Stolen domain!

[golddiggerguy]

So Domain monster are the catchers and claim I booked a catch with them
Within 100th of a second as someone else on the same day, hour, etc which they say allowed this freak of technology to happen.

They claim yes they caught it for me but They then checked and found that someone else had booked 100th of a second before me and so. Took it into their power to transfer it to another account and change the Whois on the domain.

Below is the Whois from when I had it caught.


**Domain name:
******Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.co.uk

**Registrant:
******Media Blocks Ltd

**Registrant type:
******Unknown

**Registrant's address:
******11 Claytons Fold
******Gilberdyke
******East Ridng Of Yorkshire
******HU15 2QW
******United Kingdom

**Registrar:
******Mesh Digital Limited t/a Domainmonster.com [Tag = MONSTER]
******URL: http://www.domainmonster.com

**Relevant dates:
******Registered on: 16-Sep-2010
******Renewal date: *16-Sep-2012

**Registration status:
******Registration request being processed.

**Name servers:
******No name servers listed.

**WHOIS lookup made at 11:12:33 16-Sep-2010

 

[davedevelopment]

They claim yes they caught it for me but They then checked and found that someone else had booked 100th of a second before me and so. Took it into their power to transfer it to another account and change the Whois on the domain.

And hope you didn't notice?

 

[fish]

What's the next course of action for you?

 

[Ashton]

100th of a second? This all seems a bit too much of a coincidence. Hmm.

 

[Edwin]

100th of a second? This all seems a bit too much of a coincidence. Hmm.

Given that Domain Monster have hundreds of thousands of domains under management (millions?) and are spending widely on advertising (e.g. sponsors of the recent Meet Domainers show in Manchester) what conceivable reason could there be for them to DELIBERATELY cheat somebody out of ONE domain? That makes no commercial sense, whatever way you look at it...

If you flip enough coins, you'll eventually end up flipping 10 heads in a row. It's unlikely, but not impossible. Similarly, if enough people use DM's drop catching system often enough, an unlikely occurrence such as a near-simultaneous domain booking is surely possible?

So Domain monster are the catchers and claim I booked a catch with them
Within 100th of a second as someone else on the same day, hour, etc which they say allowed this freak of technology to happen.

NOTE: I can understand that you're annoyed, for sure, but I hope you can see why it's so unlikely that this is malicious rather than coincidential?

 

[Ashton]

I wasn't hinting it was malicious.

I believe that perhaps there is something wrong in the system which caused the requests to be sent at the same time.


Oh, btw: Flipping a coin on heads 10 times in a row is just as likely as any other combination.

 

[monaghan]

They claim yes they caught it for me but They then checked and found that someone else had booked 100th of a second before me and so. Took it into their power to transfer it to another account and change the Whois on the domain.

If they accepted 2 bookings on the same name, then they should be offering compensation to the other party for the error, not making changes to the domain without the registrant's authority. Sounds very fishy to me.

 

[davedevelopment]

Reading the explanation, I didn't think it was malicious, but trying to cover it up without explanation is out of order. I've had a similar situation with another catcher, but it was dealt with a lot more appropriately, in that they got in touch with me and told me what had happened.

I'm still coding up a public catching panel (still not sure if I'm ever going to offer the service), and one of the things I've done is a ticketmaster style "you've got 5 minutes to book this domain", coupled with database transactions, should stop this happening. If I can do it, I'd have thought domain monster could.

Oh, btw: Flipping a coin on heads 10 times in a row is just as likely as any other combination.

But there are a lot of combinations.

 

[dlone]

If they accepted 2 bookings on the same name, then they should be offering compensation to the other party for the error, not making changes to the domain without the registrant's authority. Sounds very fishy to me.

Have to agree with that.

 

[aZooZa]

It was registered to Andy and Nominet confirmed has was the registrant. I had the whois snapshot above the instant it dropped. There is no plausible excuse. The odds of it being booked twice within 100th of a second are staggering. I'm not going to get involved in more 'catcher slagging' but this stinks. The person who now owns it missed it when it dropped last time.

 

[Ashton]

But there are a lot of combinations.

There are a HELL of a lot of 100ms'

Something went very wrong whatever the situation, it should have been sorted long before the drop. Surely DM get confirmation emails as soon as it happens, and those 2 emails would have to be RIGHT next to each other. This is bizarre.


EDIT: Didn't DM completely abuse their position by changing the details after they had already changed to yours?

 

[GreyWing]

I agree 100% Dale, It's theft in my opinion. Once it has been registered the registra has no claim over it, other than to cancel it if the bill is not paid.

This took such deliberate action from Domain Monster that it beggars belief that they thought they would get away with it.

 

[grantw]

If they accepted 2 bookings on the same name, then they should be offering compensation to the other party for the error, not making changes to the domain without the registrant's authority. Sounds very fishy to me.

Have to agree with this. Regardless of the cause, DM have amended the admin email address on your domain without your authorisation and the current owner has then ticked the box at Nominet stating that they were authorised to transfer the domain when they clearly weren't as you were the registrant.

Pretty screwed up situation!

Grant

 

[golddiggerguy]

I didn't book it the minute or even day it was suspended. (will check)
So I don't think 2 people booked the same domain at the same time within milliseconds with DM.

The odds of the above are mind blowing and don't even think you could do it even If you tried!

I will be taking this further with nominet and other paths.

 

[Ashton]

I didn't book it the minute or even day it was suspended. (will check)
So I don't think 2 people booked the same domain at the same time within milliseconds with DM.

The odds of the above are mind blowing and don't even think you could do it even If you tried!

I will be taking this further with nominet and other paths.

I totally agree.

You have been done an injustice.

Please keep us updated when possible.

 

[rob]

It was registered to Andy and Nominet confirmed has was the registrant. I had the whois snapshot above the instant it dropped. There is no plausible excuse. The odds of it being booked twice within 100th of a second are staggering. I'm not going to get involved in more 'catcher slagging' but this stinks. The person who now owns it missed it when it dropped last time.

I didn't book it the minute or even day it was suspended. (will check)
So I don't think 2 people booked the same domain at the same time within milliseconds with DM.

The odds of the above are mind blowing and don't even think you could do it even If you tried!

I will be taking this further with nominet and other paths.

Agreed, imagine booking randomdomain.co.uk now, or now, or now. Thats x days before it drops.

Euromillions has better odds

As for logging into nom and moving it, thats a deliberate act.

All very odd and the excuse is just that IMHO.

 

[stevebrowne]

Agree. If the domain was registered to you, then they cannot do anything to it without your permission. To do otherwise would, in theory, jeopordise their entire business model and registrar status.

If there was a muddle at their end and they caught it for the wrong person, then the only way to fix the problem is to buy the domain off the owner at a negotiated price, and give it to the person they should have caught it for.

Mistakes happen, but they have no right to change the owner once it has been caught.

 

[GlasgowBob]

As much as I like DM and still use I was concerned one time when they renewed one of my domains when it was suspended because they had a new owner lined up.

Even though i was letting it drop I felt it was underhand and a conflict of interest in the the domain dropping process.

According to DM all registrars "take first pick" and Nom say it is down to T&C.

 

[mally]

During the meetdomainers event in one of the sessions, a high level speaker from domain monster said dm offered a back ordering service and do not deem it as a drop catching service. Not sure why they would say that considering it's >£30 a time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Retired_member41]

Domain monster I didn't expect. But it doesn't surprise me. I cancelled a few . Coms with them months back. And the other day I was billed £90 for two that had been caught. I asked them to look at their logs and they didn't seem to have them correct.

I am currently taking further action as I reckon there log keeping I way off.

Anyone changing a registrant like this should be kicked out of nominet immediately. But I don't think they will.

Would an old fashioned petition from members work I wonder?