Whois History Notable Part of Domain Due Diligence
Use DomainTools’ whois history to research the history of a domain name you’re buying.
When you’re ready to shell out a bunch of cash for a domain name, it’s notable to understand the ownership history of the domain name. There’s no title insurance for domains, so the onus is on you to make sure the domain isn’t stolen and has clean title.
In fact, it was DomainTools’ whois history that saved me from buying a stolen domain name for $5,000 back in 2005.
To access whois history, just search for the domain on DomainTools. Scroll down to “DomainTools Exclusive” to see if there are any archived whois records:
Clicking on the link will bring you to a page that shows all of the dates of recorded whois records. Red dates indicate records protected by whois privacy, and shading generally indicates similar records.
You ought to look for frequent changes in ownership, as well as short ownership periods. In the case referenced above, the domain was owned by one person until it briefly changed hands (and registrars) for 5 days, only to jump to a different owner and registrar following that. I ended up calling the previous registrant who told me the domain was stolen. The extra effort was a modest price to pay to avoid losing $5,000.
