Recently one of our search engine optimization clients found themselves living out a company’s worst nightmare, when they went to renew their domain only to find that their previous web design company had just done a renewal and changed the ownership to themselves.  How can that happen?  Well, its far too easy I’m afraid - and in some respects it reminds all of us that in many ways the internet can still resemble the old west, with cowboys and other bandits still taking advantage of all the “city slickers” coming out to seek fame and fortune.

Domain Theft: The Set Up

A lot of businesses are not technical.  They don’t need to be, or they don’t have time to sit down and study all the intricacies of the internet that we, as internet professionals have done.  They oftentimes select a web development company and assume a certain ethical standard exists never thinking about the repercussions of allowing them to set up everything - soup to nuts, including registering their domain name.  It should be understood that these web development/host companies are acting on behalf of their clients.  However that is not always the case.

The Domain Heist

Set up complete, now fast forward to the point where the business decides to go in another direction by hiring a new design company and internet marketing company to provide them with a new site branding and greater visibility within the search engine organic rankings.  The new company requests a transfer of the domain name from the registrar who in turn can not release the domain name unless the first web developer who originally registered it gives permission.   This should be an easy transfer and to be honest, it happens most of the time.  But most should not allow you to sleep better at night if you have a similar situation.  In this case, all requests were ignored by the previous web developer.  While the owner was listed as my client - the billing/admin/technical contact was not - so my client did not receive the renewal notice, however they were doing a routine check to make sure all domains were in their name and found the main site domain that was coming up for renewal - had already been renewed.  Renewed with the ownership changed over to the previous web developer.  After several attempts to contact this individual directly, they were finally able to talk with a 3rd party representing the web developer only to find out that the developer wanted $20,000.00 before he would turn over something that wasn’t his in the first place back over to the rightful owners.  Something that should have been done when the registrar logged in and sent the request in the first place!  It is exhortation in my book - though I’m not a lawyer I do know when something stinks to high heaven!!

Damage To Internet Marketing & Repercussions:

We had just spent six months working on the site to increase the visibility of our client with this domain.  All efforts going to consolidate multiple domains that had sporadic rankings and no clear branding and turning it into a site both relevant and reputable within their industry as well as the way it was viewed by Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines.  While the site was still up on the primary domain, no longer owned by our clients - we all knew it was simply a matter of this fellow changing the DNS pointers.  (For non techs think of it as someone going to the post office and filling out the forms re-directing all your mail to their business.)

To pay $20,000 was beyond ridicules.  Afterall, this isn’t the Old West - Cybersquatters can be held accountable.  Owners are given more leeway today in order to make sure this type of thing doesn’t occur during a renewal period - it’s even more destructive under these circumstances.

A bit of history.  Domain sniping was popular a few years back prior to the Redemption Grace Procedure (RGP) being enacted.  In the case where a business accidently lets their domain name expire, there is a grace period that enables them to correct the mistake.  Fortunately hosting companies like GoDaddy or eNom retain names for auction through services such as TDNAM or Snapnames allowing for the domain to go up for auction.  In this case, there was no lapse in renewal - prior to renewal coming due, the web developer stole the domain and unethically removed the rightful owner from the registrar.

The Domain Name Lesson

There are remedies, and in this case the web developer will be notified that his actions have forced the rightful owners to file a claim with ICANN. Domain name disputes involving alleged bad-faith registration are typically resolved using the Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy (UDRP) process developed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).   If you are a victim of a domain theft, you may also file an InterNIC Registrar Problem Report regarding a cybersquatter posing as a registrar.

The lesson is clear - do not trust the registering or renewal of your domain name to some 3rd party.  Always be responsible for ownership and make sure that you keep track of your domain and renew your domain early.  From an SEO point of view, all the work we did would be lost.  The linking and associations would all have to be contacted and switched from the branded site to a less than optimum seondary domain name.  The time lost will cost our clients a lot of potential business in addition to the alleged “exhortation payment” requested by this unethical web developer. 

Click here for more information about Cybersquatting.  If you have any questions on how to protect your search engine optimization and branding efforts when moving to a new domain, please give us a call and we will be happy to work with you.  If you are a web developer looking for a way to make some fast cash by taking advantage of unsuspecting clients - we urge you to think again, the fines and damages may cost you a lot more than you tried to exhort!