can enable fast transfer - you have to confirm that at the registrar. So check in your Afternic account.

You don't have to enable fast transfer if you don't want to, and once you do, there is no setting to disable it at Afternic - you have to contact their extremely slow support to disable it. If you deleted the domain and re-add it at Afternic, they automatically re-enable fast transfer on it.

Given Afternic's ancient technology and lack of 2FA, some only feel safe enabling Fast Transfer on cheap domains.

 

[NickB]

As Nick said, if you list a domain at Afternic and set a fixed price below 100k and have owned the domain for more than 60 days, at some registrars you can enable fast transfer - you have to confirm that at the registrar. So check in your Afternic account.

You don't have to enable fast transfer if you don't want to, and once you do, there is no setting to disable it at Afternic - you have to contact their extremely slow support to disable it. If you deleted the domain and re-add it at Afternic, they automatically re-enable fast transfer on it.

Given Afternic's ancient technology and lack of 2FA, some only feel safe enabling Fast Transfer on cheap domains.

That's new to me - did not know Afternic re-enable it automatically, could, probably has caused some issues

I would of thought the (some) registrars save your fast transfer requests and it would be automatically done if you chose to remove then resubmit to Afternic with that registrar, but if you switch registrars or sell the domain to a reseller Afternic should not be assuming it is OK to automatically list again for Fast Transfer surely?

 

[carob]

That's new to me - did not know Afternic re-enable it automatically, could, probably has caused some issues

I would of thought the (some) registrars save your fast transfer requests and it would be automatically done if you chose to remove then resubmit to Afternic with that registrar, but if you switch registrars or sell the domain to a reseller Afternic should not be assuming it is OK to automatically list again for Fast Transfer surely?

Hi what I can say first hand is I deleted all domains, then re-uploaded them and at first none showed fast transfer, then over a few days they all became fast-transfer enabled again with no action taken on my part. I had to get Afternic to disable them all for me.

As for fast transfer being on when someone else lists it or it changes hands, after repeated assurances that that could not happen it did and got discussed in another thread on here, alarming.

Also first hand I can tell you price changes on Afternic do not take effect in real time - what you see in your control panel may not be what the buyer sees! Afternic ToS give them infinite time to actually implement your price changes, be warned. Always keep spreadsheet exports of your Afternic listings and prices.

 

[NickB]

Hi what I can say first hand is I deleted all domains, then re-uploaded them and at first none showed fast transfer, then over a few days they all became fast-transfer enabled again with no action taken on my part. I had to get Afternic to disable them all for me.

As for fast transfer being on when someone else lists it or it changes hands, after repeated assurances that that could not happen it did and got discussed in another thread on here, alarming.

Also first hand I can tell you price changes on Afternic do not take effect in real time - what you see in your control panel may not be what the buyer sees! Afternic ToS give them infinite time to actually implement your price changes, be warned. Always keep spreadsheet exports of your Afternic listings and prices.

Scary sh*t - I have all mine at make offer, any price requests I set for 7 days then revert back to make offer......

Glad I do it after reading that........

 

[richterbg]

If you listed the domain on Afternic with a BIN it needs authorising by Dynadot

If you have not submitted the domain to Afternic and someone else has then it would make sense - pretty despicable if the case

Have you checked Afternic to see if your domain has been listed by someone else as a make offer listing?

Contact both companies support to see where the request is coming from

I'm not that active at marketing my domains and don't even have an Afternic account. That's why I suspect foul play. And, yes, the domain name is listed at Afternic. Not by me... Seems to be a rather sneaky approach to steal someone else's domain name.

 

[twiki]

I have a single dictionary word .info domain name, registered at DynaDot. This is the second time that I'm receiving this name:
========================================

Afternic Confirmation Needed (account myDynaDotUsername)

Dear (my name),

This email is in response to your request to enroll the domain name(s) below for sale on the Afternic secondary marketplace:

Afternic need-confirm domains: xxxxx.info

If you have requested this action via Afternic, you need to finalize the process by giving your permission for the for-sale listing by logging in and following these steps:

1. On the "Manage Domains" page, check the boxes next to the domain(s) requiring confirmation.
2. From the "Bulk Action" drop down menu, choose the "Set Afternic" option.
3. Select "Confirm Afternic" from the drop down list.
4. Click on the "Save Settings" button.

Please note that by clicking on this link, you are pre-authorizing the sale and transfer of this domain name to the buyer should the buyer agree to pay your buy now price without further authorization from you. You also agree to opt out of the 60 day ownership change lock which would usually be applied after a sale has been completed.

If you did not initiate the listing process of this domain on Afternic, please disregard this email. If you have any questions or need further information, you can contact us at [email protected].

Best Regards,
Dynadot Support Team​

==========================================

I believe that someone is trying to dupe me to submit my permission to pre-authorize the sale, thus allowing the offending individual to buy the domain name at the buy now price that they set. At least, the message sounds like this. Am I right?

I would not enable fast transfer for any high priced domain. Too risky.

For everyday domains, definitely.

 

[carob]

I'm not that active at marketing my domains and don't even have an Afternic account. That's why I suspect foul play. And, yes, the domain name is listed at Afternic. Not by me... Seems to be a rather sneaky approach to steal someone else's domain name.

Hi you can contact Afternic and ask them to remove the listings.

But they may just get listed again, even auto-listed when one of the shadowy superusers at Afternic uploads their out of date or inaccurate spreadsheet of domains they want to sell , which actually overwrites legitimate listings in other accounts - that and many other known issues are covered in the Afternic bugs thread https://www.namepros.com/threads/problems-bugs-and-fixes-at-afternic-report-problems-here.1006373/ Or as suggested, it may be a scammer knowingly listed a domain they don't own.

If you don't, via your registrar, consent to enabling fast transfer for a particular domain, it won't be on.

 

[CraigD]

That's new to me - did not know Afternic re-enable it automatically, could, probably has caused some issues

I would of thought the (some) registrars save your fast transfer requests and it would be automatically done if you chose to remove then resubmit to Afternic with that registrar, but if you switch registrars or sell the domain to a reseller Afternic should not be assuming it is OK to automatically list again for Fast Transfer surely?

I think that once you have agreed to those terms, it makes no difference if you remove and then re-add domains. Probably best to just remove the listings when in doubt.

 

[CraigD]

I'm not that active at marketing my domains and don't even have an Afternic account. That's why I suspect foul play. And, yes, the domain name is listed at Afternic. Not by me... Seems to be a rather sneaky approach to steal someone else's domain name.

Sometimes old listings are not removed by prior owner and you need to contact their support to do so.

When in doubt, list a domain for an offer value and not BIN. That way it should not sell without you approving an offer.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

I too have had notifications about this for names that I have not listed at afternic. I received the notification and accepted it at porkbun.

What left me flabbergasted is that I clicked accept by accident and there was no way to reverse it without some back and forth by email with afternic themselves.

I spent a few days frantically emailing porkbun and afternic in the mean time my domain was at risk. Porkbun advised me that they were not able to disable the fast transfer.

Quite shocking, how are they unable to stop it from being transferred out of your account when they hold the domain?

 

[capybara]

I too have had notifications about this for names that I have not listed at afternic. I received the notification and accepted it at porkbun.

What left me flabbergasted is that I clicked accept by accident and there was no way to reverse it without some back and forth by email with afternic themselves.

I spent a few days frantically emailing porkbun and afternic in the mean time my domain was at risk. Porkbun advised me that they were not able to disable the fast transfer.

Quite shocking, how are they unable to stop it from being transferred out of your account when they hold the domain?

Thats weird. I have no domains at Porkbun with fast transfer so I don't know how it looks there, but at Dynadot it can be cancelled any time.

@SlackJawedYokel

 

[carob]

Quite shocking, how are they unable to stop it from being transferred out of your account when they hold the domain?

I think some registrars have a global setting and others a per-domain setting for permitting change of registrant without your consent - I know for a fact you can't disable fast transfer at the Namesilo end and this explains why :https://www.namesilo.com/Support/Change-of-Registrant

We have endeavored to balance the requirements of the new policies and requirements with the ease-of-use our customers have come to expect when managing their domains with us. To that end, we have leveraged ICANN's allowance of a Designated Agent to both approve changes and opt out of any mandated transfer locks when changing Registrant information. In short, you explicitly permit NameSilo to act as your Designated Agent for purposes of compliance with the aforementioned policies. We have therefore updated our Terms of Service within the "AGENTS AND LICENSES" to grant us the ability to serve as your Designated Agent allowing us to automatically approve changes of Registrant and to explicitly opt out of any associated transfer locks.

 

[CraigD]

I too have had notifications about this for names that I have not listed at afternic. I received the notification and accepted it at porkbun.

What left me flabbergasted is that I clicked accept by accident and there was no way to reverse it without some back and forth by email with afternic themselves.

I spent a few days frantically emailing porkbun and afternic in the mean time my domain was at risk. Porkbun advised me that they were not able to disable the fast transfer.

Quite shocking, how are they unable to stop it from being transferred out of your account when they hold the domain?

I did the same thing about 15-years ago... accidentally clicked on an email link, and I rang them within 5-minutes (local registry) but they couldn't do anything.

Moral of the story is don't even hover your mouse pointer over that link in case you accidentally click it.

 

[SlackJawedYokel]

Thats weird. I have no domains at Porkbun with fast transfer so I don't know how it looks there, but at Dynadot it can be cancelled any time.

@SlackJawedYokel

Sorry for the delay in seeing this. You can absolutely cancel the fast transfer at Porkbun here: https://porkbun.com/account/afternicOptedIn

Do you know who at Porkbun said that you could not? I'd like to correct that misinformation. Also, was this some time ago? Maybe we hadn't implemented the opt out feature yet. Regardless, we should have been able to get you opted out.

 

[FolioTeam]

That's new to me - did not know Afternic re-enable it automatically, could, probably has caused some issues

I would of thought the (some) registrars save your fast transfer requests and it would be automatically done if you chose to remove then resubmit to Afternic with that registrar, but if you switch registrars or sell the domain to a reseller Afternic should not be assuming it is OK to automatically list again for Fast Transfer surely?

The enabling/disabling setting is from the registrar end. Which is why you get that mail to opt in. So, it goes without saying that to opt-out, you will have to still set that at your registrar

 

[FolioTeam]

I too have had notifications about this for names that I have not listed at afternic. I received the notification and accepted it at porkbun.

What left me flabbergasted is that I clicked accept by accident and there was no way to reverse it without some back and forth by email with afternic themselves.

I spent a few days frantically emailing porkbun and afternic in the mean time my domain was at risk. Porkbun advised me that they were not able to disable the fast transfer.

Quite shocking, how are they unable to stop it from being transferred out of your account when they hold the domain?

There's an opt-out setting at Porkbun

 

[NickB]

The enabling/disabling setting is from the registrar end. Which is why you get that mail to opt in. So, it goes without saying that to opt-out, you will have to still set that at your registrar

Agree - Opting out is a simple process at most registrars

If you read what at @carob wrote above this is not always the case though by the look of it - seems in some cases Afternic still auto enables fast transfer when the domain moves to a different registrar or changes hands - which should not be allowed.......

 

[Mike Goodman]

Thanks for the info and discussion, all. I've just cancelled all my domains (only had a few) at Afternic. After what I've read above, I'd ratehr simply not use systems that can't be trusted to be consistent.

Slowly extricating myself from the creeping tentacles of GoDaddy too (I think Afternic is the last of them). To add insult to their previously inflicted injuries, they voted against the Nominet EGM motion yesterday, against the interests of both the majority of the members (mostly smaller registrars, some bigger ones) and those of the registrants.