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GoDaddy and Felons.io – The life of an unregistered domain

225 points| gmays | 5 years ago |godaddy.com | reply

49 comments

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[+] rdtwo|5 years ago|reply
I guess I appreciate the transparency. There have historically been accusations of domain name squatting by godaddy so weather true or not I think they did the right thing trying to present a case that they aren’t a bad actor. The posts definitely did some additional damage to their brand and I think it’s good for them to address the accusations, especially when the thread got dogpiled by their competitors.
[+] Ayesh|5 years ago|reply
Or, they could make that up too. There is no way to verify what GoDaddy says in the blog post is true.
[+] wdr1|5 years ago|reply
I wonder if GoDaddy is unwittingly helping others exploit when someone is searching for domains.

E.g., if there's ML in their suggestions, and they look at cohorts, when I search for D after A, B, C, they'll start to suggest D to others looking for A, B, C.

Then all I have to do is watch A, B or C for changes, and when I see D, I know it's become someone is interested.

[+] rdtwo|5 years ago|reply
Yes if they aren’t doing it themselves I bet someone is combing through their suggestions algorithms and mining it for recent searches then squatting
[+] crazygringo|5 years ago|reply
The fact that a completely unsubstantiated accusation [1] from a throwaway HN account got an astounding 1,615 upvotes yesterday...

...really saddens me.

Like they say, "a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth puts on it boots."

I really wish people had higher standards for actual evidence before jumping to conclusions.

Now let's see if this post gets a similar 1,000+ upvotes, as fairness would dictate. Something tells me it won't, but I'd love to be proven wrong. I'd be shocked if it even makes it to 50.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24506303

[+] ve55|5 years ago|reply
GoDaddy has enough similar bad practices that this typo of behavior wasn't surprising to many of their past users, it would seem, based on their responses. If they had instead had an upstanding reputation, more people would have argued for them rather than against.

This is the same reason why big tech often has frontpage hitpieces about them that are borderline made-up which don't get refuted much, as they already have so many enemies and questionable practices that few people care to try to call bs when they could just nod and upvote.

[+] johnfn|5 years ago|reply
I used to own [myfullname].com. I inadvertently let it expire, and godaddy immediately bought it up and listed it for purchase at multiple thousands of dollars.

I don't often say something like this, but Godaddy is a terrible company. They have a long history of running sexist and degrading ads, and they supported SOPA until they were boycotted off using it.

[+] mindslight|5 years ago|reply
My reaction to the original post was a casual "must be a new generation learning", because I thought this was just longstanding expected behavior. At least at some time in the past, registrars (and IIRC, Godaddy specifically) definitely did do this. To the point you could enter any string of random characters in their search box and it would show up in whois shortly thereafter. Apparently things have changed, but the initial accusation was not far fetched.
[+] ForHackernews|5 years ago|reply
GoDaddy is shady as shit. No benefit of the doubt: They've fully earned every ounce of this distrust.

Is it true? I don't know, but I know I'd trust any random throwaway account before I'd trust Godaddy's sleazy PR department.

[+] sebastialonso|5 years ago|reply
That's fair. If we use the high standards you mention, then neither story presented credible evidence (or any evidence whatsoever). This was a massive waste of time!
[+] gfody|5 years ago|reply
> completely unsubstantiated accusation

a guy searched for a domain on godaddy and godaddy sold it - afaict that’s a fact. they obviously agree that it looks bad or they wouldn’t’ve bothered with this response.

[+] p49k|5 years ago|reply
It’s a shame that no major online source or aggregator of news has tried to address this problem. Most sites already track what articles their users view; they could post a notification to everyone who saw it to inform them that what they read was inaccurate.
[+] bufferoverflow|5 years ago|reply
It's not the first time GoDaddy is accused of exactly that.
[+] londons_explore|5 years ago|reply
How many "fraudulent" registrations and cancellations does GoDaddy do each day?

Could it be that it isn't GoDaddy being malicious, but perhaps a third party? It's pretty easy to get a feed of queries into the GoDaddy search box - all you'd need to do is partner with any registrar.

[+] toyg|5 years ago|reply
Or it could be this is GoDaddy’s version of the classic “I GOT HACKED!!1!!1” excuse when caught exploiting their users. Which is even easier.
[+] JdeBP|5 years ago|reply
The headlined article tells you that that outright was the case, no "could" about it. A third party looked for felons.io using a compromised GoDaddy customer account, and proceeded to register it the same day. Clearly the person fraudulently using an account that wasn't xyr own is a malicious third party.
[+] hasperdi|5 years ago|reply
Just avoid GoDaddy if you can. They treat customers like shit anyway. Trying to upswell you stuff all the time. It’s the kind of company that you can’t rely to behave and act in your interest as a customer.
[+] andrewmcwatters|5 years ago|reply
Who cares. Why would anyone use GoDaddy after the December 2011 boycott?
[+] jonincanada|5 years ago|reply
yes, they stole swipekit.com "from me" two days after I searched for it on the godaddy site (in 2014). Last I checked it was owned by one of their employees (who has been taken to court for similar troubles) can't we f'n do something about that? or suppose that's business as usual
[+] zatel|5 years ago|reply
Thank you for reminding me to buy [my name].com back since it's lapsed
[+] toyg|5 years ago|reply
This is all extremely convenient. It’s not just “it wasn’t me” but even “it wasn’t me, somebody was hacked, the domain will become available again tomorrow”. Methinks the lady doth protest too much, this might well be godaddy’s SOP when caught red-handed.

Be as it may, the fact that GD is so casual about pwned accounts being an everyday occurrence should suggest people that it’s better to stay away from their lumbering carcass of a service.

[+] dylz|5 years ago|reply
> Be as it may, the fact that GD is so casual about pwned accounts being an everyday occurrence should suggest people that it’s better to stay away from their lumbering carcass of a service.

My assumption is that the vast majority of GD accounts almost certainly are people that have their first domain, are nontechnical, and have a credit card linked. The same would not apply for, say, Gandi, based on their advertising and upsells.