Attention website owners! Save your Domain/website to be hijacked by the Domain Resellers
In my previous Article, you have learnt about what is Domain name and how to find a good domain name for your website. Well, its better you learn about what essentials are required to buy a domain name and what is the most common issue with the domain owners after getting the website high traffic.
Its not usual but a number of times people complaint that the Domain provider or mostly the Domain Reseller try to hijack a website that has a high rank in Search Engines and getting huge traffic response from the visitors. That means when a website is highly ranked and generating income, the domain reseller has a chance to hi-jack your website at the peak time.
Yes of course they can! They can suspend your account and demand you a huge ransom for re-activation of your website even you are the real owner and have paid for the domain and website. This is a fact that some Domain Reseller and Hosting Providers (Most commonly “Resellers“) do this kind of illegal activities. Here raises a question about how it is possible that they can do that with you even you have all the things done as per requirments. Here we go.
What mistake a domain owner does at the time of registering or buying a Domain Name?
If you are buying a domain name from Resellers, Don’t ever leave every thing on them. Its a fact that a huge number of people who don’t know about how to buy a domain, follow or trust the Domain Reseller for handling all the process of registration while it is the most simple process and there should be no need of any help from the Reseller. I recommend you to always buy the domain name and hosting from recognized domain name registrar hosting provider from directly their websites. Instead of a Reseller who is selling the domain from those recognized websites but as a Reseller.
What is a Domain Reseller and How they commit fraud or scam?
A domain Reseller is a middle man who buys an account and has right to sell the domains and hosting to the people using his own website or other ways of marketing. They have accounts with the top Domian registrars and sell the domain names and hostings on behalf of those companies. For instance, Godaddy.com is a top level, recognized domain name and hosting provider. You can become a Reseller after buying a Reseller account from him and they will let you sell the domain name by your own and once a purchase is made by you, they will pay you the commission or discounts. You may further offer any one to be a reseller and work under you. So this is the way a chain of Resellers could be involved in selling Domain names and hostings.
How the Domain Resellers commit fraud or scam?
1. At the time of registration of the domain, they don’t provide you the full access to your domain control panel.
2. They register the domain or Hosting on your name and address but they don’t give your name in the Domain Registrant field.
3. Instead of giving your name in the Domain Registrant field, they put their own name so that any time they can suspend your domain name or website using Registrant rights and this is the common method usually resellers use.
4. You may be wondering if you see your name and contact details that have every thing related to you like
- Administrative account may be all yours
- Technical account may have all your information
- Billing account may have all the true information of yours
- But pay attention to the Registrant Account details carefully because this is the place where you may not find your name. Instead of your name, you may find the Reseller name with their email and their phone number.
This is the way a Domain reseller can hi-jack your domain name & website if your website is a profitable website and generating good money with the great number of traffic. You may get shocked a day when you see that the site is not available any more and when you try to contact the reseller, he demands money for the website or domain.
Remember you can’t get your domain or website back if your name is not registered as “Domain registrant“. So don’t let all the process do the reseller from whome you are buying a domain name. Instead, check all the information carefully and make sure all the Four departments (1) Registrant (2) Administrative (3) Technical (4) Billing have your true information.
Also make sure your email address and phone numbers are properly registered so that you can receive emails and phone calls from the visitors or the Advertisers once your website is ranked higher.
Note: “This is not a common practice from every Reseller but one case is related to me and I know the same from the other online users even if you Google about domain name fraud and scams, you will see that a great number of Resellers are involved in this scam. This Article is written to aware the people about the fraud that I have faced for my website last month.”
The precautions for protecting Domain name and hosting from the Hi-Jackers are simple.
- Always prefer top level domain name and hosting provider instead of Resellers.
- Register the Domain name by your own instead of involving any third person. Just like when you buy a property for you.
- Carefully check all the Four departments for your Name, Address, Email and phone numbers.
- Don’t share your Customer Number and Password with any one.
- Keep changing the Password for safety.
Important: In the next Article, I will explain the process of getting the control back of your HI-JACKED DOMAIN NAME OR WEBSITE so keep visiting the website for incoming article. Thanks
