TL;DR Have your friend contact GoDaddy, ideally by logging into their existing account and contacting support from there, and request they delete all content as you no longer control the site and they no longer have any right to continue serving that content.
Most likely, the new owner simply didn't make any change to the name server entries when they bought it (domain gamblers tend to do that a lot).
Basically, the name still resolves to the same site host, and the purchaser is waiting for your friend to beg them to "return their domain" so as to keep the site (and presumably the business) running.
Some just kind of wait for contact, others will wait about 90 days, then send email to the website warning of a deadline and demanding heavy payment to not redirect it to a parking page or something similar.
A lot depends on who the host provider is. If, as in this case, the host provider is the same as the domain provider (side note, don't do that in the future; always separate the two so nobody controls both but you), then you may have some issues, but at least in theory your friend can, at minimum, ask that the hosted content (which they still own and on which they hold copyright) be removed.
If the host provider is separate from the domain provider, then you could either arrange back payment and regain control, then point a new domain to the site, or ask the host to remove the content (again based on ownership and copyright).
In this case (with GoDaddy hosting both), I hope your friend has backups of the site and can redeploy elsewhere, and I hope GoDaddy does the right thing relatively quickly (sometimes they can be difficult in this regard).
This doesn't apply in your case, but one other, somewhat ugly, possibility does exist. Some host providers use a domain challenge to identify the site owner if they lose access otherwise (they have you put a code in a dns record to prove you are you).
Those are particularly pernicious as anyone with control of the domain actually can steal the site and content by claiming to have forgotten a password (which can result in theft of an entire business identity for purely online businesses, and is a form of identity theft).
Always worth checking if your hosting provider uses that option, and ask them to either administratively disable that (permanently), or move to a different hosting provider (assuming you can).
Note: Domain challenge to prove ownership of a domain, separate from ownership of the hosting account, is totally normal and reasonable, I'm referencing here using domain challenge to prove identity and ownership of the separate hosting account.
Hopefully that helps.
Joseph Sinclair
P.S. The domain origination date does not change unless the domain is returned to an unregistered state. When a domain is auctioned, it is never "unregistered", the registration simply transfers after GoDaddy takes over the registration for non-payment.
On 2022-07-22 06:45 PM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I have a friend who owned http://www.nationwidedr.com/ . It expired along with his hosting while he was in the hospital.
>
> I get the domain was available to be registered.
>
> Here is the interesting part. Somehow the new domain owner also was able to get his WordPress website complete with all of his business content. It appears not to have been changed.
>
> The other part is the domain shows it was registered in 2002, the original date it was registered. I thought when a domain expires and is re-registered by another it will show it was original registered on that second date. Am I wrong?
>
> Thoughts on how the new registrant got a hold of my friends WordPress website?
>
> The domain and hosting were at GoDaddy.
>
> Something seems fishy - am I wrong?
>
> Thanks!!
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