Hijacked Domain

[Torn Rose]

This post will hopefully help a few in knowing what I didn’t know until it was too late and also explain what happen with “katvixen.com”.

I have paid for the rights to katvixen.com on Dec 6 2002 and had it until Jan 2005.

At 10 am Sunday I went to my site http://www.katvixen.com and found a “godaddy.com” page. Since I never used godaddy I knew something bad happen.

I did a “who is” and got

Maurice Reynolds
PO Box 5674
Detroit, Michigan 4790348223
United States

Registered through: GoDaddy.com
Domain Name: KATVIXEN.COM
Created on: 26-Jan-00
Expires on: 26-Jan-05
Last Updated on: 21-Sep-03

Administrative Contact:
Reynolds, Maurice mobilevideoguyz@yahoo.com
PO Box 5674
Detroit, Michigan 4790348223
United States
(438) 754-9987
Technical Contact:
Reynolds, Maurice mobilevideoguyz@yahoo.com
PO Box 5674
Detroit, Michigan 4790348223
United States
(438) 754-9987

Domain servers in listed order:
PARK9.SECURESERVER.NET
PARK10.SECURESERVER.NET

The phone # is dead and the zip code starts off with 47903 which is my zip code.

I called my registrant and my host and my lawyer and than called godaddy.

Godaddy’s response was its valid, my registrant than called godaddy and they told her it was valid.

My Lawyer than called godaddy and they than agreed to send it to their “conflict department” but of course it won’t be open until Monday.

So in the mean time, first thing I did was change my pass into my admin, than I found out from my lawyer that I can lock my domains, which I never heard of, and I asked a few others and they also never heard of that.

From what I understand, locking a domain will prevent this very thing from happening, so I STRONGLY suggest EVERYONE to make sure you lock your domains, it may cost a few dollars but more than worth it.

I than had everything I had on katvixen.com copied to katixen.net, and than emailed my members letting them know.

I would like to ask anyone who has links to me to change them from katvixen.com to katvixen.net including banners, and everything should work. If your linked to me by way of CCBill affiliate I already took care of that and it is being forward to the affiliate tour on katvixen.net

Right now my lawyer is seeing exactly who do we sue, it appears I made a mistake and shared my password info with the wrong person via ICQ and “it” shared that with another and “they” changed the contact email to this yahoo account, transferred the domain and than changed the admin info back.

No doubt in my mind this is a personal grudge against me, no doubt that this “person” will never use this domain for anything, in doing so they know I will be all over them with a lawsuit, so the intention I’m sure is to let the domain sit in limbo and make us work our ass’s off and pay to get it back.

Toni and I are not going anywhere, we are in this for the long haul, yes katvixen.com was our main domain and main income source, and we are in no means “rich” but we will roll with it.

I’ve made a lot of friends and a few enemies in this business, but this in no way will “force” us off the net, the worse this will do is cost me $ and time, but because of this I now have a new appreciation to what friends really are.

There is no doubt that I will get katvixen.com back, the only question is when.

Peace

[Cleo]

Hmmm, once again something bad happens to a domain and ince again GoDaddy's name comes up. |skull| Yes I realize that you think that your password got out, but still…

How does one lock your domains?

Best of luck in getting this straightened out.

[urb]

Get some screen shots of Google's cache of your site before it changes......
http://216.239.59.104/search?sourcei...atvixen.com%2F

Also go to http://www.archive.org/ and see if you can get some screen shots from there. Extra evidence is always helpful.

[Verbal]

Torn, sorry to hear about your domain.

I too have domains with Godaddy, but I'm seriously considering moving everything over to Registerfly.com. As Cleo said, I keep hearing more and more stories about Godaddy mismanaging/screwing up people's domains.

Best of luck with getting everything straightened out.

Peace,
Verbal

[urb]

Hang on folks, I don't think Torn was using GoDaddy, the domain hijacker is using GoDaddy.

Some registrars offer the facility to lock domains, so they cannot be transferred to another registrar without being unlocked, but if someone had your usr+pass, then they could unlock them anyway.

[CamZ_Dan]

Hi Torn,

This is an unbelievable situation. I of coarse will make changes to any links that we have also I will get you up on some of the site we have to feature you to get traffic going again.

I know this has to hurt you guys financially and as a friend I will do want I can.

Our main concern is for your financial well being and that things get rapped up in both getting your domain back and at the same time establishing katvixen.net as your primary.

With that I am starting up a fund at paypal address katandtornfund@camz.com I have added $200 in there and will ask others to please do what they can. Kat and Torn have been in this business for a while now and have paid their dues to this community. I think that we owe it to them to not let whomever did this get away with hurting them. To let the low life's that did this know that it is not going to hurt them.

I am sure that there is someone out there that will try and justify their actions. Fighting in this business seems to be a common thing and as I am well aware people will go to great lengths when they do not like you or what you do however no one deserves to have their livelihood stripped from them no matter what. that is just something that decent people just do not do. Fight, call names, try and discredit them, but to strip them of their livelihood is flat out wrong.

I for one will do whatever I can to see that this person or people do not succeed in their actions. As an adult webmaster who this could happen to you I hope you will do the same.

katandtornfund@camz.com do what you can.

Dan

[Torn Rose]

Thank you all.

I personally do not know much about godaddy, and right now I will not be trashing them,.

I use a reseller for tucows, and to be honest I am not pleased how this was allowed to happen. Way too easy, and as my lawyer asked “what stops a 12 year old from stealing domains” at which he had no answer.

As for locking a domain, look in your admin, tucows has it where I just check a box and hit submit, a friend of mine had to pay $2 per domain, (more than worth it)

I will keep this updated

Once more thank you all

[HornyHeather]

Ohh my, that is a ignorant thing to do, why do these webmasters be so mean to each other, where does it get them?
I talk with Toni on the other board off and on, and she is so sweet, she didnt mention this...I hope things work out for the best!

[fetish1]

Hmmmmmmmm, sorry to hear about the domain issue, but I am curious as to what others have heard about GoDaddy? I have all of my domains with them (they have a no charge lock feature by the way, it's one simple click and you have to be emailed for everything from dns changes to middle initial changes). As I mentioned elsewhere, I am coming back into this full time after having been PT for 2 yrs so if I have missed something about GoDaddy I'd love to find out what it is?

Thanks!

[Surfn]

All of my domains are locked. |rasta| On my registrant they have an option to "lock" and they aren't expensive.

The lock unlock option reads: Locking a domain adds an additional step of security if you wish to make any changes to your domain. It prevents you from accidentally changing records, such as nameservers and contact information, without first unlocking the domain. It also automatically rejects requests to transfer the domain away from our registrar at the registry level.

Locking a domain does not prevent someone from unlocking the domain and making changes from within the control panel. Your most important security measure should always be to not share your password with anyone and to change it periodically.

[CamZ_Dan]

He did not have his domains at GoDaddy that is where the guy who stole them parked them. I am not sure what the domain place was that he had the domains at but they did not notify to original e-mail or record of a change in the e-mail of record or any of the changes. That is a breakdown in their security system.

[matt]

I'm just in the process of moving a domain that was registered by one of my hosts (through godaddy) into my own godaddy account.

I had to fax my drivers license, my signature and a statement saying that I would like the domain to be moved.

While it's a bit of a pain in the ass, I think godaddy are fairly careful with moving domains.

[SomeCreep]

Damn Torn, best of luck resolving this situation quickly.

For everyone else, No registrar is at fault here. Torn said he made the mistake of sharing his password.

[fetish1]

SomeCreep,

I agree totally. It was stated up front that it was a case of mistaken trust with a password, but I did see two others make comments about GoDaddy that I thought perhaps they could elaborate on as I haven't heard anything bad about them and have actually been quite pleased with the way my biz with them has gone to date.
Never hurts to find out what others think of the businesses you use, as we've all had varied results with companies.

[CamZ_Dan]

I disagree The domain account should notify all changes to the original e-mail on file.

[SomeCreep]

Originally posted by CamZ_Dan
I disagree The domain account should notify all changes to the original e-mail on file.

I use godaddy and whenever a change is made to the administrative email or DNS servers, the current administrative emailed is notified of the changes.

[fetish1]

Same here SomeCreep but then I have the lock on all my domains. I can't remember if GoDaddy did that before you could lock them or not. I've always used the lock feature since they introduced it.

[Verbal]

Hi festish1,

While I don't wish to turn this into a GoDaddy bashing thread, but perhpas you should check out this thread and this thread from these very boards.



Peace,
Verbal

[SandWalker]

Sorry to hear someone hijacked your domain like that. I had a similar situation a loooong time ago back when I had to use Netsol. Someone faxed in a forged domain change form, with my company logo etc.. Luckily it wasn't a domain I cared about, and Netsol just credited me 2 domains for the mishap.

I only use RegisterFly now, they include domain lock free as a default. And the pass, well.. that should be as secure as your bank account pass.

Again, good luck.

[fetish1]

Thank you Verbal!

I second your comment, this shouldnt be a bashing of GoDaddy, but when I saw some people voice concerns over things they had heard, I was curious as to what those things were.

Appreciate your posting that for me

[CamZ_Dan]

I do not think that this is a bash or even a mark on godaddy. Other then they are not real responsive to Torn and not getting back to him or his lawyer. GoDaddy is not where he had his domains parked. Go daddy is where the domain was moved to.
The weird thing is there was no payment made when moved it was simply moved. If there was a payment made then the layer could track the low life down.

[CamZ_Dan]

ooops I was wrong here is what Torn told me.

"FYI, they did make a payment, godaddy cant tell us until we sue, which we are going to do.

And godaddy has reasponded, tucows (my regestrant) has not"

Sorry for my last post I was mistaken.

[Rictor]

"Right now my lawyer is seeing exactly who do we sue, it appears I made a mistake and shared my password info with the wrong person via ICQ and “it” shared that with another and “they” changed the contact email to this yahoo account, transferred the domain and than changed the admin info back."

That is unfortunate but I don't see how you can blame the registrar for a mistake you made in giving out your password. It seems your only grudge would be with yourself for giving out the password and the person you gave it to.

[Snowone]

Tucows should have a log of the IP addresses that have accessed your account, changes made, and so on.

If your tucows reseller has locking setup correctly, you would have to request the reseller to unlock the domain to make changes. And then request the reseller to relock the domain when you are done. As long as the domain is locked by the reseller then no transfer can take place. Unless of course they act on a bogus email or phone call.

The important thing is don't share your user names and passwords.

Adding an email requiring an aknowledgement to make the changes that were made would be nice...

but

wouldn't the same person also be privy to the password for the email account? And be able to intercept that email and respond for you also?

You will get your domain back. It's just going to take some work and preservance.

[Torn Rose]

I know this will raise a few questions, and I hope I will be able to answer them (we are still dealing with Lawyers, so I may not be able to)

But the same person who stole my domain has struck again, camsguys.com was stolen this week.

I may have been wrong in thinking it was a personal attack, but we still are not sure, the only connection the owner of camsguys.com and I have is the same host but we DO NOT have the same registrant.

The 2nd stolen domain is also at.... godaddy.

My Lawyer has already talked to the rightful owner of camsguys.com and was waiting for a return call from godaddy

And in all honestly, I am much relived that this may not be who and what I was thinking. (But it’s not 100% ruled out)

I'll say more when I can, but in the mean time BEWARE.