Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#1

Post by wasteme » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:02 PM UTC

searched a few days ago for felons.io, looked for unique names for simple game didn't know if I wanted it or not

guess godaddy decided for me: 1 days old Created on 2020-09-16 by GoDaddy.com, LLC

just a warning if you have a special name do not use godaddy to check if its available

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#2

Post by ffpip » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:08 PM UTC

Yes. If you search it 2-3 times, they buy it in most cases.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#3

Post by langitbiru » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:11 PM UTC

ffpip wrote: post #2

Yes. If you search it 2-3 times, they buy it in most cases.

Then I wonder what if someone trolls Godaddy by searching many names.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#4

Post by hsnewman » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:11 PM UTC

ffpip wrote: post #2

Yes. If you search it 2-3 times, they buy it in most cases.

I wonder if they have any logarithms that would attack this vulnerability? Someone could write a script to simply search several times for 1000's of names and bankrupt godaddy...

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#5

Post by ceilingcorner » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:15 PM UTC

I had this happen to me with instantdomainsearch.com, which is owned by GoDaddy, I believe.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#6

Post by symkat » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:16 PM UTC

And it's free for GoDaddy to do this: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-...

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#7

Post by nickphx » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:18 PM UTC

hsnewman wrote: post #4

ffpip wrote: post #2

Yes. If you search it 2-3 times, they buy it in most cases.

I wonder if they have any logarithms that would attack this vulnerability? Someone could write a script to simply search several times for 1000's of names and bankrupt godaddy...

Their domain cost as a registrar is a fraction of retail pricing.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#8

Post by sslnx » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:18 PM UTC

Happened to me too. In my case it was sslnx.com

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#9

Post by jtolmar » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:22 PM UTC

This happened to me too. I was searching the domain on a variety of tools to make sure it wasn't like, secretly a swear word in another language or whatever, then a couple days later it was registered by GoDaddy. I wasn't sure which tool leaked it, or whether that was actually GoDaddy or their domain holder protection. But it was pretty annoying.

And they registered it for two years.

Re: Tell HN: Never search for domains on Godaddy.com

#10

Post by mgolawala » Thu, Sep 17, 2020, 4:24 PM UTC

hsnewman wrote: post #4

ffpip wrote: post #2

Yes. If you search it 2-3 times, they buy it in most cases.

I wonder if they have any logarithms that would attack this vulnerability? Someone could write a script to simply search several times for 1000's of names and bankrupt godaddy...

It might be completely automated, but there could also be an algorithm that selects searched domain names and then puts them in a "review" shortlist for a human (or a team) to scan through and flag for purchase.