discuss [Resolved] Domainer Loses $26k On A Stolen Domain!

[Silentptnr]

Darn! Another scam and this time it is an experienced domainer James Booth.

James must have thought he was making a sound acquisition as he transferred approximately 26k to escrow for CQD.com. Instead, after completing the escrow, the domain was taken from his account by the registrar without notification and returned to the "true" owner.

Turns out the person that sold him the domain CQD.com, may not have been the true owner.

Apparently this incident involves several parties including the registrar and the escrow.


Thanks to Theo over at DomainGang for the tip on this.

 

[richtrading]

A tip for a Registrar we have found completely incompetent is ASCIO which seem to be affiliated with easily.uk & speednames

 

[equity78]

An then Netsol took it away again.

And then she got it back again.

Netsol forcibly removed the same domain from a user's account three different times. Will they do it again? Stay tuned.

After April 26? Where is that referenced?

it appears that james booth did NOT JUST voluntarily give back my domain.
Q. Would he have done it without the letter from Web.com?
A. I will never know.

I only know this. I did not authorize the sale of my domain, but i am very happy to have it back.

And...Web.com/Network Solutions...well they did the right and they got it back (not without the help from Grilled and my constant bitching and crying.)

So...i'm not so sure how i feel about my ripoff report updates now...

CAVEAT EMPTOR!

"On Apr 25, 2018, at 11:31 AM, web.com wrote:

Dear Ms. Burns,

After a thorough investigation, careful review, and consultation with our internal teams, we have concluded that the transfer of CQD.COM from your account was indeed unauthorized and illegal. As such, we have restored the domain back to your account and have placed an administrative lock on the domain to ensure that no other changes can be made without proper authorization.

We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced while the matter was being investigated. As a customer service gesture, and to ensure that your domain remains safe, we would like to extend to you a one (1) year term of our WebLock services which adds several layers of protection against unwanted actions on your domain (for more information about Weblock. If you would like to accept this offer, please respond to this email and we will work with you to setup the service.

We have advised the other party involved that the transfer of CQD.COM was not properly authorized by you, the Registrant, and the sale of the domain name was illegal (i.e. - purchasing stolen goods is illegal). Please note that Web.com will not be a party to any litigation that may arise from any disputes with regard to the unauthorized transfer and illegal sale of the domain CQD.COM; however we will comply with a court order or an order from a competent tribunal.

Thank you,

Web.com"

spoiltrider, Apr 26, 2018

 

[carob]

After April 26? Where is that referenced?

No, before that - She got her name back, then Netstole gave it back to Booth, then Nethole gave it back to the original owner again. And she has moved it to Epik so Netfool can't mess with it again.

About Escrow.com - well they make clear due diligence is for the buyer to do. Probably there is a market for a service giving reports on a domain's history beyond what Domaintools offer, and maybe a rating system for how likely it is that a domain or transaction is going to be problematic. Insuring a purchase would be a separate service. Endusers just don't have the time or skills to do all this themselves - but people have not been seeing the risks, and why would they until something like this blows up.

Then again, domain appraisals have a bad rep and deserve it.

 

[CentaurAtlas]

Welcome to a new member from 2006 and congratulations on your first post. Ten stars with zero activity. Wow! Never seen that before.

lol. I've been on before reading and lurking, but it had been a while since I'd logged in. I haven't replied to that guy yet, but when I do, I'll follow-up.

I agree about Epik, I've known Rob (virtually) for about 15 years. They do seem to be the most active.

I've never been a fan of NSI, back in the early 1990s when they tried the whole "only one domain name per 'entity'" thing without defining anything about what an entity consisted of. They always seemed like a bully.

 

[Name Trader]

lol. I've been on before reading and lurking, but it had been a while since I'd logged in. I haven't replied to that guy yet, but when I do, I'll follow-up.

I agree about Epik, I've known Rob (virtually) for about 15 years. They do seem to be the most active.

I've never been a fan of NSI, back in the early 1990s when they tried the whole "only one domain name per 'entity'" thing without defining anything about what an entity consisted of. They always seemed like a bully.

Their inefficiencies/defects are legendary. It surprises me why they have any customers. But I suppose most of them are long time customers who haven't known anything better. Plus a few new accounts who register domains in bulk when they have a $1/.com promo, who have no interest in being long term customers.

Wow! That's post #2. At this rate you might shrug off your new member status in a couple of months

 

[thejoshr]

same guy(s)

Hi, new here, but google brought me in via a search for Vince at Zoremo LLC. I've just received an email from him asking to buy a domain. is he responsible for the scams described in this thread?

(feels lazy to ask, but this is one epic thread!)

Thanks all

 

[spoiltrider]

If I remember correctly escrow.com has not replied in this thread. I expect that they have taken this stance on the advice of legal counsel. If a crime was committed you need to follow the money and we can assume they know where it went. If they are given a proper subpoena they will most likely comply. Regarding someone saying they have over 100 employees, when I ran the company we were less than 15. Based on their current financial results from the freelancer annual report - "For the full year, Escrow.com was a major drag on GPV for the group, dropping to $428 million in FY17 from $506 million in FY16 (-15%)." I doubt they added 85+ employees to their payroll, but i could be wrong.

Back in the day a transaction of this size went through a manual review at escrow.com First by an escrow officer, then the escrow manager and then me. If the payout was for a person with a Florida address in the system and the funds were being sent to Latvia that would send up a red flag. Additional due diligence was done to verify the validity of the transaction. I expect there are a few of you out there reading this who benefited from this process. We didn't catch everything, but we did a pretty good job.

I believe escrow.com followed their terms of service in that the "seller" indicated they were the rightful owner of the domain. I would expect they are now doing everything legally possible to assist Mr. Booth in getting his funds returned.

@Brandon Abbey,
what about my losses? this is one of the most annoying, irritating, BS FUBARs that negatively impacted me and my little local business. i was sucked into an abyss of a black hole and i have lost so much of my local business due to this disaster. the TIME i spent on this issue that took me away from my other business! the tears i cried! the onslaught of high blood pressure diagnosis! the people here who accused me of being the scammer. (BTW - .|. to all of you!) i think very badly of escrow.com and i am not so sure there was collusion involved with this. this whole experience...its changed me into a cynical, angry domain owner.

 

[spoiltrider]

After reading this and reading about France.com Im almost sure I'll never use Web.com

even though i did get my domain back, and will require BLUE INK, WET signatures and a live attorney in my state, county and town to purchase it.....what i still want to know is WHO received the money booth wired and WHERE is the money that "purchased" my domain?

 

[spoiltrider]

Their inefficiencies/defects are legendary. It surprises me why they have any customers. But I suppose most of them are long time customers who haven't known anything better. Plus a few new accounts who register domains in bulk when they have a $1/.com promo, who have no interest in being long term customers.

Wow! That's post #2. At this rate you might shrug off your new member status in a couple of months

what were my options back in 1996? my domain was purchased through internic originally. it was transferred to network solutions by default.....i am not a domainer, i thought it was safe. but really....what were my options other than knowing about what a dog eat dog industry domaining really is. at this point the Godly interceptions (specifically hurricane irene!) i can't help but know there is is a higher power out there who sent Grilled to me as well. I am FOREVER indebted to him!

 

[spoiltrider]

@Jackson Elsegood can you post here what happened at your end so we can all learn from this and prevent it from happening again?

yeah really @Jackson Elsegood.... who has the money?

 

[dande]

If Escrow.com can not guarantee the safety of Domainers, the propose of using them has been defeated

 

[Kate]

Escrow only guarantees payment. Not title to the asset or due diligence.

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

Hi All, Just to let you know what happened. I emailed the Whois email (the same one that is listed now) and agreed a deal. I did my due diligence and also emailed the email on the website ([email protected]) and they both confirmed all my questions. I set up the Escrow transaction and Escrow confirmed the seller was KYC verified. So after speaking to both emails and Escrow confirming the seller was verified I believed the domain to be safe.

I made payment for $26k and had the domain in my Network Solutions account for around 4 weeks. One day I logged in to find the domain had just vanished. I called Netsol / Web.com and they said ''Oh we have returned the domain to the seller'' Obviously I was not happy. They did not email me, call me or mention in any way anything about it. They simply just took the domain with NO questions and handed it back to the seller.

I am currently proceeding with legal action.

So I am learning that after I buy a domain I need to transfer it immediately to a third account to stop this from happening.

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

I did. The whole thing is really fishy. I called, emailed and did all the checks. It seems she told Web.com one of her employees sold the name without her authorization which is a lie.

I have all the emails from her.

And this is enough to take a domain you paid solid cash for?

What kind of BS operation is that?

Even if an ’employee’ did it then they did it on behalf of the company... ergo that would make it a matter between the company and the employee.

 

[eurorealtor]

So I am learning that after I buy a domain I need to transfer it immediately to a third account to stop this from happening.

If the domain was stolen, it will most likely be removed from any account you transfer to.

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

If the domain was stolen, it will most likely be removed from any account you transfer to.

From a few posts up

”No, before that - She got her name back, then Netstole gave it back to Booth, then Nethole gave it back to the original owner again. And she has moved it to Epik so Netfool can't mess with it again.”

 

[Kate]

A domain transfer can be reversed if both registrars involved agree.

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

A domain transfer can be reversed if both registrars involved agree.

...agree on listening to the first complaint that comes in without any investigation.

 

[Name Trader]

...agree on listening to the first complaint that comes in without any investigation.

NetStole have a very long history with stolen domains. Weren't they involved in some way with the original sex.com theft? Even before that incident, they manipulated a domain out of my possession. They are not trustworthy. I try to never buy domains at NS. If I ever get one. The very first thing I do is transfer it away, at the earliest possible time. And ALWAYS before I try to sell it. Their behavior in this situation was deplorable. That should be enough to sound loud alarm bells ringing thru the entire industry. IMHO. Especially for any person or company owning any valuable domains there.

 

[IMEZI]

Netstole gave it back to Booth, then Nethole gave it back to the original owner again. And she has moved it to Epik so Netfool can't mess with it again.

AWESOMEEEEE LOL!!!

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I have a similar story but it was a $150K domain name and the seller sued me 18 months after the sale claiming the transfer was unauthorized. The name was at Network Solutions and I did use Escrow.com.

Wow. That's more than 5X of what was likely lost for CQD.com.

I wish I was around then and/or aware. I would have enjoyed helping/researching where/if applicable.