received threats

[DaddyHalbucks]

One of the things I like about this business is that every day is different, but today took the cake, and wasn't enjoyable.

Some guy from the UK called me approximately 20 times today, harassing me and threatening me.

He said he owned the domain name XYZQ.CO.UK (not the real name just an example), which was registered in 2004. His website is that of a computer products company.

He said he wanted me to transfer to him my domain name XYZQ.COM (not the real name just an example), which my company registered in 2003.

He claimed that he had legal rights to my domain, even though I was the first user, in flat contradiction to a major principle of trademark law. I explained to him that we use the domain for our search engine HogSearch, and that the domain name was not for sale and if he wanted to discuss matters further we would only do so under the terms of a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

He said if I didn't sell him the domain name he would "fly over" and "pay me a visit" and one of his companies used "doormen" which I might be familiar with as "bouncers" and if I didn't give him what he wanted would send them to intimidate me. He said he would prefer to "pay me a visit" or have his "doormen" pay me a visit --rather than undertaking an "expensive legal case."

I hung up on him numerous times, but he kept calling me.

In the last call before filing the police report, he said it was "amazing the amount of information he could find on the internet," and he said he looked up my residence address and he even "had maps."

I filed a report with the local police because he called me at my home and threatened me there. Prior to filing this report, I called the police in his city in the UK and they confirmed that the first step was to contact my local police department.

Unbelievable!

 

[namestrands]

Wow.. that sucks. Where in the UK was he from?

 

[GeorgeK]

Lots of freaks out there --- maybe you'll get to fly over to the UK in a year, and help put the guy behind bars.

 

[namestrands]

lol you shoud let me phone him.. as my strong mean Glasgow Accent should raise an eyebrow.

 

[DNGeeks]

Unreal, perhaps you should post this persons information so others know who not to deal with.

Or, you could simply file a UDRP and take the domain which belongs to you

 

[007]

That's definitely a situation to be taken seriously. Glad to hear you reported him to the police. What a jerk. I hope he ends up behind bars, but not at your expense.

 

[Jernet]

sounds like a real tough guy

 

[DaddyHalbucks]

We'll see what my lawyers say. One of the problems is that it may become my word against his.

 

[DNAholic]

Sad to hear that. This is the one thing I hate about whois, anyone can just call you or pay you a visit. Whois protection would cost an arm and a leg to implement when you have so many domains, so you have to put up with this crap.

I think its just empty threats, but it’s good to be safe then to be sorry, so thats good you contacted the police. There is a chance that it can be a sick practical joke too. I myself have had a few in the past. They were not internet related, however a joke that was going around. Though if I did not know about this I would have really been threatened and worried about it, as it sounded very serious.

There can be some right old plonkers here in the UK, but going this far I think is crossing the red line.

I just hope that this guy is not as crazy as he sounds.

 

[Dave Zan]

Hope for the best, but expect the worst.

Don't you have voice mail or something to "parry" his persistent calls?

And he'd do all that for a domain name...egad...some people...

 

[DavidAusman]

huahuahua ...
This is the first time hearing someone being intimidated because of domain name. I think he is just a small domain player who expect to get a valuable domain at a low cost by threatening you. If I were you, I would really love to invite him and show some muscle on me :cheeky: