discuss ICANN or GoDaddy is getting more stringent with WhoIs verifications

[xynames]

For a couple of my domains registered at GoDaddy, I got an email about a month ago from [email protected] asking me to verify my email address:

followed immediately by an email from [email protected] :

Hi,

We have received a notice of inaccurate contact information for _______________ and need you to review the domain contacts. Please see https://www.godaddy.com/help/change-domain-contact-information-418 for where to find and change your contact information.

Once you have reviewed and made any needed changes you will need to verify your email address. An email has been sent from [email protected] with the subject line of "Action required: Please verify your email address" with instructions on completing the verification. You may also review the help article at https://www.godaddy.com/help/verifying-contact-information-for-icann-validation-8948.

We will suspend the domain in 15 days if the email address is not verified or if during review we find that information listed in the Whois is invalid.

Invalid Whois Team

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I went ahead and verified the email address, and phoned GDiddy, they said all was well.

But then about three weeks later, I received a follow up email recently also from [email protected] :

Hello,

We are unable to validate the First, Last, and company name and are asking you to provide us with some additional documentation to help in verifying these changes.

Please send us a photo or scan of an official document that includes your name and matches your postal address. Acceptable examples include a government-issued photo ID, utility bill, bank statement, or a rental agreement.

Note that if we do not receive this information by ___/___/ 2017 we will be forced to suspend your domain name.

Kindest Regards,

Invalid Whois Team

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so these guys mean business. I also noticed a missed phone call from area code 480 must have been GDiddy. This is just for two domains of mine, not even for sale, with actual working business websites on them.

A real pain. Not sure if the extra scrutiny is coming from ICANN or GDiddy.

 

[Name Trader]

@xynames - I'm sure it's GoDaddy tightening up. Not ICANN. Huh? I still have about 5 or 6 domains which I've sold over many years and the buyer wanted to transfer to GoDaddy. The problem is GoDaddy do not change the whois to the account holder when a domain is transferred into a GoDaddy Account. So every year (for many years), GoDaddy send out there renewal confirmations to me for these domains. It makes no difference if I reply negatively, or ignore these emails. Nothing ever happens to correct the wrong details. Even sending emails to the buyers haven't changed my whois details on those domains I've sold. So I'd be very happy if GoDaddy are tightening up on accurate emails. They could start by changing the whois details to the account owner details for domains transferred in.

Even reporting these details as invalid has been a worthless task. They made it much too difficult to report these invalid emails. Although, they must have loosened that up slightly because, after some to-and-fro with GoDaddy, they did manage to get 2 domains to change their details, recently (well in the last 3-6 months).

 

[xynames]

I figured that once I verified the email, that would be enough, but at least for these two domains - apparently not.

 

[xynames]

After I faxed in the ID nothing happened but I noticed a missed call from area code 480 and called it - turned out it was the person at GD in charge of my WhoIs matter. Got a direct fax, re-faxed it today and within an hour got the email that All Was Well.