iDotz - Untrustworthy

[tm]

I found the perfect domain for my site. (I'm not telling what it is because i'm still looking for it in other extentions). I went onto iDotz.net to see how much they were selling it for. It was quite a lot, so I decided to sleep on it. Next morning I went to their site to buy the domain, IT WAS UNAVAILABLE. I looked up on whois - guess what? The nameservers its set to, have the same contact details as the owners of iDotz.net.

NEVER EVER SEARCH FOR DOMAINS ON IDOTZ.NET AND NEVER BUY FROM THEM.

I am so angry!

 

[Robert Allen]

I know the idea, but i am going to disclose it. This is a major blow, and whoever they are they suck, suck so badly that i am annoyed. Your idea was so good, and some bastard ruined it.

Listen to tm everyone, he is one of the most trustworthy webmasters i know, and i am deeply annoyed at this.

 

[weblord]

professional domain hijacker?

 

[Robert Allen]

I believe so weblord... HE was searching for a domain and they registered it the next day. Def.

 

[tm]

I believe so weblord... HE was searching for a domain and they registered it the next day. Def.

exactly what happened.

 

[weblord]

i see a lot of it happening to my colleagues as well, same story, did anybody reported them to anyone? who can control this from happening? some negative marketing they have, most probably why they are in the domain registration business is to snatch domains?

 

[sker]

I am not surprised to hear. I have no prove for this statement but personally i believe this ought to be true. "Most of the domain registrars are untrustworthy".

We don't know who are they. But i came with 2 ideas.

1.Establish a sticky on doddgy registrars in this forum. akin to Fu*kedcompany.com. This should be massive defamation.

2.Prior to whois search, write down all your innovative keywords on a Notepad. Then go for blanket search. Shortlist the available names. then BUY using Godaddy loophole.

All your activities should be like "Gone in 60sec" ...

 

[seeker]

http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/170611-can-someone-view-my-whois-search.html

 

[RJ]

Thanks for PM'ing me with the name. It was a dotAM name, and a very common and highly sought after word.

To me it does not look like a case of dishonesty on iDotz part. iDotz owns and operates the entire DotAM registry, so 1) that may explain why the nameservers were set to iDotz default, and 2) makes me doubt that they would rely on monitoring your availability check to discover that name was available. Again, they own the entire DotAM domain registry, which means they could reserve any name they want.

Sorry to play devils advocate here, but calling a company fraudulent without proof is a serious charge. I do understand your frustration though. Too many times I've been beat to a name by a matter of hours, or often minutes, by someone who was faster.

I've learned in the domain game that time is of the essense. You can't sleep on it as you did, and then blame the registrar if its not there anymore. When I find an available name I want, there's nothing that can stop me from RUSHING to register it ASAP. It's just a part of the domain business. I'm genuinely surprised that the one word domain in question was even available. It would have been an excellent addition to any portfolio. Sorry you missed it.

RJ

 

[tm]

Yeah, but over 10 years of availability, then after ONE whois search on ONE registrar (idotz was the only one i checked it on) it became registered. I mean come on, no WAY is that a co-incidence.

And the main reason i didnt reg it strait away, was the fact that it was a lot of money to me.

 

[sker]

Sorry to play devils advocate here, but calling a company fraudulent without proof is a serious charge. I do understand your frustration though. Too many times I've been beat to a name by a matter of hours, or often minutes, by someone who was faster.

RJ

Well Said!

I've learned in the domain game that time is of the essense. You can't sleep on it as you did, and then blame the registrar if its not there anymore. When I find an available name I want, there's nothing that can stop me from RUSHING to register it ASAP. It's just a part of the domain business. I'm genuinely surprised that the one word domain in question was even available. It would have been an excellent addition to any portfolio. Sorry you missed it.

RJ

My deepest condolence on your lost

 

[tm]

Thanks for everybody's support. I will just have to find it in another extention that i can afford.

 

[RJ]

Yeah, but over 10 years of availability, then after ONE whois search on ONE registrar (idotz was the only one i checked it on) it became registered. I mean come on, no WAY is that a co-incidence.

That would have been suspicious, except that the domain was not available for 10 years and suddenly registered. It used to be a developed site. You can see historical copies of it dating back to 2003 in Archive.org. Yahoo search shows 141 sites linking to that domain. Google shows 544.

The bigger coincidence was that it was available when you checked rather than the fact it was re-registered so quickly, imho. I know its easy to jump to conclusions, but do consider all possibilities here. To me it looks more like a coincidence than query monitoring.

However, one thing we can agree on is dotAM registration fees are too darn high.

 

[tm]

That would have been suspicious, except that the domain was not available for 10 years and suddenly registered. It used to be a developed site. You can see historical copies of it dating back to 2003 in Archive.org. Yahoo search shows 141 sites linking to that domain. Google shows 544.

The bigger coincidence was that it was available when you checked rather than the fact it was re-registered so quickly, imho. I know its easy to jump to conclusions, but do consider all possibilities here. To me it looks more like a coincidence than query monitoring.

However, one thing we can agree on is dotAM registration fees are too darn high.

OK, ok. I have calmed down a bit. I have also found another AMAZING priced domain (not revealing extention yet), but, one problem. They don't accept paypal, and I have no means to get access to a credit card. If there's a (trustworthy) NPer out there that has a CC, maby we could sort out some sorta deal?

-tm

 

[Sinfully Wicked]

I fully agree with RJ on this one, theres been times where i have seen a domain ive wanted and "slept on it" next day or later on it was gone. Theres another 40,000 plus domainers out there all trying to secure a decent domain, so you might be the only person searching on it, if you see a domain and you can afford it, get it right away, dont sleep on it, and we have 200+ domains at Idotz.net alone, never had a problem with them, as RJ said, there the main people for that extention, they could have selected any domain they wanted.

Unfortunatly its your fault for not getting it there and then, sorry, but its true.

Maybe a lesson learned?

Thank you

Sin

 

[seeker]

guys, how big is the .am registry???
whats the odds of people searching for that name with such an extension.
Now I am playing the devil's advocate here, but since idotz has control of the registry, and since i doubt many names are checked for .am, it could have easily rang a few bells in what probably is a relativly small log file on whois searches done for .am at idotz.
I am not saying that idotz themselves regged it, but if such a list does exist...

were this for a more popular extension... then ok.

 

[floatingworld]

in future IMHO....when checking name availabilty (wthout intending to reg immediately) use moniker or GD.

 

[tm]

I've learnt my lesson. From now on the only whois i'm using is http://www.internic.net/whois.html

 

[jaikini]

i lost my domain at idotz.net
i tried all the way but i still cant acess my a/c or my domain
i posted this problem couple of months ago here
http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/143865-idotz-net-problem-plz-help.html

 

[Amnezia]

Im am certainly not surprised to here this at all, i have heard of it happening many times