Reglikedomain industry desk

509.com, sold for $106k in March, was stolen — Lawsuit alleges

509.com, sold for $106k in March, was stolen — Lawsuit alleges

Chinese man who paid $295,000 states domain is stolen.

Picture of gavel with the words "lawsuit"

A domain name investor purchased 509.com through Sedo in March for $106,000. As stated by NameBio, the domain sold for $295,000 in 2018. Why did the domain seller take such a loss? There appears to be more to the story.

A Chinese man has come forward saying he’s the rightful owner of the domain name, and it was stolen from his GoDaddy Account.

Yin Sheng filed an in rem lawsuit (pdf) against the domain name in U.S. District Court on Friday. He states that he’s owned the domain since 2018 and alleges it was unwittingly taken from his account in March. That coincides with the six-figure sale on Sedo.

In the lawsuit, he states that upon investigation, there were suspicious logins to his account from Hong Kong starting in February.

It will be interesting to see if they can track down where the funds were sent upon the sale in March.

War IP Law PLLC is representing the plaintiff.

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