Domains May Disappear After Search

Ponca City, We Love You writes "Daily Domainer has a story alleging that there may be a leak that allows domain tasters to intercept, analyze and register your domain ideas in minutes. 'Every time you do a whois search with any service, you run a risk of losing your domain,' says one industry insider. ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC ) has not been able to find hard evidence of Domain Name Front Running but they have issued an advisory (pdf) for people to come forward with hard evidence it is happening. Here is how domain name research theft crimes can occur and some tips to avoiding being a victim."

Comments

Theft? Crimes?

[mi]

Here is how domain name research theft crimes [emphasis mine -mi] can occur

Theft? Crimes? Does Slashdot now think, an idea can be "property" and/or "stolen"?

Re:nope, they dont pay

[gmack]

Actually most of bigger squatting operations don't pay a dime on a per name basis. They hold the name for 30 days, then release it at no cost.

They don't need to release it. They just get another shell company to snap it up.

Domain tasting is causing nothing but headaches for the internet at large and they need to abolish it.

Google it first..?

[garatheus]

When thinking of potential domain names, I usually use the inurl: function in Google. I generally only use part of the name too - that way you're able to see all the potential variations of the domain name you're thinking of working with (and possibly giving you some inspiration too)...

Domains come up too fast

[Animats]

There's been some concern about this over at the Anti-Phishing Working Group. Much phishing seems to come from domains held for very short periods. But it turns out that's not "domain tasting". It's phishers buying domains with stolen credit card numbers, using retail domain registrars. After a few days, the credit card number is detected as stolen, the transaction is reversed by the bank, and the registrar deletes the domain.

This seems to be a separate problem from "domain tasting". But the "grace period" loophole that makes "domain tasting" possible also enables this scam. If registrars couldn't return domains to the TLD registry without paying, they'd have to raise their standards of customer validation.

Why is This So Hard to Verify?

[Nom du Keyboard]

Why is this so hard to verify. Use each registrar to test availability of domain xyzzyplugh99.com, changing the index number "99" for each test. Try back the next day and see which ones are sudden unavailable, then complain LOUDLY!