[RESOLVED] - GoDaddy Stolen Live Domain From Account

[tbelfort]

I've been with GoDaddy for years and never had any issues up until now, but on the 11th of April I received an email saying "a domain you have cancelled has been removed from your account"

I have a receipt for a 1 year renewal on the domain from July 2024, so it wasn't due to expire.

Every time I contact support I get a different story.

One support guy even told me I need to buy it again at auction.

Another told me to email auctions.

Another told me that I transferred it to another account, but they can't tell me who it's been transferred to. This is impossible because my account is 2FA secured, plus, I haven't had a need to login to my account as everything is on autorenewal. I sent them a screenshot of my last logins, which showed the last login to the account was February 1st 2025 until I logged in on the 11th of April after getting the email.

I've spent about 50 euros in support calls at this stage and made 10+ support requests on the web. I can't get anywhere.

This is an active live domain in my business, and I have over 120 other domains on this account with them. How can they just steal a domain from my account and ignore me?

Does anyone know anyone I can contact to get help, because the standard numbers are of no use. They just tell me they can't help and give me someone to email, and so far everyone I've emailed has ignored me.

One person even told me my domain is currently listed for sale on the auctions.

This is pretty disgusting. I don't see how it's possible at this stage to run a business on any domains on godaddy if they can just take them without your permission and with no recourse.

And this isn't even just a throwaway domain. It's an auction domain I paid a lot of money for. I have $100's of thousands worth of auction domains with godaddy in fact, so I am potentially at risk of them just taking any domain they please at any time. I have owned this domain since 2023 and have an active business on it.

 

[pb]

Doesn't sound halal or kosher

or vegan

 

[D Haynes]

Meanwhile GD higher-ups circle jerking, completely oblivious (or ignorant) of the shit show they're running.

 

[URL Stream]

I even have advanced security called DTVS, which requires pushes and transfers be manually confirmed with my account rep.

Doesn't sound to advanced to me

It's all relative as to where the bar starts.

 

[DN_Hunter]

So would the takeaway for all of us be to list every name we have on Afternic (but make them inactive)? That way another seller can't add?

This is the approach I have taken -- ever since a while ago when they had that 4-Letter.com issue where some bad actors were adding 4-Letter domains to Afternic. I had a few of mine get listed by someone else. Since then I've added all of my names to Afternic just to prevent someone else from adding them. I don't make them inactive -- I just put a MIN OFFER (No BIN and No Floor) and change the lander to allow "Make Offer" -- so they could come through using their new Self Brokerage feature (but I have not had any self-brokerage leads come through yet).

One drawback of listing everything at Afternic -- it allows them to claim bloated numbers of domain names listed at Afternic (I wonder how many are only listed as "blockers")?

 

[Future Sensors]

One drawback of listing everything at Afternic -- it allows them to claim bloated numbers of domain names listed at Afternic (I wonder how many are only listed as "blockers")?

The number of domains that have NS delegated to Afternic tells a clear story.

Contrary to my expectations, this figure has surged over the past year—thanks in part to the transition from DAN to Afternic.

ns1.afternic.com
3.5 million domains

ns3.afternic.com
1.1 million domains

ns5.afternic.com
1 million domains

In reality, the true count will be significantly higher, as some TLD zones aren’t measured, and the use of http redirects further boosts the overall number. Furthermore, many listings lack an Afternic landing page, which means the actual number of Afternic listings will be considerably higher.

The exact percentage of total listings that are inaccurate or fraudulent remains uncertain.

 

[dirk]

I always wonder why GD, being the biggest registrar, simply lacks any form of decent security measures. So many SPOF in their backend.

Anyway, glad it was resolved. I do recommended filing an ICANN complain nevertheless. They should be held accountable for the shit show they're running.

The bigger they get, the bigger of a risk they become. Not just for domainers, envision this happening to an end user.

And it's not just theory, it's happening every single day. GD/AN is insecure as f*.

 

[NameBuyer.com]

At the very least the email needs to say something like :

A user named Firstname Lastname with address Some Address, and account email [email protected] wants you to authorize domain some_domain.com for listing on Afternic.

I've seen this flaw for years and it's been a concern in the back of my mind. This is the very minimum they need to add. I don't even want to talk about my concerns of this triggering approvals at external registrars where people do mass approvals for Afternic Fast Transfer. In my opinion, if I have my domains at an external registrar and they are approved on afternic, it should have my afternic email or account ID listed in my external registrar so I can easily see where they have been approved, or where they are being requested for approval.

 

[jamesau]

Fast transfer looks great on paper, but there are just too many risks involved in my opinion. In this case, it is also not a great experience for the buyer if they were legitimate.

I use Dynadot's auto-reject feature that works for both Afternic and Sedo, so I don't get these listing requests and accidentally click on them:

https://www.dynadot.com/community/help/question/auto-reject-listings

Didn't even know this feature existed. Another great reason to choose Dynadot.

 

[NameCup]

thanks for your share

 

[silentg]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1925405537543626783

 

[a.Dot]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1925405537543626783

That's a really interesting name: teletherapists.com. I wonder, who is the rightful owner? I'd actually like to read their specific terms of service and their details on how to conceptualize the legitimacy of the seller's right to transfer? Do you have that info? It seems beyond the 60-day transfer lock.