For Sale Got a weird call yesterday

[Spex]

Someone called me yesterday, knew my name and obviously my number, and asked if I owned a certain .ca

I said no as I had never heard about of that name before and he said his company accidentally let it drop and it got picked up yesterday by Sibername. And he said my name and number was attached to the domain (I'm guessing he meant on the whois, but didn't specify)

I did a little homework and the domain was picked up at TBR yesterday and is now showing the registrar's information on the whois. I couldn't find my information anywhere on the whois, and I never backordered the domain (just to be safe, I checked my Sibername account to see if something happened and there was nothing)

I don't know how my name and number came up when searching for this domain, so is this some sort of scam? He didn't ask me any odd questions, so I don’t think he was fishing around for anything.

Has this ever happened to anyone?

 

[liberator]

Never had that happen, do you own a simular name? Maybe typo of the name that dropped?

 

[6sons]

I received a similar call Nov 17. He had our phone number but the domain was registered to someone else who has a private whois. Different registrar though - namespro. His story was that he owned the domain prior. Only difference is that there was a website at one time to back up his story and the domain was registered 2 years ago.

This could still very well be a scam. It would be nothing for someone to claim such a thing as prior ownership to garner sympathy in the hopes of getting a better price from the current owner. Anytime I have decided to help out someone who might have messed up with a recent expiry is to have them prove they actually owned the domain.

 

[Spex]

Never had that happen, do you own a simular name? Maybe typo of the name that dropped?

no, not even close to anything I own. The name sounded very TMish so I always stay away from those.

I called him back this morning to tell him that Sibername picked it up in yesterday's TBR and that he should contact them. He said he would. He said my name popped up when he searched the business registration number of the company that caught the name. I'll be looking into that, but it may be because this company has caught names for me in the past, I'm not sure.

That was it. So either this was a totally legit inquiry or it was a scam, but I'll be keeping an eye on my names for a while yet just to be sure.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

Wanna talk weird...

Space.ca
Senior.ca
and about 2-3 other great one word .ca...

All dropped, all picked up.

ALL previous owners claimed to be renewing, didnt and well they dropped.. eventhough they had accepted my $XXXX-$XXXXX offers. Of course when I called each back to ask what happened, no one had anything to say. I suspect most drop because they just dont have the login/pass anymore, former employees leave, they dont understand CIRA is not their registrar etc.

I even bought a name from a company who turns out did a charge back 2 years prior so the registrar claimed ownership and I could disagree once they proved it! That was a $45k deal down the drain. Of course the company was worth $XXXM so they didnt care buts till.

We are in a recession and people and throwing away $XXXXX's...sad.

 

[Wzhxvy]

I had a similar situation lately...it was by email though...I think JP is right...people dont know how to use the system, and end up losing their domains

 

[westcoaster]

I have received emails from two unrelated people saying that they did know know why I have their domain names. (Both picked un in TBR) One guy was a small sport fisherman and i was able to see that he did own the name at one time, so I sold it to him for low xxx. The other was a landscaper who was angry as hell that I stole his name. It was an LLLL I let him know how I got the name legitimately and all and he was still pissed. He told me a story where he had paid a web developer to develop his site and he had paid for the domain name too. I guess the web developer scooted off with his money and let the domain name go.
I offered him his domain back for mid xxx and never heard from him again.

 

[hugegrowth]

I had a similar case, picked up a name in tbr I liked and built a webpage for it - found out months later from a phone call that a business had owned it, they had depended on an outside tech company to handle their domain and website and they screwed up. Ended up selling to them for low xxxx.

This was a good generic domain and I felt like I did them a favour. If it wasn't a special domain and they called a few days after the tbr, I might do things different. It's not like I go looking for names in the tbr to sell back to companies that forget to renew. And, we're not in the business of fixing mistakes made by others.

How to handle these situations is really dependent on a lot of things. You don't want to be a jerk, but on the other hand you are trying to run a domain business and are playing by the rules.

 

[Spex]

I had a similar situation lately...it was by email though...I think JP is right...people dont know how to use the system, and end up losing their domains

I get that, but what I don't get is this guy knew enough that it dropped yesterday, looked up the new whois, Google the Sibername's partner's business registration and somehow found my name and number somewhere.

I don't why he didn't just call Sibername directly. And I don't know how het got my number because I've tried every google combination i could think of and my name never shows as being associated with that domain name

 

[Wzhxvy]

Well not first hand experience...but I heard from a fellow domainer that a few weeks ago, the registrar gave his info away ...registrar felt somehow responsible that a name dropped, and I guess and gave his name...total breach of confidentiality and inappropriate but some of the companies we deal with, are not exactly people that ethics mean a lot to...not saying that happened to you but I would not be surprised. Because remember the registrar where it dropped has your info for at least the first 30 days before you transfer.

 

[Spex]

Well not first hand experience...but I heard from a fellow domainer that a few weeks ago, the registrar gave his info away ...registrar felt somehow responsible that a name dropped, and I guess and gave his name...total breach of confidentiality and inappropriate but some of the companies we deal with, are not exactly people that ethics mean a lot to...not saying that happened to you but I would not be surprised. Because remember the registrar where it dropped has your info for at least the first 30 days before you transfer.

I see your point, but the problem is that I've never owned the name, never backordered it and never won it from the TBR.

 

[Wzhxvy]

oh sorry you are right...not sure then

 

[myst woman]

I do wonder that these operators will give away info. Another reason to just not buy privacy is some acct rep is going to grease palms with their clients dipping into the database for their big domain$ clients.