The 3 letter domain name BLU.com is currently suspended pending ownership verification at the domain name registrar Network Solutions.
The domain name’s status is clientTransferProhibited but that status alone wouldn’t indicate the domain name is suspended.
Visiting Blu.com directly there is a message in the right-hand top corner stating: “If you are the owner of this domain name, click here to verify”
According to current whois records, the domain name is owned by “Blue Chip Value Fund” of Colorado with a registrant email address of denniso@denveria.com . Denveria.com according to whois records is owned by “Denver Investment Advisors LLC”. The DenverIA.com domain name redirects to Denvest.com and that website states:
Denver Investments is a research-driven organization founded on the belief that independent, fundamental research is the key driver of the investment success we strive to achieve for our clients. In all that we do, we endeavor to put our clients first in order to help them meet their long-term investment goals.
I did a whois history search on BLU.com and there was a change that took place in whois records on April 15, 2015.
Whois record as of March 30, 2015
Whois record as of April 15, 2015
So the registrant name changed from Blue Chip Value Fund TO Dennis Obduskey and registrant email address also changed from denniso@denveria.com TO denniso@airfair.com.
Airfair.com is currently for sale at DomainNameSales.com.
On May 12, 2015 the whois changed back to the registrant information as it was on March 30, 2015 with Blue Chip Value Fund being the registrant but the registrant’s contract email reverted back to denniso@denveria.com an email address which may not even be monitored by the domain holder.
On June 10, 2015 according to whois records is when the status of the domain name changed to ClientTransferProhibitted and name servers also changed at that time from Secure.net TO Ztomy.com.
ICANN states that a registrar may verify ownership but is not required to do so. It is also stated:
Upon the occurrence of a Registered Name Holder’s willful provision of inaccurate or unreliable WHOIS information, its willful failure promptly to update information provided to Registrar, or its failure to respond for over fifteen (15) calendar days to inquiries by Registrar concerning the accuracy of contact details associated with the Registered Name Holder’s registration, Registrar shall either terminate or suspend the Registered Name Holder’s Registered Name or place such registration on clientHold and clientTransferProhibited, until such time as Registrar has validated the information provided by the Registered Name Holder.
I reached out to the registrant about the domain name and they declined to comment.
I did find a LinkedIn.com profile page for a Dennis Obduskey that states he worked for Denver Investments from May 1984 to April 2015 according to the profile.
It’s unclear what email address the ownership verification would be sent to and from which is needs to be verified.
Is it the email address on the whois on April 15, 2015 or March 30, 2015 or on May 12, 2015?
What is clear is that Blu.com is a quite valuable domain name.
Throw into the mix Blu e-cigs, which are marketed heavily and whose website is at blucigs.com, the Blu Smartphones, which is using the extremely unexciting domain name bluproducts.com along with the fact that the domain name VAX.com recently sold for $200,000 to another company in the e-cig market space and the domain name Blue.com, sold almost 9 years ago for $500,000.
Anyway you look at its, a pretty valuable domain sitting suspended awaiting verification.
More to come on this story?
We think so and will update you once we learn more.
Update 7/12/2015: The over month long suspended domain name Blu.com has since been restored after our story was published according to whois records with a name server change. Prior, you can see a screen shot here of the click to verify ownership and the page you would land on upon clicking it.
Interesting. Is there some protocol how registrars should modify whois and DNS for such unverified domain names? Recently I found out that whois record for domain name jipiao.com (http://www.whois.com/whois/jipiao.com) shows “invalid whois” with not registrant’s, but registrar’s contact information listed and site does not resolve. Translation of “air ticket” or “air tickets” to Mandarin Chinese is 機票 (pinyins: jīpiào, jipiao, jp), so I assume the domain name jipiao.com has a seven figure value, considering qiche.com (“car” in Mandarin pinyin) just recently sells for $2+ million dollars (http://domainnamewire.com/2015/06/25/auction-for-qiche-com-domain-name-closes-at-2-million/).
If a syndicate behind Verisign/ICANN/major Registrars are helping themselves to valuable domains of Registrants who are less likely to fight back, it seems no accident that blu.com was selected to verify an email address, and that the [bad?] email address inserted is and has been under privacy, of a domain which might be considered the 2nd most valuable in the portfolio: brandable Airfair.com.
If a syndicate comprised of ICANN, Verisign, and the major Registrars are targeting valuable domain names for seizure from registrants who are less likely to fight back, it seems no surprise valuable blu dot com is selected to check for whois inaccuracies. It is no surprise a domain which might be considered the Registrant’s 2nd most valuable, brandable, AirFair dot com, is under privacy and uncertain ownership, which email was temporarily substituted in the whois.
Airfair.com was under whois privacy at Moniker as late as July 2014. Jamie, would you research, Airfair.com since July 2014? When did the Registrar change to UniRegistrar?
@Louise,
According to whois records, AirFair.com changed ownership March 24, 2006 to HotKeys Internet Group after being owned by TravelSearch of Colorado and a Dennis Obduskey. The domain then went into privacy on September 27, 2006 and remained under privacy until on June 27, 2015 shows a ABSTRACT HOLDINGS INTERNATIONAL LTD to current whois.
Undoubtedly, Dennis Obduskey will be wanting his domain back – not selling it!
Surely Airfair.com’s change of ownership is “consistent with ICANN’s standards, policies, procedures, and practices.” Likely a domain separated from an owner because of a failed renewal notice, or a missing character on the payment into, if the domain was set to auto-renewal, so that it expired unawares.
Good job, @ Jamie Zock – can you find any more of those?
Domain Name: AIRFAIR.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2875310_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.uniregistrar.net
Registrar URL: http://uniregistry.com
Updated Date: 2015-05-19-T02:46:36Z
Creation Date: 1995-10-24-T04:00:00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2015-10-23-T04:00:00Z
Registrar: UNIREGISTRAR CORP
Registrar IANA ID: 1659
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.9494785380
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited
Registry Registrant ID: UNIREG2EZLX5RTU
Registrant Name: DOMAIN ADMIN
Registrant Organization: ABSTRACT HOLDINGS INTERNATIONAL LTD
Registrant Street: THE BUSINESS CENTRE
Registrant City: UPTON
Registrant State/Province: ST MICHAEL
Registrant Postal Code: BB11103
Registrant Country: BB
Registrant Phone: +1.2464368600
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:
Name Server: buy.internettraffic.com
Name Server: sell.internettraffic.com
This vertical is booming!
VAP.com that is currently for sale at Catchy.com, is one of the top 3 domains actually getting the most offers in the marketplace.
If anything proves the ICANN – Verisign – Major Registrar syndicate, this example is it.
All the other whois info is correct. What is the excuse? What is the part that doesn’t work? Is it the email address? Why would valuable, 3-letter dot com be chosen? Denveria is current. Who inserted, AirFair email? I phoned that guy and left a message. The above, looks like the anatomy of the theft.
Domaintools captured the screenshot with the, Network Solutions, “verify,” message.
the domain seems to have been restored. the Whois doesn’t show the on-hold status like it must when doing client contact validation.
a guess: the guy left the company and tried to get the domain to himself. very common situation.
the guy also had airfair.biz which has also dropped
I think you’re right that status clientHold is required for domain names suspended due to incorrect whois information. BLU.com doesn’t have it, so it seems not to be suspended.
@Peter,
The domain was for sure suspended. Although, according to whois records, the domain never switched status of “both” ClientHold AND ClientTransferProhibitted and only changed to ClientTransferProhibitted when Network Solutions suspended the domain on June 10, 2015.
Here are two screen shots showing the domain name was suspended but it has now been removed from being suspended after our story, via a name server change.
http://www.thedomains.com/wp-content/blu-landing-650.jpg
http://www.thedomains.com/wp-content/blu-suspended-650.jpg
@Jamie, you are right. I was learnt that clientHold status is just one of the options for registrar when it comes to required action in regards to invalid whois information:
“Upon the occurrence of a Registered Name Holder’s willful provision of inaccurate or unreliable WHOIS information, its willful failure promptly to update information provided to Registrar, or its failure to respond for over fifteen (15) calendar days to inquiries by Registrar concerning the accuracy of contact details associated with the Registered Name Holder’s registration, Registrar shall either terminate or suspend the Registered Name Holder’s Registered Name or place such registration on clientHold and clientTransferProhibited, until such time as Registrar has validated the information provided by the Registered Name Holder.”
@jose,
The domain does appear to have been restored after our story. We will have more info sometime soon.
It is amazing that the domain is restored. It would have been devastating for the registrant.
According to 1 Corinthians 14:34, I need to quit blabbing and mind my faith:
We’re supposed to be quiet. I just want to lead a quiet life.