[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]

porkbun

 

[DNabc]

When companies don't value your business, we move on, never keep rewarding them if they don't care.

 

[Daniel Owens]

Are there any registers that we can move domains without renewing and just use them there for $0 (no renewal required or transfer-fee and year not included)? It would be helpful to be able to move free and manage at a new register with $0 fees even if renewals not included.

 

[forge]

and manage at a new register with $0 fees even if renewals not included.

WhatAreUSmokingDomains.com

 

[Daniel Owens]

WhatAreUSmokingDomains.com

Lol nice try invalid site haha. There should be a domain register to let us manage things also that domain can be hand-regged.

 

[Daniel Owens]

Are there any registers that we can move domains without renewing and just use them there for $0 (no renewal required or transfer-fee and year not included)? It would be helpful to be able to move free and manage at a new register with $0 fees even if renewals not included.

Hoping someone has a good reply for this question?
Godaddy is king but some at other registers is nice too especially if experiencing issues like he is. A $0 transfer-in would be nice. I'm tempted to open an icann accredited register and offer that.

 

[Future Sensors]

As is characteristic of significant issues surrounding GoDaddy, Google has produced a podcast that meticulously dissects this NamePros thread.

 

[EtherealEmilie]

I'm looking at either porkbun or cloudflare as an alternative to godaddy.

I have a personal bias in favor of Cloudflare (as a dev), however they don't offer tools to manage domains in bulk, and on their free tier (and plans are on a domain basis — $20/month minimum) you're stuck to using their nameservers, which can be an issue it you use a marketplace's landing page for example. It depends on what you need, their service has many benefits, but it can also be limiting.

You might have been aware of this already, but I wanted to highlight these potential shortcomings just in case.

 

[Daniel Owens]

I have a personal bias in favor of Cloudflare (as a dev), however they don't offer tools to manage domains in bulk, and on their free tier (and plans are on a domain basis — $20/month minimum) you're stuck to using their nameservers, which can be an issue it you use a marketplace's landing page for example. It depends on what you need, their service has many benefits, but it can also be limiting.

You might have been aware of this already, but I wanted to highlight these potential shortcomings just in case.

I'm pretty sure you can point the dns records like A-records to the server of your choice. So basically the default dns then set records to edit. The real thing though is you might have a afternic or dan or whatever lander but the lower commission or if you get the discount when it's dns or if it has to be exact nameservers.

 

[love4ever]

I've had 2FA on my account for years now. Only my iphone and ipad have the codes. Both are protected by codes/facial recognition and only my wife and myself have access.

Are you in good term lately with your wife ? Maybe she...

.

 

[pb]

Are there any registers that we can move domains without renewing and just use them there for $0 (no renewal required or transfer-fee and year not included)? It would be helpful to be able to move free and manage at a new register with $0 fees even if renewals not included.

And whose idea do you think it was to require renewal at transfer? There are some ccTLD registries that allow for free transfers, but every registry supervised by ICANN has paid transfers, coincidence?

https://gnso.icann.org/en/about/stakeholders-constituencies
Take a magnifying glass and try to find someone who represents registrants' rights.

 

[Rajkotian]

This is taking an interesting turn! Imagine someone with lots of domains, probably involved with GoDaddy Auctions/Afternic, OR even if they simply ignore this email and one day find that their domain was just gone!

 

[EtherealEmilie]

I'm pretty sure you can point the dns records like A-records to the server of your choice. So basically the default dns then set records to edit. The real thing though is you might have a afternic or dan or whatever lander but the lower commission or if you get the discount when it's dns or if it has to be exact nameservers.

Yes, you can do that, but — as you pointed out — you have to pay a higher commission fee.
Thanks for adding this though, as I had forgotten about this option.

 

[tbelfort]

UPDATE:

GoDaddy rep on here has let me know they are doing an investigation and will be following up with me.

 

[Future Sensors]

UPDATE:

GoDaddy rep on here has let me know they are doing an investigation and will be following up with me.

This is a jolly good development. Clearly, the previous email sent by GoDaddy's "Account Recovery Team" should not have been dispatched in that manner.

 

[EtherealEmilie]

Are there any registers that we can move domains without renewing and just use them there for $0 (no renewal required or transfer-fee and year not included)? It would be helpful to be able to move free and manage at a new register with $0 fees even if renewals not included.

It's not possible for most TLDs because the registry requires the registration to be extended by one year upon a transfer (some more), I'm not sure it's an ICANN "requirement" (like pb suggests above) for gTLDs, but ccTLDs aren't much better, while some allow free transfer (without registration extension), some other will charge you for the transfer without even extending the registration.
Registrars are only windows to the registries, they charge you what the registry charges and take a margin to survive. They can't decide to charge you nothing for something that isn't free; unless they pay for it themselves, but that wouldn't be a sustainable business, and even illegal in some countries.

Let's try not to hijack this thread with digressions though.

 

[tbelfort]

It's not possible for most TLDs because the registry requires the registration to be extended by one year upon a transfer (some more), I'm not sure it's an ICANN "requirement" (like pb suggests above) for gTLDs, but ccTLDs aren't much better, while some allow free transfer (without registration extension), some other will charge you for the transfer without even extending the registration.
Registrars are only windows to the registries, they charge you what the registry charges and take a margin to survive. They can't decide to charge you nothing for something that isn't free; unless they pay for it themselves, but that wouldn't be a sustainable business, and even illegal in some countries.

Let's try not to hijack this thread with digressions though.

I don't mind. It's relevant, and it keeps the thread active/visible which is helpful. I'll also still continue to post updates, so feel free to digress as much as you like.

 

[Namey123]

@tbelfort you can try reaching out to @James Iles (GoDaddy's Domain Investment Community Manager) or @Joe Styler [Senior Marketing Manager - Domain Academy (GoDaddy)] to see if they can help (or at least point you to someone who can).

Please let us know how it goes!

 

[Future Sensors]

@Namey123 The @GoDaddy account is managed by James, and he has contributed to this thread and DM already.

 

[Namey123]

@Namey123 The @GoDaddy account is managed by James, and he has contributed to this thread and DM already.

Hi @Future Sensors, I'm seeing this now, thanks...and thanks for the the info re @GoDaddy being managed by James.