First Ever Criminal Arrest For Domain Name Theft

Domain Name News writes "Until recently, there hasn't been a case of a domain theft where the thief was caught and arrested. However, on July 30th, Daniel Goncalves was arrested at his home in Union, New Jersey and charged in a landmark case, the first criminal arrest for domain name theft in the United States. 'Cases of domain name theft have not typically involved a criminal prosecution because of the complexities, financial restraints and sheer time and energy involved. If a domain name is stolen, the victim of the crime in most cases would need experience with the technical and legal intricacies associated with the domain name system. To move the case forward, they would also need a law enforcement professional who understands the case or is willing to take the time to learn. For example, the Angels told us that in their case they called their local law enforcement in Florida who sent a uniformed officer in a squad car to their home. The first thing you can imagine the officer asked was, "What's a domain?"'"

Comments

What he actually did

[fiannaFailMan]

Quoth TFA:

Daniel Goncalves, the 25 year old law firm computer technician arrested on Thursday, reportedly hacked in to the Angelâ(TM)s AOL email account, used that information to retrieve the login details for the P2P.com from the Godaddy.com domain account. Goncalves performed an internal âoedomain pushâ transfer,which in effect transfered the domain name to another Godaddy account that he owned. Goncalves reportedly also falsified Paypal.com transaction records in an attempt to cover his trail and provide evidence that made it appear that he purchased the domain name for $900 from the Angels. The domain was listed in the name of Daniel Louvado during this time period (a bogus name consisting of Goncalves first name and his fiances last name).

In late 2006, Goncalves put the domain name P2P.com up for sale on eBay.com and on September 24, 2006 the eBay.com auction for the domain P2P.com closed in the amount of $111,000.

DNN?

[neonprimetime]

Is anybody else in shock that there is actually a website devoted entirely to Domain Name News?

Obligatory grammar Nazism

[bwintx]

Several references to "Angel's" in TFA should be "Angels'," meaning the possessive form of the plural proper noun Angels.

So much for my positive karma... [sigh]

Re:Oh, Those Dumb Police Officers!

[Artifex]

If someone is breaking into my home at 2am, they better hope they can run faster than buckshot. The call is for the cops or coroner to come clean up the mess.

And then the cop will arrest you for manslaughter. You do realize that self defense requires the application of only that amount of force necessary?

I live in Texas. If I fear for my life or am afraid for my property, pretty much I can use whatever force is necessary to make the bad man go away.

(Yes, some terrible abuses of castle laws have happened. Doesn't mean they don't exist)