[betteryet]

This just happened to me today with Epik, another old-timey registrar. Added a .com to their shopping cart yesterday, then went to pay for it this morning — no need, it's been registered during the night to someone in Japan. Not a super great domain either, just a brand extension for our company.

Feels like either they or some other party are looking at the stream of purchase intent to do this. Awful practice.

[technoluvvo]

Well at least you didn't automatically assume the worst. Epik has more care and support for their customers - and more ethics and common sense - than the rest of them combined in my experience. Sounds like bad timing, but you would have a higher chance of falling victim to malware and a keyboard sniffer than seeing their team go out of their way to thwart your registrations. They would be more likely to go and convince the new buyer in Japan to give it to you for free, then figure out a way to make you both happier in life. Just saying.