Domain registrars ought to add security check for transfers to eName

Registrar has become a haven for stolen domain names.

Over the weekend I received an email from the (former) owner of ShadesDaddy.com, an online sunglasses seller. He stated his domain name had been stolen.

I didn’t have to read on to make a prediction: the domain name was transferred to domain name registrar eName.

Indeed, it was.

How did I make this prediction? Well, a couple months ago someone in Austin was connected to me following their domain name was stolen. It was stolen from their eNom account and transferred to eName, which is the exact same case with ShadesDaddy.

If you do a site search on DomainGang.com for ename.com, you’ll quickly discover stories regarding a couple dozen domain names allegedly stolen and transferred to eName. Most of them were transferred from GoDaddy, but lately eNom has also become the losing registrar.

In the case of the Austin man who lost his domain from eNom, the domain was unlocked and completely transferred within a day.

Here’s a simple suggestion: registrars ought to add an internal security check for transfers to eName. At a minimum, they ought to enforce the five day transfer waiting period to inspect any transfers of potentially valuable domain names.

True, domain thieves could just change their registrar of record. But for now, domain registrars might prevent some unfortunate client problems by paying a little extra attention to domain transfers heading to eName.