Enrico Schaefer - March 30, 2015 - Cybersquatting Law
It is not uncommon for many of us to have a domain name or two registered with GoDaddy or some other registrar, whether it is for business, personal or other uses. In having these domain names, many of us would assume that the domains being held with GoDaddy or some another registrar would be protected with some level of internal security procedure that would prevent the domain from being stolen by a third party hacker. Domain theft is quite easy. Learn more about domain name theft and stolen domain names below:
Writer Steve Ragan recently wrote an article regarding his invitation to Vinny Troja, the CEO of Night Lion Security, to try to steal his domain that was registered with GoDaddy. Unfortunately for Steve Ragan, Vinny Troja was successful and the process only took a couple of days. To assist with the theft of the domain name, Mr. Troja just had to get some basic information and create an online presence. He first obtained information on the domain from the WHOIS page and created a false photoshop ID. He then created a fake Gmail account and a Google + profile to substantiate his online presence. Mr. Troja then made a call to GoDaddy and acted like a frustrated executive who didn’t have the necessary information to confirm his identity with the GoDaddy representative. He used the excuse that his assistant had set up the account and could not remember the detailed information used at the time of set up, such as the last four digits of the credit card used and the PIN number created for the account. He was then required to complete a form and forward it to GoDaddy with a copy of his fake ID. Shortly thereafter, the domain was released to Mr. Troja. Before releasing the domain, GoDaddy did not make any attempt to perform a document verification to substantiate that the information being provided to them did, in fact, prove that this was Mr. Ragan and the owner of the domain name.
It is terrifying how easy this process seems to be for a hacker to steal a domain name and, unfortunately, it appears that this is happening more frequently. If you find yourself in this position, the experienced domain name attorneys at Traverse Legal can help you with recovering your stolen domain name.
