Alleges web designer is holding domain name hostage — Miami chef

Personal chef claims he can’t get his domain name back and former web marketing firm is sabotaging his fresh website.

A Miami personal chef has sued the owner of a web design/marketing firm, alleging (pdf) that the firm held his domain name hostage following he canceled services.

Stuart Shaw states he contracted with Need Marketing Group in 2007 to develop a site for him at MiamiPersonalChefs.com. He canceled the services in 2010, but claims that the defendant (an individual) would not allow him to transfer the domain name.

Worse, he alleges that the defendant created a site at the domain name that highlighted his competitors. Shaw also alleges that the defendant undertook a number of steps to sabotage his fresh site, TheMiamiPersonalChef.com. Shaw alleges that the defendant was behind attempts to send lots of traffic to the site, run up charges on his Adwords ads, and hack into his Google Adwords account.

Web design firms holding clients’ domain names hostage, as is alleged here, is unfortunately a common practice. Clients ought to never allow a web designer or hosting firm to register a domain name in anyone’s name other than the client, and the client ought to maintain full control of the domain name.

Unfortunately, that’s not something that a typical modest business owner thinks regarding when outsourcing management of their web presence.