
Ask HN: Are domain registrars gaming the system? - osrec
I recently found a nice 3 letter domain under the .mx tld. I tried visiting the domain but it wasn&#x27;t registered, with no whois either.  Upon trying to register it with Namecheap, I got as far the checkout, entered my credit card details, but the transaction failed. It wasn&#x27;t my card, but the domain itself was apparently unavailable.<p>I then revisit the web address, and suddenly there appears a domain company&#x27;s landing page with a message saying the domain is for sale and it gave me a UK number to call. Intrigued, I call the number (it was around 3 am in the UK) and it connected me to a call center in Eastern Europe, where the operator let slip that the call center belonged to Namecheap. This made me a little suspicious that perhaps Namecheap deliberately failed my transaction, registered the domain in order to get me to pay much above the standard price of the domain.<p>So I want to know: (a) has anyone experienced something similar? And (b) is this legally permissible? It sort of reminds me of front running in the stock market where the market makers are taking advantage of their privileged position...
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tamar
Hi guys - I work for Namecheap. We don't own any call centers. We don't even
offer phone support. It sounds to me like the domain may have been premium and
we accidentally reported it as available. Can you check the whois and see when
it was registered?

Namecheap has and never will do this - period.

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aviv
I know for a fact Godaddy used to do this, I don't know if they still do (but
would assume so). If you searched for domains and/or added them to the cart
but did not purchase right away, they had their little known team of reviewers
that constantly checked the list of all domains people were interested in
purchasing. The ones that were deemed valuable were registered by an
affiliated entity and offered in their auctions. My source for this
information is a person who used to work there.

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osrec
This sounds totally unethical to me. Is someone regulating this? Have they
ever been fined for such underhand tactics?

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anfilt
I think there are some ICANN policy preventing/limiting this. However, that
generally only applies to gTLDs. The domain in question .mx is a country code
domain. So ICANN does not have the same level of say on certain things.

-edit- Also registrars and registries have probably spend more time interacting with ICANN, and probably push for policies that are advantageous to them.

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osrec
Wow, why is this not made a bigger deal of? I mean this is outright market
manipulation, is it not?

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anfilt
Countries, can construct their own policies for their domains. Sometimes they
omit things or allow things that other registries prohibit. They also may
require things like being a resident ect...

However, quickly looking at some ICANN's policies take look at number 3.
Wheather any of this applies to .mx depends on how the policies for that ccTLD
are setup.

[https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-
specs-20...](https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/approved-with-
specs-2013-09-17-en#registrant)

Also if you are thinking of filing a complaint keep in mind ICANN is quite
bureaucratic so nothing may happen or take ages.

-edit- if the domain in question is important I suggest talking to someone well versed in the minutia of all this.

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osrec
So domain front running is a thing (I actually coined the term yesterday
without knowing it was already a thing!):
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running)

According to the article, it seems it's not very well regulated.

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quickthrower2
It could just be that they cache availability data, then do a cache
invalidation on purchase to make sure. I see lots of inconsistencies between
what different vendors consider registered.

I guess check whois before visiting any registration site is the lesson here.

Namecheap is a good brand in my mind but if I find out they do this it'll be
disheartening.

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jakejarvis
Yup, I always, always, always simply check for domain availability via pinging
the TLD’s registry directly using the whois command in my terminal. I’ve been
burned like this before by checking on another registrar (I forget which so
don’t want to make accusations) and not getting past the checkout process like
OP. And with the whois command you don’t need to worry whether the registrar
you’re using to search sells the TLD you’re looking for or not, which is a
nice plus.

There’s absolutely no reason to ask a third party domain registrar whether a
domain already exists. People need to spread the word more!

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k0t0n0
I remember suggesting a sick domain to my friend for his new website just a
year ago. he purchased it once and never really used it. so I recently I
decided that I will buy it for myself. But now that domain name is premium
domain and I have to pay 700+ USD extra to buy it. he used GoDaddy.

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dazc
Registrars picking up expired domains is definitely a thing although, perhaps,
a touch more ethical since someone else would likely pick it up anyway?

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charlesdm
How did you check the whois? Through an online interface or i.e. by running
whois through terminal on mac?

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osrec
I think I just used bash.

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buboard
you shouldnt be using that domain system. In fact a good question is, where
can you go to search for domains and be relatively "clean" from these tricks?

I use bluehost.com and gandi.net in the past and i generally didn't have this
issue.

