Re: Domain Registering and Hosting/Website Funny Business

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Author: Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
Date:  
To: Main PLUG discussion list
CC: techlists
Subject: Re: Domain Registering and Hosting/Website Funny Business

I worked on a web site that was hacked. It was very large and very
successful. It was scraped by some Chinese. Took a while to figure it
all out. It probably has been 6 years so I do not recall everything.
It took a lot of effort and a lawyer to get the website taken down.
GoDaddy was very resistant. The domain was registered in the name of a
woman who lived in CA. The owner of the legit website was able to track
down the person who's name was used to register the domain and then
GoDaddy responded and wanted a litter from the lawyer representing us.

As I recall it was a mess because the hosting company had bought a cage
in a data center and as I recall the IP belonged to someone else. Lots
of phone calls and lots keyboard work.....



On 2022-07-24 10:38, Michael Butash via PLUG-discuss wrote:
> I doubt threatening them with a lawyer will do much, they'll see your
> lawyer and raise you 5 of their lawyers. It's a losing battle for the
> little person.
>
> Rather go to their abuse team, explain it's a legal matter, and see if
> you can talk to a rational human vs. a call center monkey. Those guys
> deal with this stuff all day every day, the joy of having 100m domains
> under your stewardship.
>
> Unless they literally broken in and stole content, GD won't be
> inclined to do much other than apologize for your luck being targeted,
> and little they can/will do otherwise. Best you can probably do is
> find who owns it today and attack them directly with legal, but if
> someone outside the country, you'll find the world's smallest violin
> quickly for your sad song.
>
> -mb
>
> On Sun, Jul 24, 2022 at 10:03 AM Eric Oyen via PLUG-discuss
> <> wrote:
>
>> Since it appears that GD isn’t being helpful, get a copyright
>> lawyer (you might even be able to find one on legalshield.com [1]
>> for cheap) and go after both the new host owner and GD for a DMCA
>> violation. My experience has been if such is done and it looks like
>> it might be a good case, the hosting provider will settle with you
>> real damned fast in order to avoid a court case.
>>
>> -Eric
>> From the Central Offices of the Technomage Guild, Legal Servicing
>> Dept.
>>
>> On Jul 23, 2022, at 7:24 AM, Keith Smith via PLUG-discuss
>> <> wrote:
>>
>> On 2022-07-22 23:05, Joseph Sinclair via PLUG-discuss wrote:
>> 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.
>> Contact with GD was made. They are no help.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> Name Servers:ns11.domaincontrol.com [2] and ns12.domaincontrol.com
>> [3] <- that looks like GoDaddy.
>>
>> His hosting expired a long time ago.
>>
>> The new guy getting the website seems fishy to me.
>>
>> My friend paid GD to make contact with the domain owner to see if he
>> would sell. GD was not able to make any progress - current owner
>> does not respond to emails and the domain has privacy.
>>
>> 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.
>>
>> Ok that is some good info. it seems this domain "expired" then GD
>> held onto it until someone else bought it.
>>
>> I have heard that the registers can hold a domain for up to a year
>> w/o paying the reg fee.
>>
>> 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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> Links:
> ------
> [1] http://legalshield.com
> [2] http://ns11.domaincontrol.com/
> [3] http://ns12.domaincontrol.com/
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