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I need some help with serious GoDaddy/Afternic issue!

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I'm extremely pissed off right now.

Yesterday morning I randomly got an email that a domain I own was canceled from my GoDaddy account.

This happens sometimes when a domain is sold through afternic. Domain is just moved from my account and I get that email, then get the afternic domain sold email a few hours later. This time, a day later I never got a sold email. The domain was not due to expire and I didn't see anything in my afternic account.

Today I call my GoDaddy account rep, she looks into it. And finds out my domain sold apparently through afternic.

She reaches out to someone,don't know who, but eventually find out that someone else listed the domain in afternic for $295 dollars and it sold, and was moved out of my GoDaddy account via fast transfer.

This was a domain I wouldn't have sold for less than high 4 figures. Anyway, they let someone sell it who didn't even own it and took it out of my account, and I imagine preparing to pay the other person.

I was on the phone for about an hour trying to get to the bottom of this and get it resolved.

My GoDaddy rep comes back and tells me I need to contact afternic. So I do. On the phone and back and forth on hold about another 45 minutes. Then after talking to the afternic legal department, afternic rep came back with someone from legal on the line and told me I need to go back to GoDaddy, because afternic isn't the registrar and have them escalate the situation.

I bought the domain at GoDaddy expiring auction in September. Never even listed it through afternic myself. Afternic sold it through someone's listing who wasn't the owner and GoDaddy took it out of my account.


Now I can't get it resolved and being sent around in a circle to get my domain that was taken.

Who do I need to talk to to get this resolved. I do not have time nor should I need to get runaround about this!


Already had an extremely frustrating day at my main job, then had to spend a couple of hours on this and got nowhere and sent in a complete circle.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Sorry for the typos, angrily typing from my cell phone.
 
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I direct messaged Joe earlier but didn't know if he is the person I would need to contact. Thank you.
 
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Thanks for the heads up! I didn’t know that was possible. I’ll disable all my quick transfers as soon as I can.
 
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I hope you can recover your domain. Obviously godaddy can’t sell it without your permission. This would constitute theft.
 
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This is terrifying.

They get 20% from domain sales, 3-4x the price on registrations and renewals with privacy compared to other places, all of the sneaky upsells, yet they can't provide support in less than 45 minutes (let alone waiting 3-4 days for email responses). Absolutely ridiculous. I can hop onto a chat with other registrars and get a response within seconds, why won't godaddy invest more in support? Why do we continue to put up with this?
 
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I hope too some explanation from any GD rep about this issue.
If you haven't listed it for sale at Afternic and it was sold from somebody else and pushed from your account, this is quite worrying.
So anybody can list a domain for sale at Afternic (without any kind of owner verification), sell it, and if it's registered at Godaddy, it will be pushed out from the registrant's owner account, even if he didn't place it for sale at Afternic?
Worrying.
 
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theres tons names still listed aftdrnic by old owners..but if sells i thought least they do is compare aftrnic and gd owners...weird
 
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FWIW Joe has stated elsewhere:

You should be emailing [email protected] for help with disputing domains that moved out of your account without your permission.

I presume that would apply to an Afternic sale you did not authorize as well. Personally if it were me I'd email them, CC Afternic Service and CC your account rep for good measure.
 
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And this is the downside of fast transfer and GoDaddy/Afternic. People will routinely add your names to afternic and then the fast transfer emails start. Its not the last owner,its fraudsters. I get fast transfer requests often on names I never listed there and have owned for years. For those occasions when it is a past owner you need to make sure your name is not allready listed on Afternic when you get it. If you see your name on there you tell them to remove it. Then you can re add it.

They do nothing to combat fraud and have an embarrassingly archaic 1990 website. In your situation the question becomes who authorized that fast transfer because it sounds like it wasn’t you or your account would get the money.
 
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Whoa. As Peak said, terrifying. Hope it's a one-off, and you get it back asap.

Don't know if you've seen this thread, could be some help:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/pr...ort-problems-here.1006373/page-5#post-6111126

Another slightly similar issue but the permalink is to an interesting response by Joe, essentially saying it is not possible for what just occurred to you.
Wow, well it happened. GoDaddy and Afternic staff both confirmed with me it happened today.
 
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So, you bought the domain at GoDaddy expiring auction. The previous owner had it on Afternic Fast Transfer, and the system did not delete that Afternic Fast Transfer list after the domain changed hands, after the Godaddy auction.

If this is really what happened, all the domains we have purchased at Godaddy auctions are at risk of being Fast Transferred for $100, if they were previously listed for sale at Afternic Fast Transfer, because it looks that the system does not detect the domain owner's change and does not remove the Fast Transfer status and the domain "for sale" status itself, from Afternic.

As Afternic and Godaddy are virtually the same company, it would be good that Afternic REMOVES all domain listings there, after the domain changes ownership after being sold at Godaddy auctions.
 
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So, you bought the domain at GoDaddy expiring auction. The previous owner had it on Afternic Fast Transfer, and the system did not delete that Afternic Fast Transfer list after the domain changed hands, after the Godaddy auction.

If this is really what happened, all the domains we have purchased at Godaddy auctions are at risk of being Fast Transferred for $100, if they were previously listed for sale at Afternic Fast Transfer, because it looks that the system does not detect the domain owner's change and does not remove the Fast Transfer status and the domain "for sale" status itself, from Afternic.

As Afternic and Godaddy are virtually the same company, it would be good that Afternic REMOVES all domain listings there, after the domain changes ownership after being sold at Godaddy auctions.

Sounds like what must have happened from the information I received speaking to GoDaddy and Afternic today.

I don't know who the afternic Lister's account belonged to or who was the previous owner of the domain, but I would assume they must have owned the domain previously and had it listed, rather than newly listed it since my ownership.

If the latter, that would really make me move all of my domains to another registrar.
 
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So, you bought the domain at GoDaddy expiring auction. The previous owner had it on Afternic Fast Transfer, and the system did not delete that Afternic Fast Transfer list after the domain changed hands, after the Godaddy auction.

If this is really what happened, all the domains we have purchased at Godaddy auctions are at risk of being Fast Transferred for $100, if they were previously listed for sale at Afternic Fast Transfer, because it looks that the system does not detect the domain owner's change and does not remove the Fast Transfer status and the domain "for sale" status itself, from Afternic.

As Afternic and Godaddy are virtually the same company, it would be good that Afternic REMOVES all domain listings there, after the domain changes ownership after being sold at Godaddy auctions.

I highly doubt that's how this happened. What I suspect happened if OP bought the name, never listed himself, someone else listed, OP got the fast transfer opt in email and assumed he must have listed it and clicked the link to approve. Thats usually what happened in other threads like this.

IMO the opt in email SHOULD INCLUDE the AFTERNIC USERNAME that listed the domain. That would make it much clearer to prevent accidential opt ins.
 
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I highly doubt that's how this happened. What I suspect happened if OP bought the name, never listed himself, someone else listed, OP got the fast transfer opt in email and assumed he must have listed it and clicked the link to approve. Thats usually what happened in other threads like this.
Yes this is a normal scenario. But I assumed the OP did not click on that email, if it was really sent after he acquired the domain.
IMO the opt in email SHOULD INCLUDE the AFTERNIC USERNAME that listed the domain. That would make it much clearer to prevent accidential opt ins.
Well, this is a basic feature. I mean, how can you click on a domain fast transfer email, that does not include your Afternic Username?!

And another feature, a basic one, would be that every domain listed wherever for Fast Transfer, should be clearly noticed at the owner's account at his REGISTRAR.
I mean, every domain, if it is listed for Fast Transfer at Afternic or wherever, it must be in RED colour and saying WHERE is listed for Fast Tranfer, and by WHO.
Really basic security measures to avoid these situations. A domain Fast Transfer is quite a serious thing, to be pointed out at every registrar, if a domain is in this situation.
 
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Yes this is a normal scenario. But I assumed the OP did not click on that email, if it was really sent after he acquired the domain.

Well, this is a basic feature. I mean, how can you click on a domain fast transfer email, that does not include your Afternic Username?!

The registrar is responsible for those opt in emails, but I have yet to see any that include that so I presume Afternic does not provide that to the registrar. They should. In fact they should include a provision in the contract with the registrar that they must provide that in the opt in email.

I'm even thinking if the registrar had access to that information it could theoretically be possible to leave standing instructions with the registrar to approve opt in requests from your username and reject all others to make the process even easier.

But I ask for too much...clearly.
 
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The authorize emails come from GoDaddy and list your GoDaddy account ID and info.

They don't identify anything regarding who's afternic account/username they are being approved for.


I didn't know whether I had listed the domain in afternic myself or not. I got an email not too long after acquiring the domain about opting in . I occasionally remove all of my name's from afternic and reupload a spreadsheet to relist over 1000 names and prices, and the GoDaddy opt in emails trickle in gradually for the domains when they are priced..
 
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I didn't know whether I had listed the domain in afternic myself or not. I got an email not too long after acquiring the domain about opting in . I occasionally remove all of my name's from afternic and reupload a spreadsheet to relist over 1000 names and prices, and the GoDaddy opt in emails trickle in gradually for the domains when they are priced..
So this looks to be what has happened here. Somebody has listed your domain for Fast Transfer and you clicked the opt in email, because as you point out, the opt in email does not identify anything regarding who's afternic account/username they are being approved for.
And this is quite worrying, when clicking on an email of this kind, where your domain can be transferred instantly to someone's else in a second and without your intervention.
 
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So this looks to be what has happened here. Somebody has listed your domain for Fast Transfer and you clicked the opt in email, because as you point out, the opt in email does not identify anything regarding who's afternic account/username they are being approved for.
And this is quite worrying, when clicking on an email of this kind, where your domain can be transferred instantly to someone's else in a second and without your intervention.


I definitely believe I will no longer use fast transfer after this. Until the last year, I never priced on 3rd party sales platforms, but thought I would give it a go for awhile to see how it performs.
 
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I would like to know more about what happened here. There can obviously be potential issues with fast transfer if the ownership verification breaks down.

Brad
 
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What's just as (if not more) scary than someone else being able to sell your name is the fact that GD and Afternic can't communicate with each other behind the scenes to sort the situation. They're probably sat in the same office yet they give you the run around and get you ring one then the other. Unfortunately it's a fact of life that when a company gets to a certain size their customer care goes out the window. Then they get smaller.
 
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And this is the downside of fast transfer and GoDaddy/Afternic. People will routinely add your names to afternic and then the fast transfer emails start. Its not the last owner,its fraudsters. I get fast transfer requests often on names I never listed there and have owned for years. For those occasions when it is a past owner you need to make sure your name is not allready listed on Afternic when you get it. If you see your name on there you tell them to remove it. Then you can re add it.

They do nothing to combat fraud and have an embarrassingly archaic 1990 website. In your situation the question becomes who authorized that fast transfer because it sounds like it wasn’t you or your account would get the money.

I would like to know more about what happened here. There can obviously be potential issues with fast transfer if the ownership verification breaks down.

Brad

I have seen such case before though not sure how it ended. Normally what happens is that the domain(s) was/were previously approved for fast transfer. This stays in Afternic and all it needs for this to happen is for a sale to happen and domain be in Godaddy or the participating registrars.

Afternic can deal and avoid such situations if along with Godaddy they scan or check domain onwerships and changes that happen with accounts.

I hope @indiegrind gets the name back regardless of how much the name got sold for.
 
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I didn't know whether I had listed the domain in afternic myself or not. I got an email not too long after acquiring the domain about opting in .
Sry indiegrind, trying to clarify here;
Given the deeper digging, if you think there is a remote chance that you had listed the domain, and are not absolutely sure that you didn't, than that changes everything.

We have to eliminate the possibility of human error on your end before assuming the worst, because otherwise until this is resolved more of your domains and anyone else's for that matter is at risk of being taken.
 
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