Possibly Stolen Domains May Have Sold At Godaddy. Will Godaddy Investigate/Help? So Far- No.

I also had noticed and wanted to buy one of your go + keyword names for attractive pricing but i was travelling and by the time i confirmed and made sure everything to finally buy the name, The listing was gone.

As an active domainer this is terrible to know that godaddy response (or lack of it) on this. Specially when it is the biggest and most popular registrar. And worst thing is with their prevalence you can't even avoid them. I still hope somehow this ends in positive way for you.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for the support, everybody. I just talked to the lawyer. I'm more convinced now that these domains were indeed stolen from his client. I hope I won't get any of these details wrong but according to the lawyer, they were originally at Domain.com and were unlawfully transferred out to Godaddy, to my understanding at the end of 2019. According to the lawyer, both Domain.com and Godaddy were notified about it when the owner found out but they didn't do anything about it. These domains were in the owner's possession for many years before this, as verified by the lawyer.

Scenario A: this guy one day went crazy, decided to transfer these domains away to Godaddy and then tried to stop it from happening but both registrars didn't assist. Then he sold the domains and now trying to get them back on top of the money he got for them. Scenario B: A thief transferred them away and then sold them. The owner is trying to get them back.

I think scenario B makes more sense. I've been a member of Domain.com for a few years. It's not the best or most secure registrar to say the least. The reps there are often incompetent and made tons of mistakes. I've had some crazy instances there, including around 200 domains that went missing at one point and all sorts of other affairs that sound like they came out of a fairy tale or more correctly a horror story.

 

Did the lawyer tell you what to expect next? Do you have to give up the domains and is GD going to be involved and refund? Are they going to take the loss?

Scenario B obviously makes more sense as i don't think someone will transfer domains to GD, get them auctioned and then change his/her mind so it's more likely a theft situation.

Keep us posted.

 

He can't speak on behalf of Godaddy, of course. For now I'm going to continue to discuss this with Godaddy and try to get information since they hold most of the data. Earlier I finally got an email from a tier II rep saying that they're looking into this. I replied. Then a few minutes later I got a reply from a lower tier rep who sent a short message in response telling me the domains are unlocked and active. So now I don't know if the first guy who said he'll be able to update me will respond or not later on. Nothing like bureaucracy. This case involves multiple parties (I don't even know how many) so I don't know what will happen and who will do what. I intend to return these domains regardless of what GD does. Anyway... I'm going to take a break from this thread because I have other things to do. Thanks again to everybody for their input and support.

 

You’re the man; well put.

Well articulated; considering delicate matter

Consider reply to the comment in Ray’s article, Ray just wanted to bring this issue to light; yet somehow comment goin at u, prob w/o reading

https://tldinvestors.com/2020/02/be-careful-of-possibly-stolen-domain-names-starting-with-go.html

Samer

 

According to ... after Dec 15, 2019.
Btw. since 1998 the real owner keeps his go & other names @ Domain.com

 

Thanks to Superbrander for this thread - While I understand gowebnames and others' concerns about the google indexing it's important that people who are thinking about buying similar names are aware that they may be stolen - I know one of the pontential stolen names already have been resold via the BB slack channel and I have today made the buyer aware of this thread.

 

sorry to hear that bro... it's all of our worst nightmare.

 

sorry to hear that happened to you, glad you shared. ty.

 

Six months later, after it was brought to light that the customer who purchased GoParts.com was refunded around the time this thread was created, it looks like after a little encouragement from @jberryhill that @Paul Nicks is finally going to escalate this to see what can and what has been done. 👏

More on that: https://www.namepros.com/threads/go-domains-in-inrem-litigation-what-r-my-options.1210088/

 

Update: Few days ago, these GO domains were ordered by the Virginia court to be transferred over to the plaintiff's chosen registrar (GoDaddy), the same registrar who had sold these stolen names.

I wrote to GoDaddy auctions about it, post which they have refunded my purchase in full by applying an equivalent account credit. Of course, GoDaddy didn't pay any interest or goodwill compensation for my lost time of nearly two years.

 

GoDaddy is the best register ever

 

one of the domain I purchased at auction (mid XXX range) was also refused to be listed at Dan.com as apparently they were informed that it was stolen previously. How the hell am I supposed to know this when nothing comes up in the google search history. Such BS