Need Legal Advice on Domain Sale Need fast

[Kamloops]

Need Legal Advice Stolen Domain Sale Need fast

I purchased a Domain using Sedo.

My offer was accepted and I bought the domain. Then I started looking at the past history of the name and found the owner previous to the one I purchased it from.

I spoke with him on the phone at length and he said he had just found out Monday his name was not his any more. He can only think that he had an old email addy on it that he had given up. He thinks the guy that sold it to me got that email and transferred the name.

Now where do I stand it all this? Do I lose my money. I am talking in the thousands. I want the rightful owner to get the name, but what if it was a case where he let it expire?

Help??? Anyone????

 

[MikeBigg]

In the real world, if you purchase a previously stolen thing, if it comes to the crunch, the thing is return to the rightful owner, the thief(s) go to prison and you lose your money. You don't go to prison for handling stolen property because you purchased the thing in good faith. You may be able to the thief(s) to get your money back, but it is not automatic.

I would think domains would work in a similar way.

What made you contact the previous owner?

Mike

 

[Kamloops]

I contacted the previous owner to ask him why he let the domain go. It just seemed to good of a deal that I got and wanted to make sure. The domain is not yet in my name it is Sedo's hands.

 

[Domagon]

IF the domain was "stolen" and assuming the real owner forces the issue, you very likely will lose your money.

You can attempt to recover it from the person who sold it to you, but that likely would require court action - odds of collecting are slim to none.

With that said, it sounds as if Sedo still has the domain and still hasn't disbursed the funds ... if so, then the thing to do is contact Sedo NOW and explain to them the domain is stolen and to cancel the transaction...

It may also help to contact the "seller" and explain you are concerned about the ownership history and you are canceling the transaction - if the seller is a known person on forums, then if they have any sense, they'll let you cancel and try selling to someone else instead.

If Sedo isn't willing to help, then be prepared to take legal action asap to block Sedo from disbursing the funds - this will cost some money, but losing some money beats losing it all.

Good luck.

Ron

 

[Kamloops]

Spoke with Sedo and it no problem. They are going to call the REAL owner and give him some advice how how to get the name back. I feel for the guy. Its his business. He is out of business without this site.

I hate to say it but he would be better off just having me buying it then he buys it off me for what I paid. Be cheaper than all the lawyers he will have to pay.

 

[Ronald Regging]

How did you finally establish whether or not the domain had expired? Are you sure it even rightfully still belonged to him? I'm just asking, because from your OP, you didn't sound too sure.

 

[Kamloops]

How did you finally establish whether or not the domain had expired? Are you sure it even rightfully still belonged to him? I'm just asking, because from your OP, you didn't sound too sure.

I am not sure it was not expired.

 

[Kamloops]

So can anyone help with this. The domain is olive.com
I purchased it for 3000.00.

The original owner of this domain tells me it was stolen from him. How can I find out if this is true? I believe him but I want to make sure it just did not expire and he did not renew it.

 

[Dave_Z]

So can anyone help with this. The domain is olive.com
I purchased it for 3000.00.

I think that was reported in DNF. Unfortunately the legal section there's
been removed.

 

[Erdy]

I have a theory about this thief. I think he checks whois info and then keeps records of the email addresses. When one of those email adresses become available he signs up for that email and approves the transfer request.

I think hotmail drops your email account if you don't sign in for 30 days. I don't know for sure about the duration but I know at the end they drop it and make your email adress public so anybody can register it.

I belive the hole in the system is that whois information is public. As long as whois information remains public there will be always a high risk for theft.

I don't expect that he checks those things manually. Probably he uses a program. There are maybe 5.000 good dictionary names. Let's assume 3000 of them have a genuine email adress and no whois guard.

If you keep track of those 3000 email adresses eventually some of them will become available again.

Probably he also uses the email adress to gain access to the registrar as well. He would need access to unlock the name. I'm guessing when you try to log in to your registrar and forgot your password they will send it to your email adress.

I think this could be the same guy who stole social dot com which was again a dictionary name. This could be the same person who hacked DNF.

I have stopped using that forum because I found it unethical to make a deal with a hacker and remove the legal section. If we can't talk about domain thieves in NP then I will leave this forum as well and look for an alternative.

 

[Kamloops]

I just hope the rightful owner gets it back soon. I bought it from a post here on Namepros and then did the deal on Sedo , Namepros should br able to help. They have info on the guy..I emailed but no response from namepros

 

[Domagon]

If in doubt, cancel the deal unless you're ready to roll the dice; for a name like that at $3K, some would take the gamble.

From what I see (definitely recommend confirming yourself), the domain had an expiration of Nov-21-2008 prior to registrar transfer ... the history since late summer looks very sketchy...

Personally, I'd suggest canceling and getting your money back while you still can...

And then, assuming it's stolen, which it very much appears to be, working out a deal with the "real" owner ... who knows, he may be willing to let it go for a reasonable amount given the situation.

Ron

 

[homebuyer]

archive

Archive.org shows a domain website record up until March 4, 2005. Many things could have happened since then.

You should discover if the original owner failed to renew it and now wants to remedy it by reclaiming his domain; however, I find it hard to believe that olive.com dropped and didn't command a big auction price. I suppose that it is also possible the original owner sold it for peanuts and now realizes his mistake and wants it back. Or it could have been hijacked and then sold to you.