Website owners have been warned to keep their registration up to date because lapsed domain names are being snapped up within 10 seconds of becoming available.
Re-registration, which has to be done every two years, can cost as little as £5 but you can pay ten times as much to get an address back - and sometimes far more. Names are regularly sold for more than £100,000, and some for as much as £1m.
Registrants are warned by email to renew, but many do inform registrars that their addresses have changed. There is a 60-day grace period after the expiry date, which the name will no longer work but can still be renewed; but then the name is up for grabs.
Lapsed domain names 'bought in seconds'
Re-registration, which has to be done every two years, can cost as little as £5 but you can pay ten times as much to get an address back - and sometimes far more. Names are regularly sold for more than £100,000, and some for as much as £1m.
Registrants are warned by email to renew, but many do inform registrars that their addresses have changed. There is a 60-day grace period after the expiry date, which the name will no longer work but can still be renewed; but then the name is up for grabs.
Lapsed domain names 'bought in seconds'
