Namecheap & stolen domain names

[draco]

Has anyone dealt with a stolen domain name at NameCheap?

I bought a domain from someone on this forum about 3 1/2 months ago. A month later, someone else contacted me stating the domain was stolen from them. They opened a case with Namecheap.

Almost 2 1/2 months later, they're still investigating. The end of February they stated, "The number of requests has increased drastically, we are doing our best to get the load back to normal but still the response time is longer than usual.". This is their Risk Management Department.

I contacted Icann. They said the policy was up to the registrar. So I seem to be stuck waiting. If the domain is really stolen, the original owner is waiting too. According to Namecheap's Universal Terms of Service Agreement, they could also be stuck with a $50 an hour bill for the investigation.

One of their customer service reps has been helpful in getting Risk Management to respond. No useful information. But at least they respond in a day or two as opposed to weeks to a month.

Any ideas or suggestions, other than keep waiting? Thanks.

 

[Marina Savina]

Hi Draco, I work at Namecheap. Would you please share the domain name or ticket ID with me so I could check with our risk management team?

 

[draco]

Quick update. Almost a month and a half later and Namecheap is still investigating.

They tried blaming the current registrar (I transferred the domain before the dispute was opened). But the current registrar always responds to me within 1-2 business days, unlike the month it takes Namecheap to respond without getting someone else at Namecheap involved to contact the appropriate department.

Namecheap also told me they have no way to search for emails from the current registrar unless they have their ticket ID in the title. So they're likely missing the emails.

 

[branding]

@tamar

 

[draco]

@tamar

Thanks, she's actually been helping me with the situation.

 

[branding]

Thanks, she's actually been helping me with the situation.

I see. She's the only NC rep on here as far as I know. That's a bad spot you're in. Good luck and keep us posted on how things unfold!

 

[sircc]

Did you confront the seller?

 

[draco]

Did you confront the seller?

The seller is someone very established on this forum. The last we talked about it, they said wait for the investigation to conclude. They're not the ones that filed the dispute. From what I understand, they bought the domain from a third party.

So it went: Original owner that filed the dispute - Third party - Established seller - Me

The question taking Namecheap forever to investigate is how the Third party got the domain.

 

[draco]

This just won't end..

Namecheap did tell me they managed to search through all their emails and they couldn't find the current registrar's responses. But it took Namecheap months to suddenly claim the current registrar never responded to them for months, and the current registrar insists they responded to all of Namecheap's emails. So you can decide who to believe.

The current registrar closed the dispute and didn't take the domain. Likely because of a lack of evidence the domain was really stolen. They didn't say.

But they are keeping the domain locked. The person claiming the domain theft supplied a supposed Spanish (they're from Spain) police report claiming the domains were stolen. Namecheap's Risk Management Department is still not responding. It's been over a week since I last emailed them, and my case is supposed to be escalated to get priority attention. Tamar did tell me that they are working with law enforcement.

So a few questions..
Has the police investigation been active for over 5 months or was it held up by the same lack of response from Namecheap that GoDaddy and I had?

What is there for the police to investigate? Wouldn't they just get the same information that Namecheap supplied to GoDaddy?

What authority does a foreign police department have over an American registrar? Can any police department just say a domain is stolen and it's handed over?

Which will come first, the end of this dispute or colonies on Mars?