I'm a sysadmin trying to help someone reclaim a domain they've owned since 2002, but it seems like it's been transferred to someone else. The previous owner might not have received renewal notifications or paid their bill, as the domain never appeared to expire according to the registry. The updated contact details point to a company in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the domain now redirects to potentially malicious sites. What steps can we take to reclaim this domain? Should I reach out to Network Solutions or report it to CloudFlare? What grounds do we have for reclaiming it?
3 Answers
If the original owner didn't renew, they're not technically the rightful owner anymore. You might be able to approach the Indonesian company to buy back the domain, but they aren't obliged to sell. If the domain is tied to a trademark owned by your client, you could potentially file a dispute with ICANN. It's worth checking their policies for seizure.
Sounds like the account may have been compromised somehow. Definitely reach out to Network Solutions for help; they should have ways to assist in these situations.
Just a heads up, the creation date you see doesn’t always change if someone buys a domain 'on the drop.' If the domain was sold at an auction and transferred, it might keep its original date but show a new owner. You could check archives at archive.org to see if there was any activity on the domain that could give clues about what happened recently.
Exactly! If it was a drop, it gets a new purchase date but retains the original one. Since the contact info changed suddenly in May, it could mean it was expired, purchased, and transferred quickly. It might be useful to check the archive for changes in the site's content.
Those are solid next steps. If they missed payments past the grace period, it’s likely the domain no longer belongs to them. Contacting Network Solutions to clarify the situation would be advisable.