----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim McAtee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 9:02 AM Subject: Re: Expired domain weirdness
> > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "George Kirikos" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 8:26 AM > Subject: Re: Expired domain weirdness > > > > Hello, > > > > > On Tuesday, I checked the WHOIS and found the name registered to a > > > Popular > > > Enterprises of Knoxville, TN. Entering the expired domain name in a > > > browser > > > took me to the website of netster.com. I figured, oh well, the > > > customer is > > > SOL and will have to find a new domain name to use. > > > > > > On Wednesday, I did another WHOIS on the expired domain and it then > > > came up as > > > unregistered. ??? So I registered the name with OpenSRS and it now > > > shows up > > > in WHOIS, although the root servers haven't picked it up yet. > > > > > > Is there some kind of an explanation for this? > > > > Do you know which registrar got the domain after it expired the first > > time? Some of them allow registrants to delete registrations in the > > first 5 days (this "deletion" capability is supposed to be used only > > for mistakes, and not abused, e.g. to test the quality of a domain in > > the first 5 days). > > I'm not positive - I should have printed out the WHOIS output, but didn't > expect the domain to become available again. Since netster.com is also > registered to Popular Enterprises and the registrar for netster.com is > itsyourdomain.com, I think it's a safe bet that was the registrar used. The more I think about this, the more it pisses me off. So we have domain speculators that are able, with the help of certain registrars, to snatch expired domain names, and drop them at will during the first five days. So they play against several scenarios: The original domain owner snoozes and loses the domain. If in that five day period, the original owner contacts them, I suppose they'd sell it for a price. If not, they drop it. If anyone else were interested in the name, but unable to snatch it as it became available, they might be contacted about a purchase. Once again, if nobody else seems to want it, they can just drop it. Even if nobody appears to want the domain that badly, the domain still may generate some traffic, so they'd keep it and direct it to god knows where. Porn, gambling sites, whatever. Nice. Jim
