Domains Hijacking

By Glenn Heitkoetter

There are some basic measures I did not know about until recently and had to make some changes. Some call this domain hijacking and can be a mess to try to get it back. A domain can be taken if it is not locked. You must go into your control panel of your website to find the domain locking area. If it cannot be found you must contact your support. When your domain is locked, you’ll be substantially protected from unauthorized third parties who might try to misdirect your name servers or transfer your domain without your permission.

Overlooking domain names is icann.org and the rules of this are there. The FAQ section has a good start with internal links about transfers. They have the updated legal and technical requirements about transfer notification requirements and times.

To check you expiration dates and who registered your domain go to whois.net. Then from there you can check the web address of the registrar. Sometimes your hosting works with another company to register the domains. This way you can keep track of what is going on much closer.

When you want your hosting to initiate a registrar transfer or modify your name servers you’ll have to unlock or sometimes they will do it for you as the process is completed. The transferring of domains is more secure than ever as long as the domain is locked under normal use and unlocked for your transfers.

Another trick in the bag is fake renewal of web hosting reminders or domain registration expiration notices. Always use a very private e-mail address when signing up for hosting, never using it for anything but the most important e-mail.

If your getting any amount of spam currently create a new account somewhere using a common well know e-mail carrier that has a high priority on security. This way the spam is at a minimum and check all messages including the spam bin which good messages can go in sometimes, which I found this out by accident. Some e-mail services may have automatic deletion of spam messages, turn this off so you get all messages. This way if a transfer is being attempted, your hosting service is supposed to notify you and you’ll get the message.

Never click a link in an email no matter who it is to login somewhere. Phishing is where a fake email of some company you normally deal with comes into your e-mail box hoping you login to their fake site by clicking the link. I get notices a lot, after double checking I find they are fake. I clicked on a my bank e-mail and logged in without thinking, luckily it was a real e-mail.

Always open up a new browser window and go there yourself. This goes for messages from your hosting service. The fake e-mails look just like real emails with copied logo and formatting.

Sometimes an owner of a site will register their website using their internet service provider’s e-mail system. Then they switch internet service providers and lose the old e-mail. They forget to put in a new email with their website hosting. Then if there is a notice of a transfer attempt it would never be known. I read there is a 5 calender day period to respond to a transfer request but I am not sure if locking alters this period or not. Read more information about Premium Domains Hijacked.

By Jeffrey Alexander Brathwaite

I keep getting these letters in the mail at least once every other week notifying me that the domain name that I registered is about to expire. This letter looks very official and it is emblazoned with a graphic logo that depicts the American flag at the very top of the letter. Also at the top reads the words "Domain Name Expiration Notice"

This letter is strategically made to look like an invoice, complete with line items that spell out how long I have until my domain name expires and how much it will cost me to register my domain name for another year. It even gives me the chance to register my domain name for up to five years at a discounted price.

To most this letter would seem like an awesome reminder and even a better way to make sure I don’t miss out on keeping this domain name secure for my current and future use. Unfortunately that is not the case.

I currently have 3 of my clients who were so inclined to take this company up on its offer to renew their domain names. Here is the best part, two of the three really thought this company was officially in charge of registering their soon to expire domain name so they proceeded to pay for three years in advance.

What my unsuspecting client didn’t realize is that they were tricked into paying more than three times the price for registering their domain name to a company that had no control whatsoever in whether or not it expired. Instead of paying less than $30.00 for three years of registration they paid $30.00 per year to register just one domain name.

Once they paid this money, they automatically gave this company the right to become their new registrar of their domain name. We then had to go through and act of congress to get the domain names back but the money they spent would not be returned.

Why didn’t they get their money back you may ask? Well the letter that they recieved was again made to look like an invoice but it clearly said in bold letters "This notice is not a bill" It also had some fine print on the back of the letter that spelled out what was going to happen if you paid for this domain name to be registered with their service.

Here are the steps involved in not getting your domain name Hijacked.

1. When registering a domain name make sure you remember the name of the registrar. Whether it’s Godaddy.com, Networksolution.com or Proemailaddress.com make a note of the date you register the domain name and put in on your calendar.

2. If you cannot remember who your domain name registrar is or you own the domain name but your webmaster registered it for you, do a whois search of your domain. Going to http://www.whois.net/ will allow you to put your domain name in their search box and find out when the domain name is set to expire.

3. If someone else registers your domain name, say your webmaster/web developer make sure they put your email address as the one that will be notified when the domain name is set to expire.

Most domain name registrars send you multiple reminder emails months in advance notifing you that your domain name is set to expire.

4. This may be something you may not want to do but I highly recommend doing it if you are given the option when registering your domain name. Register it for more than one year. Some registrars like proemailaddress.com will allow 10 year registrations of domain names.