A warning to all - Beware buying stolen domains

[Dave McM]

Thanks, Ken - a useful list.

Each domain name should have registrar lock set to On, unless the name is being pushed or moved.

Is anyone aware of a .uk domain registrar that has a lock facility? I'm not sure I've ever seen or heard of one; several registrars list .uk as a ccTLD that doesn't support registrar locks; and Nominet doesn't mention them at all, except as something available for gTLDs.

[akirk]

nominet has a far more controlled approach to its domains - so I would be less worried about those anyway! In effect nominet are the lock!
we manage a large number of domain names for clients and I can just send a quick email and have ownership changed on a .com with no reference to the owner at all... (because we manage them) but I can't do that with a .uk it has to go through the nominet process and get authority from nominet...

Alasdair

[KenW3]

Is anyone aware of a .uk domain registrar that has a lock facility?

All of my co.uk names are at Moniker, and those each have registrar lock available at no cost. (I don't have any other varieties of ccTLDs.) I have heard there are some ccTLDs that do not support this, but couldn't tell you which do not.

Although I no longer use NameCheap, their co.uk support page lists it as available.

[Dave McM]

Alasdair, that makes perfect sense. I remember we had an annoying problem once when we bought a .co.uk domain from someone - they'd previously bought it from someone else, and just taken control of it by a tag change to a different registrar without bothering to update the ownership details. Then when they sold it to us, and changed the tag and registrar again, the domain disappeared in the process of transferring.

We happened to be with the same registrar as the original owner, and it reverted to his control. Fortunately we managed to get it sorted in the end (he'd also moved house in the meantime), but it caused a lot of bother.

(And after all that we earned the grand total of £5 in just over a year with it, but that's another story. )

Ken, it sounds to me as if that lock is something internal to Namecheap/other US registrars as far as .uk is concerned?

[KenW3]

Ken, it sounds to me as if that lock is something internal to Namecheap/other US registrars as far as .uk is concerned?

I couldn't say, as I'm in the US I only have seven (active) registrar accounts, and they're all US-based. It may be specific to US registrars as far as .UK is concerned; Hopefully, other replies from around the globe may be forthcoming.

I tried to do a bit of research on this, and didn't find much. Wikipedia has an article on Registrar Lock that states not all TLDs support the process, that org.uk is one of these that does not have it, and that the .ca Canada registry added support for this in October 2010.

[cothrun]

Ken already provided some fantastic advice on domain locking, I'd suggest the following computer security items to avoid the bad actors from taking over your email, unlocking your domains, and perpetuating other mayhem.

Secure your computer. Much of the malware out there is trying to take over your computer to extract information about your online activities. While stealing domains isn't at the top of the list, they've long looked for FTP credentials to add malware to existing websites.

• Consider using OSX or Linux. While these aren't unhackable, they don't have an abundance of automated exploits attacking them.
• If you'd prefer using Windows, the 64 bit variants of the latest version of Windows are generally more secure.
• In addition to operating system updates, keep your software up to date. Most attacks these days are against Flash, Acrobat, Java and other browser plugins, not against the operating system or browser itself. Secunia PSI is a useful tool for keeping your Windows software up to date.

Use secure password policies.

• Don't reuse passwords on multiple sites. Use tools like Keepass, LastPass and the like to manage passwords.
• use long passwords with lots of variety in characters or use pass phrases (a sentence)
• Take a good look at the security questions some sites use for password resets. Is your mother's maiden name and your father's middle name exposed on some genealogy site somewhere? Does your Facebook timeline expose your first girlfriend's name or your favorite pet's name? A good password manager will let you store passwords for these kinds of questions, consider randomly generated passwords for these security questions instead of answering the specific question.

Use additional security tools available to you. Google offers 2 factor authentication for Gmail, if you rely on Gmail enable it. Make sure SSL and similar technologies are enabled on all your email accounts, especially if you connect to public networks (coffee shop, library, airport, etc).