New Domain Swiped?

Hi
I just signed up for your service with a new domain name...somkesignalonline.com

When I look in my control panel, it says that is active. But, when I try to access it in a browser, it redirects to www.linkz.com. When I do a whois, the registration information also shows linkz.com, registered in Cayman Islands

Did they somehow swipe my name on the same day that I wanted it? Awfully strange coincidence?

What do I do now?

Whois shows that somkesignalonline.com is not registered and available. You sure you're spelling it correctly?

It sounds like you signed up to host the domain, but you haven't yet registered it.

I think s/he meant smokesignalonline.com (switch the "m" and "o") and it does lead to that "http://www2.linkz.com/" site.

I don't know why though, whois shows it was created yesterday. =/

Edited by MaliciousKitty on 05/29/05 04:29 PM (server time).

Does Dreamhost monitor these forums, or is there a way to open a trouble ticket for this?

In reply to:
is there a way to open a trouble ticket for this?

It would be muchly more helpful if you did. Control panel -> Support -> Contact Support.

These forums are populated by DH customers helping each other out, not DH customer service reps answering questions.

You know, it is certainly possible that someone else just happened to register it at the same time you did. It would be a helluva coincidence, but it happened to me, once, sort of. I had been talking to this bar owner about putting up a site for his bar, and told him that the name of his bar was available for purchase as a domain name, and I went back to my office and registered it for him; the next day I discovered he'd registered it himself shortly after I left. I still did a site for him, though, and I was just as glad to not have to worry about renewing the domain for him year after year.

Okay, this is just a theory... a real way-out theory, but God help us if I'm right.

That linkz.com company is an adware vendor, and it's entirely possible that you've got their adware installed on your PC, and when you went to register that domain name, they redirected you through their own server, and were watching you register it, and then they automatically grabbed it out from under you.

Here's the proof that they're an adware company:
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/pf/adware.adblock.html

I've found other evidence that suggests that they also host spammers and their websites.

If you've got Ad-Aware on your PC, I suggest you run it and see if you've got any linkz.com hijacks lurking in your registry.

What happened with your domain name may be a new frontier in the threat that adware and spyware poses to business owners... the offshore theft of intellectual property such as domain names.

Boy, am I glad I've stuck to using a Mac.

In reply to:
Boy, am I glad I've stuck to using a Mac.

Yeah, Windows is a bit of an advanced users' platform. I always suggest Mac for novice users and Windows only for the people who know what they're doing. At the moment between my wife and I we are running the fifth year of no viruses or malware, and we've never jumped on the "you must run a dozen security apps" bandwagon.

</thread hijack>

You're right... if you really know what you're doing, Windows is fine. If you know how to hack your registry, deal with firewalls, avoid drive-by downloads, and stuff like that, Windows can be your lifelong companion with no problems. But, oh, the trouble I've seen.

Now, back to the topic, can anyone confirm or refute my theory that linkz.com is using adware (or spyware) to hijack domain names? If we confirm the theory, good heavens, this would be a story for the front page of Slashdot. But still, it's just a theory, and a way-out one at that. I am making no solid accusations, here, since I have few facts to work with in my amateur domain sleuthing.

Questions for the first post's author:

When you set up your DreamHost account to host smokesignalonline.com, did you actually go and register and pay for the domain name, or did you just set up hosting for it? If you did actually register it, did you do it through New Dream Network, or did you go to another registrar? How much did you pay to register the domain name? Was it $14.95 for one year?

The registrar that is listed as holding both the linkz.com domain and smokesignalonline.com, at domainnamesales.com, isn't actually in business yet... that's kind of suspicious right there, I think.

Alternative theory...

Some dodgydomainregistration.com site has a box for free name lookups...

type in smokesignalonline.com or whatever, see it's available and make a note to register it later in the day.

Meanwhile dodgydomainregistration.com goes thru their daily list of lookups and register em, or at least the cyber-squatting "promising" ones.

do domainnamesales.com have another page that the first author perhaps used for a lookup I wonder? Seems more likely (easier) to set up a scam along these lines than spyware - would probably take long to track em down too.

regards

Matt

In reply to:
Some dodgydomainregistration.com site has a box for free name lookups...

*snicker* I was thinking about the same thing...

We just managed to register two domains just fine and nobody stoeleds them, but I didn't go around checking their availability until the moment I was ready to put down the money for them. Just in case. It's a wild, wild Internet out there.