So I'm facing an interesting situation and I could use some advice. There's a .com I've wanted to buy for a while that's already registered. It's not being used for anything, and based on my research, has never been used (doesn't go to a parking page, no DNS records, nothing on archive.org). I did some sleuthing and found that its owner also has several dozen other domains in the same situation, all with different, unrelated names. Seems like it's just a guy who thinks up interesting domain names and buys them if they're available -- fair enough.
It looks like the domain is on a 1-year renewal, and seems to be automatically renewed every year. It's registered through eNom.
Earlier in the year, the WHOIS record for the domain listed his name, a PO box, and email address. I sent an e-mail to him, offering to buy the domain, and the message bounced (so the e-mail account is closed). I looked up the PO box, and while it was previously registered to him, it's now registered to an unrelated business (so he's no longer using the PO box). Since then, eNom has seemingly enabled WHOIS privacy for all its domains (probably because of GDPR?) so I can't tell if any of the information has been updated. I'd send another e-mail to the administrative contact, but it's now just the privacy guard's "no-reply" address, so it wouldn't go anywhere.
The domain is up for renewal again soon, but as last year I suspect it'll just get renewed again automatically. Would a domain broker be of any use in this scenario, or would they just have the same information I do? Is there any other recourse to obtain a domain where the owner is effectively unreachable since the last known WHOIS data is no longer accurate?
It looks like the domain is on a 1-year renewal, and seems to be automatically renewed every year. It's registered through eNom.
Earlier in the year, the WHOIS record for the domain listed his name, a PO box, and email address. I sent an e-mail to him, offering to buy the domain, and the message bounced (so the e-mail account is closed). I looked up the PO box, and while it was previously registered to him, it's now registered to an unrelated business (so he's no longer using the PO box). Since then, eNom has seemingly enabled WHOIS privacy for all its domains (probably because of GDPR?) so I can't tell if any of the information has been updated. I'd send another e-mail to the administrative contact, but it's now just the privacy guard's "no-reply" address, so it wouldn't go anywhere.
The domain is up for renewal again soon, but as last year I suspect it'll just get renewed again automatically. Would a domain broker be of any use in this scenario, or would they just have the same information I do? Is there any other recourse to obtain a domain where the owner is effectively unreachable since the last known WHOIS data is no longer accurate?