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The Great Domain Theft – DNW Podcast #289

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How Michael Fischer recovered his domain name from a theft.

Owning a great domain is like owning a fine piece of art. It’s one of a kind and given the right opportunity, thieves would love to get their hands on it. My guest on today’s show, Michael Fischer, has had to defend his valuable domain twice from hijacking: once through UDRP and, most recently, an actual theft of the domain. Today, he explains what happened and how he got his domain back.

Also: Kelly Hardy’s new role, reverse domain name hijacking, .com rankings and last month’s top stories.

Sponsor: Donuts

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Lawsuit alleges Pay.io is a stolen domain name

by — Policy & Law 6 Comments

Company recently realized that its valuable domain name was missing.

Picture of thief at laptop computer

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona alleges that the domain name Pay.io is stolen.

Deltaventure GmbH, a German company, filed the lawsuit (pdf) against the domain name and John Doe.

According to the suit, the plaintiff acquired the domain name in 2012 for €5,000. The domain name was transferred to a new owner (apparently in Russia) in 2016, but the plaintiff didn’t realize this until October of 2019.

Most in rem lawsuits are filed in Virginia, where the .com registry Verisign is located. However, .io is the country code domain name for British Indian Ocean Territory. The plaintiff filed the case in Arizona because Namecheap, the registrar where the domain is held, is organized in the state.

Pay.io is a valuable domain name that is worth much more than what the plaintiff paid for it in 2012. In the past year, Swipe.io sold for $68,000, Cook.io sold for $39,750 and Ease.io sold for $28,888.

Engineering firm sues to recover KFDE.com domain name

by — Policy & Law 7 Comments

Company says a thief took the domain name it has been using for nearly two decades.

Picture of thief at laptop computerA California engineering firm has filed a lawsuit (pdf) to recover the domain name KFDE.com, which it says was stolen from it.

K.F. Davis Engineering has been using the domain name since it registered it in 2000. It alleges the domain name was stolen from its Network Solutions account this year.

Historical Whois records show that the domain was at Network Solutions in July of this year. The domain was renewed through 2023.

The first August record at DomainTools shows the registrar as Xiamen ChinaSource Internet Service Co., Ltd. Oddly, the registrar’s Whois now has a create date of August 20, 2019. (Verisign’s still shows 2000.)

Wiley Rein is assisting K.F. Davis Engineering with its in rem lawsuit to recover the domain name. It filed the dispute in U.S. District Court in Virginia, where .com registry Verisign is located.

 

Popular Brazilian website stolen, lawsuit claims

by — Policy & Law 3 Comments

Site that tracks car prices has been hijacked.

Screenshot of tabelafipebrasil.com, which is the subject of a stolen domain lawsuit

The creator of tabelafipebrasil.com says his website has been stolen. The popular site has received 93 million page views since it was founded in 2013.

An unknown person has stolen the domain name and website TabelaFipeBrasil.com according to a lawsuit (pdf).

João Almeida started and ran the popular website that tracks vehicle prices in Brazil. According to the lawsuit, the site received 2.5 million page views last month and over 93 million since it was launched in 2013.

But Almeida found out that the domain was stolen from his registrar account and transferred elsewhere. Almeida alleges that the thief is now generated revenue from the Adsense ads on the site. (I reviewed the current Google Adsense code on the website and compared it to the ad code captured in Archive.org and it has changed. Some security services now use Adsense publisher IDs to track bad actors and I wonder if they could connect this to other domains used by the alleged thief.)

Wiley Rein LLP is representing Almeida. It filed the case as an in rem action in Virginia, where .com registry Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) is located.

Stolen domain lawsuit filed over $100k domain name 1001.com

by — Policy & Law 0 Comments

Company that bought domain name for $100,000 in 2013 says that it has been stolen.

Picture of thief at laptop computer

Netherlands corporation Diginus BV has filed an in rem lawsuit (pdf) against the domain name 1001.com, which it alleges was stolen from it.

The company paid $100,000 to acquire the domain name on Sedo in 2013, according to NameBio.

Based on historical Whois records, it appears that the alleged theft occurred in May this year. That’s when the Whois record changed from Namecheap Whois privacy to GoDaddy’s DomainsByProxy.

DomainsByProxy was subsequently removed to reveal a registrant in China.

Diginus filed the lawsuit in U.S. Federal District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia, where .com registry Verisign is located.

David Weslow of Wiley Rein is representing Diginus.

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