Tired of telemarketing and spam? Here’s how to fix it.
DropCatch is a great platform for capturing expired domain names that go through the complete registry deletion process.
There is one major annoyance, however: NameBright, where all of your purchased domains end up, doesn’t obscure Whois information by default. Since all of the domains you win at DropCatch appear to be new registrations, you’ll be flooded with emails and phone calls pitching you on web and app design services for the domains you win.
Fortunately, there’s a solution that enables you to default all of your DropCatch wins to Whois privacy. Here’s how to do it.
After logging into your account, select “My Account” and “Categories”:
Next, look for “DropCatch” in the list and click “Settings” in the corresponding row:
Then, scroll down to the “Privacy Protection” box and click to enable it by default for the category. (You can also do other nifty things here, like automatically set up the nameservers for domains you win.)
Note that NameBright charges $2.95 per year for Whois privacy but the first year is free. So you’ll want to transfer your domains out within a year or understand that you’ll be billed extra for keeping privacy.
Also, domain investors need a way for potential buyers to contact them, so make sure your domain points to a landing page with contact capabilities.
Jack says
I may need to try this again because it didn’t work a couple of years ago where the category setting for privacy was simply ignored/broken, so I manually apply privacy after paying at DropCatch. I’ve been burned by these ‘small’ mistakes, including delays between when privacy is purchased and subsequently applied such is/was the case at Godaddy and Namecheap to name a few. This is why I don’t normally include personal details like home address or phone, instead I use post boxes or virtual offices. I don’t pay for the virtual office service either, I simply take the details from their website and use it for my contact records. I may even use the registrars own support phone number and make it their problem. Thankfully the privacy rules mandated by the EU dictatorship have increased default privacy which make it a bit less problematic.
Andrew Allemann says
Let me know if it still doesn’t work for you.
Luis says
Sorry I don’t get the point regarding privacy: I see all the domains are the details in domains are private now as per EU privacy rules. I don’t understand why namebright tries to be paid 2,95 per year for privacy when I don’t see any personal details in the whois. Could anyone explain that to me?…
Andrew Allemann says
NameBright only redacts Whois if you’re in an area subject to GDPR or a similar privacy regulation