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

[DaveX]

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.

 

[tonecas]

So booth ended up $26k short? Did he willfully give the domain back or was it taken from him?

He said he did, but the lady said no.
Network Solutions that did not see anything, then saw it all when giving it to Booth, then forgot it all when the issue got heat here.
Lady got her domain back.
Booth kept on with his life of a big star broker, one of the top according to Escrow.com
Escrow.com kept its professional duty silence and never disclosed anything, not even the bugs they had or still have, we will never know for professional duty silence matters.

I believe this is a good wrap of this story.
No need to read thru the rest. Keep calm. Move along. Business as usual.

 

[carob]

The lady got the domain back.

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.

 

[golan]

Escrow.com kept its professional duty silence and never disclosed anything, not even the bugs they had or still have, we will never know for professional duty silence matters.

They were super quick however to jump into Epik Escrow thread, accusing Epik in not having escrow license. Like that's what matters, not the business processes nor the attitude towards your clients.

 

[richtrading]

He said he did, but the lady said no.
Network Solutions that did not see anything, then saw it all when giving it to Booth, then forgot it all when the issue got heat here.
Lady got her domain back.
Booth kept on with his life of a big star broker, one of the top according to Escrow.com
Escrow.com kept its professional duty silence and never disclosed anything, not even the bugs they had or still have, we will never know for professional duty silence matters.

I believe this is a good wrap of this story.
No need to read thru the rest. Keep calm. Move along. Business as usual.

Re this domain - did Escrow.com reimburse Booth? Possibly that is what happened, if it was their due diligence and reputation at stake of irreparable damage.

Escrow.com never replied to me when I informed them of a possible security bug a few months ago. Is it probably still there?

 

[MapleDots]

Seriously..... I cannot say I follow all the details of this enormous topic but I find it strangely intoxicating to come back and check on it periodically.

He said he did, but the lady said no.
Network Solutions that did not see anything, then saw it all when giving it to Booth, then forgot it all when the issue got heat here.
Lady got her domain back.
Booth kept on with his life of a big star broker, one of the top according to Escrow.com
Escrow.com kept its professional duty silence and never disclosed anything, not even the bugs they had or still have, we will never know for professional duty silence matters.

I believe this is a good wrap of this story.
No need to read thru the rest. Keep calm. Move along. Business as usual.

A well short recap of some of the facts and solutions would probably make a great ending to this topic.

At this point your response is probably pretty close to that.

I really feel for Booth though, I sure hope he got his money back, it would suck to buy something and not get what you paid for.

 

[Name Trader]

I really feel for Booth though, I sure hope he got his money back, it would suck to buy something and not get what you paid for.

It would seem to me that his due diligence wasn't up to scratch with this domain. We probably will never know if he got refunded or not. But he's a big boy. He's probably made up for this loss, if he did lose it, with his next trade, and al least by 1/4 of the way thru this thread You win some, you lose some (hopefully not too many) when you are dealing in this murky area of stolen domains. Most of which are LLL.COM. He was Trading with this domain. Not Brokering. There are more risks involved.

I hope the original owner has also learned their lesson and has/will transfer their domain away from NetSol.

 

[MapleDots]

I hope the original owner has also learned their lesson and has/will transfer their domain away from NetSol.

If I ever own a high risk domain I will probably put it into EPIK, it seems to me they are very secure and one of the most approachable registrars. I bet if this situation arose there Rob Monster would have been right on it instead of the radio silence at netsol.

 

[Name Trader]

If I ever own a high risk domain I will probably put it into EPIK, it seems to me they are very secure and one of the most approachable registrars. I bet if this situation arose there Rob Monster would have been right on it instead of the radio silence at netsol.

He's probably the most pro-active of all the registrar owners.

 

[Name Trader]

Let this be a lesson, not to be repeated, that NetSol is not a reliable registrar to hold your domains. Too much drama.

 

[richtrading]

He's probably the most pro-active of all the registrar owners.

It seems like using auth codes for domains purchased at a well known, established, proven reliable Registrar is point (1) on any process.

Is there any difference to due diligence with an account "push" compared to using an auth code? I'd be included to prefer to use an auth code at well known established reliable registrar in my home country, rather than one in a foreign jurisdiction.

Or go via an escrow service with a 90-day holding period. This is common in the property/real-estate. in the UK we even have a 6-month AML Anti Money Laundering limit (restricted to do in under 6-months anything with a property). Most scammers stories unravel within 6 months I expect...

 

[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?