discuss There are some people list millions of other people's domain on Afternic

[70ym]

https://www.afternic.com/gdntc1
gdntc1

https://www.afternic.com/aliyuming
aliyuming

These people list about millions of other people's domain on afternic.
When I try to list my domain, it will show that my domain already list by these people. And I need to spend 10 minutes to send them an email and wait for a week if I want to list my domain.

 

[branding]

So, if you do not list with Godaddy, it appears that you have to remove your listings from your current Non-Godaaddy marketplace temporarily, You then make the control panels changes with ns3 or txt and redirect all of those domains to Godaddy (i.e. Dan or Afternic). You then wait for Godaddy to verify your ownersihip. Then. they delete the unauthorized listing. At thgat point you can redo all of your control panel setting to redirect your landers to your non-Godaddy marketplace.

They also neglect the fact that the domain listed could be in use. It's the most stupid solution I have heard from a tech company in a long time.

 

[Jannes]

And presumably all of this may be futile. Until Godaddy has mandatory verification upfront, there appears to be nothing to stop the fraudsters from relisting. You get todo this all over again every time you discover another unauthorized listing.

So it appears that there is nothing to stop the rogue sellers from relisting after you go through all of this effort.

At least on Afternic you have the option to unlist (so not delete), which should prevent future unauthorized listings (of those domain names).

Of course it shouldn't be that cumbersome.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

They also neglect the fact that the domain listed could be in use. It's the most stupid solution I have heard from a tech company in a long time.

Excellent point!

At least on Afternic you have the option to unlist (so not delete), which should prevent future unauthorized listings (of those domain names).

Of course it shouldn't be that cumbersome.

It's unclear what that "unlist" feature means. Why is it different from simply deleting the domain?

At this point, I prefer to delete all my domain listings until GoDaddy mandates the upfront domain ownership verification.

And by the way, If it is true that Afternic and Dan have been banned from ISPs in India, that's all the more concerning and compelling to avoid their marketplace.

 

[Hyphen]

I admittedly was not able to read through all 10 pages, but… how? How can these domains be fraudulently listed? Do they not enforce some sort of DNS verification in order to list a domain?

 

[branding]

I admittedly was not able to read through all 10 pages, but… how? How can these domains be fraudulently listed? Do they not enforce some sort of DNS verification in order to list a domain?

Sedo does, AN doesn't care. Your case if a fine example of why domain ownership verification should be mandatory.

 

[branding]

https://www.namepros.com/threads/sn...e-after-soliciting-me-to-purchase-it.1320488/

Which made @Hyphen enter this thread.

 

[Keith]

The biggest problem I see with afternic, and why I don’t list there -

They let people who do not own the domain to request that it be listed for sale. If you “authorize” via the button they send via email you’re screwed.

I have gotten loads of these requests to authorize and they are for valuable domains. It makes me consider moving away from Gadaddy and its partners…

 

[branding]

It makes me consider moving away from Gadaddy and its partners…

The bigger problem is, it's not solving the issue at hand. No matter who you use... They'll list your domains and try to pry them from your hands.

 

[Keith]

The bigger problem is, it's not solving the issue at hand. No matter who you use... They'll list your domains and try to pry them from your hands.

Not true.

For example, I’ve never got an unsolicited request from Name.com to authorize a sales listing.

 

[branding]

Not true.

For example, I’ve never got an unsolicited request from Name.com to authorize a sales listing.

Good to know! Thanks.

 

[Keith]

Good to know! Thanks.

I’ve had domains or have domains at many registrars. Aside from godaddy and its partner Afternic, not a single one has ever asked me to authorize a sales listing.

It’s basically a criminal offense and godaddy is at the forefront. That’s why they have fast transfer. All about sales!!!

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I have gotten loads of these requests to authorize and they are for valuable domains. It makes me consider moving away from Gadaddy and its partners…

That's what I ultimately decided to do.

The Afternic Block on my Dynadot account seemed like a good first step. But removing all the listings from the GoDaddy marketplaces ultimately seemed to make the most sense. GoDaddy (i.e also Dan and Afternic) still appears unwilling or unable to implement reliable mandatory initial verification.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

In the past hour, I noticed 17 unauthorized listings now on Afternic from my portfolio. Preliminary evidence is that they are again from Dan, being propagated to Godaddy search. These are domains that clearly again were submitted without any verification on Dan's part.

These "fake listings" were noted tonight after posing the question about whether Dan was banned in India. This was a simple, honest response to an ongoing thread.

At this point it is becoming ludicrous, how Dan apparently refuses to take this problem seriously. I truly now feel that the U.S. should consider banning Dan.com until they get their act together.

 

[Webmail]

Running into the same issue as everyone else here, I just posted in the Afternic thread about it:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/afternic-official-thread.1295231/post-9123734

I am also noticing a lot of my domains have been listed by someone else fraudulently on Afternic for prices much higher then what I am selling it for in other market places.

What I don't understand is how a company as large as GoDaddy would let such widespread fraud happen. A simple fix for this would be to implement nameserver verification prior to listing. This will eliminate this issue 100%.

Currently the way their system is setup is anyone can add any domain to their market place without any verification that they own the domain.

My theory is that a group of criminals are either manually or automatically listing a large number of other peoples domains they find in other market places for higher on Afternic. Their hope is that if a person buys the domain from their fake listing at a higher price @ Afternic they would then purchase the cheaper real listing domain and pocket the difference when they sell it. This would explain why the price they list it for at Afternic is always higher then the real listing at other places.

If you are reading this GoDaddy / Afternic please add some type of ownership verification prior to listing the domain instead of just when there is a conflict. This would stop fraudsters from listing other peoples domains.

This entire situation is very frustrating, hopefully Godaddy takes this issue seriously and does something about it.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Running into the same issue as everyone else here, I just posted in the Afternic thread about it:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/afternic-official-thread.1295231/post-9123734

Thank you for sharing that.

Three words describe this unending problem with Dan and Afternic: Out Of Control

 

[tld4me]

Running into the same issue as everyone else here, I just posted in the Afternic thread about it:

Report them to the FTC. Please.

 

[tld4me]

In the past hour, I noticed 17 unauthorized listings now on Afternic from my portfolio. Preliminary evidence is that they are again from Dan, being propagated to Godaddy search. These are domains that clearly again were submitted without any verification on Dan's part.

These "fake listings" were noted tonight after posing the question about whether Dan was banned in India. This was a simple, honest response to an ongoing thread.

At this point it is becoming ludicrous, how Dan apparently refuses to take this problem seriously. I truly now feel that the U.S. should consider banning Dan.com until they get their act together.

I don't know how the situation will change in the future as there seems to be ongoing chaos with GoDaddy/Afternic/Dan, but for now what I've found is: you need to have an Afternic account, at minimum. I went through removing fraudulent listings on Dan first, so please take that into consideration when reading this.

If the fraudulent listings originate from Afternic:
1) Create Afternic account
2) Upload list of your domains to them
3) Verify your domains with Afternic
4) Set domains as unlisted for sale

This will remove the fraudulent listings from the Afternic network and prevent others from listing them again as long as you own the domains and keep them verified.

If the fraudulent listings originate from Dan:
1) Create Dan account
2) Upload list of your domains to them
3) Verify your domains with Dan
4) There is no option on Dan to unlist the domains and keep them verified, so you have to set them as offer only and make reserve offer so ludicrous and high that no one will make an offer on the domain.

However, if you see a fraudulent listing on Dan and verify the domain on Dan, but if the fraudulent listing originated on Afternic: Verifying on Dan will only remove the listing from Dan and the Afternic listing will still remain across the Afternic network.

I don't see any other fraudulent listings for my domains that originate on Dan so I can't try verifying on Afternic first, to see if it also removes it from Dan. If that works, then having an Afternic account only may be possible.

I still consider this a shakedown and something that should be illegal. (if it isn't already)

As others have pointed to already, the fraudulent listers download lists from other marketplaces then upload them to Dan/Afternic and set higher prices. It's an easy scam with no overhead costs. I understand why they do it. If they don't get banned, it's sweet easy cash for any sale that does complete successfully. As more eyes get aware to this, I hope the scam grows causing more issues and frustration to eventually force GoDaddy to change their process. (Or have regulators step in and force GoDaddy to correct the problems they created)

I tend to think that GoDaddy execs sat in a boardroom years ago laughing about creating this evil situation. However, looking at what has recently happend with GoDaddy stripping functionality from Afternic without first incorporating those stripped features to GoDaddy: I start to think their boardroom meetings consist of a "wall of ideas" that they blindly throw darts at to make business decisions. *Chef's Kiss* to that stupidity.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

As others have pointed to already, the fraudulent listers download lists from other marketplaces then upload them to Dan/Afternic and set higher prices. It's an easy scam with no overhead costs. I understand why they do it. If they don't get banned, it's sweet easy cash for any sale that does complete successfully. As more eyes get aware to this, I hope the scam grows causing more issues and frustration to eventually force GoDaddy to change their process. (Or have regulators step in and force GoDaddy to correct the problems they created)

To me, it is becoming more and more apparent that GoDaddy is unwilling to stop the fraudulent listings. External forces such as regulators, including ICANN and the FTC may be essential at this point. And greater public awareness of these unsavory business tactics is prudent at this point.

Note that since the last post, I found even more unauthorized listings. It emphasizes to me that Godaddy appears extremely irresponsible in this matter, and appears to need external guidance to correct this pervasive problem.

 

[branding]

Generally speaking dan is quite ok. Biggest issue to date I have with dan is that I can add my domains to any random user's portfolio.

There's some scam/security issues with that.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Generally speaking dan is quite ok. Biggest issue to date I have with dan is that I can add my domains to any random user's portfolio.

There's some scam/security issues with that.

For me, Dan.com has been the worst offender of allowing these unauthorized and unwelcomed listings. There is obviously no attempt on Dan.com's part to mandate verification upfront.

In my opinion, the Dan marketplace, by allowing these rogue sellers to keep doing this, contributes to the impression of sleaziness in the domain-selling industry as a whole. Sad, indeed.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

As an update, very recently had a batch removed , but today now I am trying to remove about 30 new unauthorized listings. They appear to have been listed on Dan, and propagated to Afternic/GoDaddy.

Dan customer service is slow to respond to the removal request, so I've also asked Afternic to help.

My question to the forum is this. Is there a way to turn this into a positive situation?

The unwanted listings keep happening. There appears to be no interest on Dan or Afternic's part to mandate upfront verification. The usual scheme of the rogue selleris to post the domain for sale for sometimes 5-10x more than the actual seller's asking price.

So, is this one possible scenario as a solution?:

1) The actual owner raises their price on their own marketplace to at least what the rogue seller is asking. And they could even an extra $500+ for an added bonus

2) If someone buys the domain using the Dan or Afternic/Gd unauthorized listing, Gd/Dan/AN still mandates that the rogue seller needs to provide the domain.

3) The rogue seller ends up buying the domain with zero profit or at a loss, and tranfers it to the new buyer. The actual owner gets a decent sale, with the added bonus.

For those of you no longer listing at Dan and Afternic, would this be a reasonable resolution? As long as Gd/AN/Dan mandates that a seller produces the domain they listed, this could be a plus for actual owners with listings elsewhere--ones tired of repeatedly asking for unauthorized listings to be removed?

 

[tld4me]

As an update, another 31 unauthorized listings now have shown up. They appear to have been listed on Dan, and propagated to Afternic/GoDaddy.

I am awaiiting their removal. Dan customer service is slow to respond to the removal request.

My question to the forum is this. Is there a way to turn this into a positive situation?

The unwanted listings keep happening. There appears to be no interest on Dan or Afternic's part to mandate upfront verification. The usual scheme of the rogue selleris to post the domain for sale for sometimes 5-10x more than the actual seller's asking price.

So, is this one possible scenario as a solution?:

1) The actual owner raises their price on their own marketplace to at least what the rogue seller is asking. And they could even an extra $500+ for an added bonus

2) If someone buys the domain using the Dan or Afternic/Gd unauthorized listing, Gd/Dan/AN still mandates that the rogue seller needs to provide the domain.

3) The rogue seller ends up buying the domain with zero profit or at a loss, but the actual owner presumably gets a decent sale.

For those of you no longer listing at Dan and Afternic, would this be a reasonable resolution? As long as Gd/AN/Dan mandates that a seller produces the domain they listed, this could be a plus for actual owners with listings elsewhere--ones tired of repeatedly asking for unauthorized listings to be removed?

I don't think there is a positive to the situation, unless you want to start selling through Afternic/Dan.

You could do this scenario you describe to play a game with the fraudulent sellers I guess?

The problem is that raising the prices of your domains 5-10x what they are at now is going to possibly turn off a lot of potential buyers.

For instance say I want to sell something for $75, which is what I deem a reasonable price for some domain. The fraudulent lister puts it up for $750. Now every registrar that is part of the Afternic network displays this $750 price when some random person searches for the domain name. Many more people may be interested at $75. Instead they move on to something cheaper.

I think you can certainly do what you are saying, but if you currently price your domains reasonably, now they are no longer reasonable. And if the fraud lister see's your price change, they may up it again too.

Since you are already verifying all your domains with Afternic/Dan, you might as well have an account there and control the status of the domains yourself. Then you can unlist from Afternic if you chose not to use them, or price unreasonably high on Dan so you aren't bothered there if you don't want to use them either.

Not a good solution, but the only one provided to us that doesn't consume our lives playing cat and mouse with fraudulent listers that have no skin in the game.

In my opinion, the next easy step that GoDaddy/Afternic/Dan hope for is: "Well... you're already here with this nice account and all your domains are verified... How about you just try selling with us!"

Edit to say: It's really a clever scam produced by GoDaddy/Afternic/Dan. I mean, they have to have no consideration or decency for people, but it's a great way to obtain more customers, learn first source leads for who owns what, and make more money.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Thank you, @tld4me for your very thoughtful response.

I don't think there is a positive to the situation, unless you want to start selling through Afternic/Dan.

You could do this scenario you describe to play a game with the fraudulent sellers I guess?

The problem is that raising the prices of your domains 5-10x what they are at now is going to possibly turn off a lot of potential buyers.

Actually, I may have been underpricing the domains. I have paid attention to certain ones that they were listing for much higher-- more in line with GoDaddy and Estibot appraisals. That much I have appreciated!

Yes, one could look at this as a "cat and mouse" approach. To me, it's more of a pragmatic approach. Last I read, the terms of use indicates that one is expected to be able to produce the domain being listed. The penalties for not doing so can be severe, including collection agencies and legal action. Well, one need come to that. Simply pay up and complete the transaction!

Since you are already verifying all your domains with Afternic/Dan, you might as well have an account there and control the status of the domains yourself. Then you can unlist from Afternic if you chose not to use them, or price unreasonably high on Dan so you aren't bothered there if you don't want to use them either.

Way not interested! Too many incidents have happened. For one, I'm only interested in marketplaces that mandate ownership verification upfront.

Also, keeping life simple matters. For example,even an honest individual could accidentally have a "fake listing" if they didn't renew or sold off and didn't delete their domain. The advantage of a registrar marketplace is the built-in protections for that. And, for simplicity sake, I'd just as well have someone searching for my domain not get distracted by hunting on various platforms. As Bob Hawkes pointed out, even with one price on your FT listings, each of the affiliates can present significantly different prices.

Right now, I prefer the simplicity of one marketplace.

 

[tld4me]

I don't know how the situation will change in the future as there seems to be ongoing chaos with GoDaddy/Afternic/Dan, but for now what I've found is: you need to have an Afternic account, at minimum. I went through removing fraudulent listings on Dan first, so please take that into consideration when reading this.

If the fraudulent listings originate from Afternic:
1) Create Afternic account
2) Upload list of your domains to them
3) Verify your domains with Afternic
4) Set domains as unlisted for sale

This will remove the fraudulent listings from the Afternic network and prevent others from listing them again as long as you own the domains and keep them verified.

If the fraudulent listings originate from Dan:
1) Create Dan account
2) Upload list of your domains to them
3) Verify your domains with Dan
4) There is no option on Dan to unlist the domains and keep them verified, so you have to set them as offer only and make reserve offer so ludicrous and high that no one will make an offer on the domain.

However, if you see a fraudulent listing on Dan and verify the domain on Dan, but if the fraudulent listing originated on Afternic: Verifying on Dan will only remove the listing from Dan and the Afternic listing will still remain across the Afternic network.

I don't see any other fraudulent listings for my domains that originate on Dan so I can't try verifying on Afternic first, to see if it also removes it from Dan. If that works, then having an Afternic account only may be possible.

I still consider this a shakedown and something that should be illegal. (if it isn't already)

As others have pointed to already, the fraudulent listers download lists from other marketplaces then upload them to Dan/Afternic and set higher prices. It's an easy scam with no overhead costs. I understand why they do it. If they don't get banned, it's sweet easy cash for any sale that does complete successfully. As more eyes get aware to this, I hope the scam grows causing more issues and frustration to eventually force GoDaddy to change their process. (Or have regulators step in and force GoDaddy to correct the problems they created)

I tend to think that GoDaddy execs sat in a boardroom years ago laughing about creating this evil situation. However, looking at what has recently happend with GoDaddy stripping functionality from Afternic without first incorporating those stripped features to GoDaddy: I start to think their boardroom meetings consist of a "wall of ideas" that they blindly throw darts at to make business decisions. *Chef's Kiss* to that stupidity.

Replying back to one of my previous posts. Maybe this info will help others. This gets long, so please bear with me.

You need both an Afternic account and a Dan account to protect/remove fraudulent listings, or to even take the listings away from previous owners.

I had some new domains to list for sale that I didn't want for sale through Afternic, Dan, or the Afternic network. I went to Afternic first to upload the domain names into my account. 1 domain errored out. Needed to be verified. I checked on other registrars websites searching for the domain, and it was indeed listed for sale on the Afternic network. (not by me)

So I added a TXT record to the domain and it verified correctly on Afternic. Then I unlisted the name. I checked searching on other registrar websites and it was now removed from the Afternic network.

All the other domain names I added on Afternic didn't require verification. They hadn't been listed on the Afternic network previously, I guess. Unlisted them too on Afternic.

Logged into my Dan account. Added the same domain names there. The same behavior happened. The 1 domain didn't get added to my account, the rest did. Received an email that the 1 domain failed. I searched Dan and the domain was still listed for sale there by the previous seller. I had to add another TXT record to the domain for Dan. Then received an email that Dan verified the domain. It was then removed from the previous seller's account and was in my account.

So adding your domains to your Afternic account will give you control of the listing on Afternic and the Afternic network. It will NOT remove the listing from Dan. You have to verify the domain on Dan too to have control of it.

Since the majority of the domains weren't previously listed for sale on either platform, I wasn't required to verify the domains. So I could add the same domains to each account for each company. Simply adding the domains first to Afternic and marking them unlisted, will not protect your domains from being listed on Dan.

Also, you can list the domain's for different "buy it now" prices on Dan even if you have it unlisted on Afternic. Dan will give you an error message that it won't put the price on the Afternic network as it is already listed with Afternic, BUT it will still allow for the different "buy it now" price to be listed and searched for on Dan.

WHAT.A.MESS

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

So adding your domains to your Afternic account will give you control of the listing on Afternic and the Afternic network. It will NOT remove the listing from Dan. You have to verify the domain on Dan too to have control of it.

Since the majority of the domains weren't previously listed for sale on either platform, I wasn't required to verify the domains. So I could add the same domains to each account for each company. Simply adding the domains first to Afternic and marking them unlisted, will not protect your domains from being listed on Dan.

Also, you can list the domain's for different "buy it now" prices on Dan even if you have it unlisted on Afternic. Dan will give you an error message that it won't put the price on the Afternic network as it is already listed with Afternic, BUT it will still allow for the different "buy it now" price to be listed and searched for on Dan.

WHAT.A.MESS

Yes, and this is futile. In my experience, the domains get relisted again, sometimes by some other account name.

Dan, Afternic, and Godaddy need to stop this.

If someone contacts them alleging they have a fraudulent listing, they can remove the domain to a "review" status immediatey. They can then ask the alleged rogue seller to verify ownership. If they are unwilling or unable to do so, remove the listing permanently with a block status. That way, any further attempts to list would require verification upfront. And if the alleged rogue sellers have multiple listings removed this way, why not ban them permanently.

And you wouldn't need to be wasting any more precious time in your life on repeatedly adding txt verifications, awaiting removal, and doing this time and time again!