9 ms·

Not wanting to point fingers or start conspiracy theories, but what guarantee is there that GoDaddy didn't squat this domain? They had an employee act as "broke

Not wanting to point fingers or start conspiracy theories, but what guarantee is there that GoDaddy didn't squat this domain? They had an employee act as "broker", and it seems there was little information about the original owner revealed. I ask because, years ago, I had a few friends tell me that they searched a domain name on a few registrars, found them available, then upon trying to buy them found that they were already registered. They suspected foul play on the part of the registrar. I own a few domains, and haven't come across this, but I'd like to know the current state of affairs. Is this a thing? Are there protections in place to prevent this? How do you avoid this? Is domain squatting still the wild-west?

sen 5y ago
GoDaddy absolutely squats recent searches. So so many other registrars. It’s been like that for many years now and has been proven time and time again. The only registrar I trust currently is Namecheap. They’re not perfect but they don’t do any major dark patterns.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- asah 5y ago
  I'm assuming Google doesn't squat.
  - asah 5y ago
    a bit more color: it's not that Google "wouldn't" necessarily squat (I don't know), it's just that they reserve "aggressive monetization practices" like this for 100x larger businesses, like search and commerce ads, maps, gsuite, GCP, etc.
dotancohen 5y ago
This used to be widespread. The registrar can reserve the name for up to 48 hours IIRC without itself having to pay. Godaddy in particular would justify the behaviour by "ensuring that nobody would snatch the names that it already said you could register". Of course, it was always obvious that this was to prevent you from registering them with someone else.
- cersa8 5y ago
  Ah,this explains a recent email I got where the company claimed a third party was trying to register mycompany.net (different tld) and gave me a short time window to register it myself for an additional fee.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
someotherperson 5y ago
It's called domain name front running. GoDaddy in particular has been accused of this in the past here on HN and have responded to it[0]. Use a trustworthy registrar when you can, avoid GoDaddy or Namecheap. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24506303 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24506303
- tboerstad 5y ago
  What is wrong with Namecheap?
  - someotherperson 5y ago
    It's a criminal outfit masquerading as a domain registrar. They go out of their way to protect blackhats using their services, refusing to adhere to their ICANN requirements of blocking users or domains registered through Namecheap that carry out major scale phishing and fraud. So much so that, with blackhats, it's the domain registrar of choice. Stolen credit card? No problem. SMS scams? Sounds good! Do a WHOIS the next time you come across a phishing website or receive an SMS with an odd link. And then disappoint yourself with the complete lack of care when trying to report it to Namecheap's support. Their CTO or whoever considers this form of enabling crime to be 'free speech' or suggesting registrars shouldn't 'police' or something equally as stupid when it was raised on HN a few times.
    - nojs 5y ago
      As a non criminal, this is a major selling point for me. I for one do not want to lose my entire business because I offended someone or failed to moderate a comment or whatever. And it’s smart business for them too - stay out of the censorship game as long as you can, because you can never win.
      - someotherperson 5y ago
        Yes of course until the CEO popped up and unilaterally banned all of Russia[0]. Or when they banned a crypto related domain on a single tweet[1] then unbanned it when people said WTF [2]. Blocking actual exploitative malware is a legal obligation, not "censorship." If they had a TOS that says "do whatever you want" then sure, but in this case they're just violating their TOS too. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30504812 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30504812 [1] https://twitter.com/Namecheap/status/1489485337885921284 https://twitter.com/Namecheap/status/1489485337885921284 [2] https://twitter.com/Namecheap/status/1489504958596714499 https://twitter.com/Namecheap/status/1489504958596714499
andrewstuart 5y ago
This absolutely happens. If I can find the time I plan to write some code to gather enough evidence to make a substantial case to prove registrars doing it. It's happened multiple times to me with one particular registrar.
tqkxzugoaupvwqr 5y ago
Happened to me when I checked availability of a domain via Uniregistry (now part of GoDaddy). Domain was available, a few days later when I decided to buy it it was suddenly a registered premium name costing over $2000.
Mutjake 5y ago
If I’m checking if a domain is free, I usually use ”nslookup example.com” or ”dig example.com” — if they return NXDOMAIN, it is not reserved yet. I haven’t had an issue at least with namecheap when registering them, granted the domains I have booked have not been anything super special, so YMMV.

sen 5y ago

GoDaddy absolutely squats recent searches. So so many other registrars. It’s been like that for many years now and has been proven time and time again. The only registrar I trust currently is Namecheap. They’re not perfect but they don’t do any major dark patterns.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
asah 5y ago
I'm assuming Google doesn't squat.
- asah 5y ago
  a bit more color: it's not that Google "wouldn't" necessarily squat (I don't know), it's just that they reserve "aggressive monetization practices" like this for 100x larger businesses, like search and commerce ads, maps, gsuite, GCP, etc.

dotancohen 5y ago

This used to be widespread. The registrar can reserve the name for up to 48 hours IIRC without itself having to pay. Godaddy in particular would justify the behaviour by "ensuring that nobody would snatch the names that it already said you could register". Of course, it was always obvious that this was to prevent you from registering them with someone else.

cersa8 5y ago
Ah,this explains a recent email I got where the company claimed a third party was trying to register mycompany.net (different tld) and gave me a short time window to register it myself for an additional fee.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

someotherperson 5y ago

It's called domain name front running. GoDaddy in particular has been accused of this in the past here on HN and have responded to it[0]. Use a trustworthy registrar when you can, avoid GoDaddy or Namecheap. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24506303 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24506303

tboerstad 5y ago
What is wrong with Namecheap?
- someotherperson 5y ago
  It's a criminal outfit masquerading as a domain registrar. They go out of their way to protect blackhats using their services, refusing to adhere to their ICANN requirements of blocking users or domains registered through Namecheap that carry out major scale phishing and fraud. So much so that, with blackhats, it's the domain registrar of choice. Stolen credit card? No problem. SMS scams? Sounds good! Do a WHOIS the next time you come across a phishing website or receive an SMS with an odd link. And then disappoint yourself with the complete lack of care when trying to report it to Namecheap's support. Their CTO or whoever considers this form of enabling crime to be 'free speech' or suggesting registrars shouldn't 'police' or something equally as stupid when it was raised on HN a few times.
  - nojs 5y ago
    As a non criminal, this is a major selling point for me. I for one do not want to lose my entire business because I offended someone or failed to moderate a comment or whatever. And it’s smart business for them too - stay out of the censorship game as long as you can, because you can never win.
    - someotherperson 5y ago
      Yes of course until the CEO popped up and unilaterally banned all of Russia[0]. Or when they banned a crypto related domain on a single tweet[1] then unbanned it when people said WTF [2]. Blocking actual exploitative malware is a legal obligation, not "censorship." If they had a TOS that says "do whatever you want" then sure, but in this case they're just violating their TOS too. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30504812 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30504812 [1] https://twitter.com/Namecheap/status/1489485337885921284 https://twitter.com/Namecheap/status/1489485337885921284 [2] https://twitter.com/Namecheap/status/1489504958596714499 https://twitter.com/Namecheap/status/1489504958596714499

andrewstuart 5y ago

This absolutely happens. If I can find the time I plan to write some code to gather enough evidence to make a substantial case to prove registrars doing it. It's happened multiple times to me with one particular registrar.

tqkxzugoaupvwqr 5y ago

Happened to me when I checked availability of a domain via Uniregistry (now part of GoDaddy). Domain was available, a few days later when I decided to buy it it was suddenly a registered premium name costing over $2000.

Mutjake 5y ago

If I’m checking if a domain is free, I usually use ”nslookup example.com” or ”dig example.com” — if they return NXDOMAIN, it is not reserved yet. I haven’t had an issue at least with namecheap when registering them, granted the domains I have booked have not been anything super special, so YMMV.