[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.

 

[Future Sensors]

I will absolutely update here and everywhere else with the final outcome.

Welcome to the forum

 

[Yanosh]

Well , i think you proved enough
Hope it ends well and you get back your domain with an explanation from GoDaddy

 

[dirk]

Interesting case given provided documentation. Following. Good luck @tbelfort !

 

[tbelfort]

Welcome to the forum

Thank-you! I'll keep my membership active and stick around. It's a great and very friendly forum.

 

[kool1]

Looks like there was a whois update on 4/10 the day before it was deleted.

The GoDaddy rep will know best.

Maybe an ICANN dispute regarding invalid whois?

Check your associated junk mail around that same date.

GL

 

[fka1080405]

The email notification is the same notification that is received when a domain is sold via Afternic and then transferred by the GoDaddy broker from your account to the buyer. There's the possibility that the domain has been listed on Afternic by mistake (it is possible to do so via your GoDaddy account (although seems unlikely)) or a GoDaddy broker has made a mistake when transferring a different domain (e.g: they've typed "band.com" instead of "banb.com").

Do you have any other emails from GoDaddy like "Your registrant domain name change is pending." or "Change of account confirmed for example.com" and/or any emails from `[email protected]`?

GoDaddy will be able to confirm what actually happened, but in the meantime, you may wish to review your GoDaddy domain portfolio to ensure that none of your domains are unintentionally listed for sale.

(I guess, theoretically, there could be some sort of GoDaddy / Afternic exploit where someone lists a domain they don't own for sale and then agree a sale and that causes the GoDaddy system to transfer the domain to the buyer's account. Seems very unlikely, but plausible given the Afternic system and GoDaddy system are integrated. Or, perhaps, it was previously listed for sale by someone else, and after you bought it at auction, it remained listed for sale under their account and GoDaddy has accidentally facilitated a sale by the previous owner.)

 

[bmugford]

The email notification is the same notification that is received when a domain is sold via Afternic and then transferred by the GoDaddy broker from your account to the buyer. There's the possibility that the domain has been listed on Afternic by mistake (it is possible to do so via your GoDaddy account (although seems unlikely)) or a GoDaddy broker has made a mistake when transferring a different domain (e.g: they've typed "band.com" instead of "banb.com").

Do you have any other emails from GoDaddy like "Your registrant domain name change is pending." or "Change of account confirmed for example.com" and/or any emails from `[email protected]`?

GoDaddy will be able to confirm what actually happened, but in the meantime, you may wish to review your GoDaddy domain portfolio to ensure that none of your domains are unintentionally listed for sale.

(I guess, theoretically, there could be some sort of GoDaddy / Afternic exploit where someone lists a domain they don't own for sale and then agree a sale and that causes the GoDaddy system to transfer the domain to the buyer's account. Seems very unlikely, but plausible given the Afternic system and GoDaddy system are integrated. Or, perhaps, it was previously listed for sale by someone else, and after you bought it at auction, it remained listed for sale under their account and GoDaddy has accidentally facilitated a sale by the previous owner.)

The Afternic sale option is something that came to my mind also.

I could see a sale being facilitated by accidental listing or via nefarious means.

After this is resolved, it would be in the best interest of @GoDaddy to address this publicly.

It is a concern when it comes to ownership and security issues.

There needs to be a good explanation for what happened.

Brad

 

[kool1]

The email notification is the same notification that is received when a domain is sold via Afternic and then transferred by the GoDaddy broker from your account to the buyer....

Agreed. I was checking sales @ nambio that start with 'ban' when you suggested this.

The name can be found using the timestamp data string, either original date or updated date.

 

[Future Sensors]

The Afternic sale option is something that came to my mind also.

I've been increasingly concerned about the further integration of the Afternic dashboard with the GoDaddy domain registration dashboard. This trend is becoming more noticeable, as you can now list a domain on the aftermarket with just a few clicks in GoDaddy Domain Control Center (DCC). The most recent example involves linking GoDaddy and Afternic accounts to confirm that you're paying for the premium functionalities of GoDaddy Discount Domain Club (DDC), allowing you to engage in "self-brokerage" via Afternic. With just a few more steps, Afternic could theoretically be fully integrated into GoDaddy, which I believe is the intended goal. This deeper integration is not a pleasant prospect for GoDaddy registrants and Afternic sellers who prefer to keep these functionalities strictly separate.

 

[Daniel Owens]

I see the domain was updated four days ago seems a little early to open a thread like this. I would’ve allowed at least 10 days before opening a thread like this however I hope you get it resolved and I’m sure it’s probably just a glitch in the Go Daddy system.

 

[Future Sensors]

I see the domain was updated four days ago seems a little early to open a thread like this. I would’ve allowed at least 10 days before opening a thread like this however I hope you get it resolved and I’m sure it’s probably just a glitch in the Go Daddy system.

I don’t agree with that perspective. We’ve witnessed domains mysteriously disappearing from the GoDaddy dashboard before, and it’s crucial to report such issues as early as possible—especially since GoDaddy, with its well-known slow response times, often takes ages to act.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/missing-domain-names-in-my-godaddy-account.1333022/

 

[Daniel Owens]

I don’t agree with that perspective. We’ve witnessed domains mysteriously disappearing from the GoDaddy dashboard before, and it’s crucial to report such issues as early as possible—especially since GoDaddy, with its well-known slow response times, often takes ages to act.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/missing-domain-names-in-my-godaddy-account.1333022/

My perspective is to report it to Go Daddy right away. I was just referring to opening a thread so quickly after I don’t see how that benefits the opening poster, but it is my opinion. I hope he gets a domains back. I think normally it takes about a week for them to get back to you if you send it to the technicians.

 

[Daniel Owens]

My perspective is to report it to Go Daddy right away. I was just referring to opening a thread so quickly after I don’t see how that benefits the opening poster, but it is my opinion. I hope he gets a domains back. I think normally it takes about a week for them to get back to you if you send it to the technicians.

That’s the downside you contact the auction team and it takes a long time to hear back. Hopefully, something good does come out of this thread. I just thought it was a little premature, but it does sound like he tried to contact them on the phone.

 

[Future Sensors]

My perspective is to report it to Go Daddy right away. I was just referring to opening a thread so quickly after I don’t see how that benefits the opening poster, but it is my opinion. I hope he gets a domains back. I think normally it takes about a week for them to get back to you if you send it to the technicians.

In the first post you can read that this was not fruitful.

 

[Daniel Owens]

In the first post you can read that this was not fruitful.

He may not have contacted the right people they would’ve helped him. I would hope.

 

[Future Sensors]

He may not have contacted the right people they would’ve helped him. I would hope.

There are not a lot of options to bypass customer support for most customers. They did contact them several times.

 

[Daniel Owens]

“So far everyone I've emailed has ignored me” how long did you wait?

 

[Daniel Owens]

There are not a lot options to bypass customer support for most customers. They did contact them several times.

You don’t contact customer support for an issue like that they’re useless no offense to go daddy as most of my domains are there.

 

[Daniel Owens]

You don’t contact customer support for an issue like that they’re useless no offense to go daddy as most of my domains are there.

What would help is if we knew the domain that might give us a better idea?

 

[Daniel Owens]

One thing that I would wonder is if someone else sold the domain because people all the time or listing other people’s domains and if by mistake, it was transferred to a buyer. That would be a rather crazy scenario though.