Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#1

Post by pmack » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 4:15 PM UTC

This has come up a bit on HN. The registrar I used to use (still have a bunch registered) is based in Canada - did this to me last week. Searched for a name, 2 weeks later the registrar registered it to sell for more. I think this is despicable company behavior. Any recourse? From now on I'm only going to search for a new name from Icann and Cira in Canada.

Re: Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#2

Post by wmf » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

They all do that and have for years. It's not safe to search for domains through any registrar.

Re: Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#3

Post by pmack » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 5:25 PM UTC

wmf wrote: post #2

They all do that and have for years. It's not safe to search for domains through any registrar.

Do they all do that? Must be a tough business...

Re: Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#4

Post by bjorn2run » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 5:53 PM UTC

Can’t say for sure they don’t, but I haven’t experienced this with Hover and have a bunch of domains with them. I’ve searched and come back weeks later without this bummer situation. Sorry to hear it happened to you!

Re: Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#5

Post by ipaddr » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 9:04 PM UTC

What register? MyId, GoDaddy?

Re: Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#6

Post by TheP1000 » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 10:51 PM UTC

Yes, GoDaddy does this.

Re: Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#7

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 11:36 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#8

Post by spl757 » Sat, Oct 07, 2023, 11:37 PM UTC

I use namecheap and I haven't noticed this, but I also haven't really looked.

Re: Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#9

Post by Xorakios » Sun, Oct 08, 2023, 2:23 AM UTC

I thought GoDaddy did this, but stopped. Haven't seen a problem with them in years

Re: Anyone else have proof of Domain Name Front Running?

#10

Post by cookiengineer » Sun, Oct 08, 2023, 5:25 AM UTC

Had these coincidences a bunch of times when I was writing with someone on Telegram. Like, 3 times in a row. We were discussing potential domain names for a project and they got auto-linked and probably auto-scanned by Telegram's preview bot, which in return probably shares the data with a third-party company.

Never post your domains anywhere online nowadays, until you really registered the domain and the DNS entry is pointing to your server.