It looks like Wind.com has changed hands, Rob Monster had written on Namepros about someone hacking an account of the former owner.

Epik.com has just busted a domain thief.

The domain account at Network Solutions controlled by Alex69@gmail.com is a hacked account. The person portraying themselves to be alex69@gmail.com is selling domains for crypto.

The seller was offering these premium names for implausibly attractive prices:

WEED.COM
WIND.COM
WIND.NET
MODERN.COM
GARDEN.COM
FARM.COM
CANNABIS.ORG
CANDLE.COM
CAMPING.COM
ERGONOMIC.COM
HIKE.COM
GREEN.ORG

This person was unable to get the auth code which is a requirement for selling a domain at Epik.com registrar and marketplace. Upon investigation, the person on the email was not actually the real Alex.

The lesson here is the extreme importance of using a registrar for securing transactions. It is much easier to game the system with a domain push where the security controls can be less strict.

The other lesson here is that the email address matching the WHOIS is not always sufficient evidence of legal ownership, with or without domain privacy.

For anyone forensically inclined, I am attaching the header of the domain thief’s email. Perhaps it can be used for tracking down this person. The actual owner, the real Alex, was alerted this morning.

The would-be buyer is relieved that they sold through Epik. He is a NamePros member is welcome to comment on this thread if he likes.

The actual domain owner has his account locked down at Network Solutions and will eventually regain control of their account. The registrant alerted the authorities.

Approved accounts can list external domains for sale, including with BIN pricing. However, actual closing requires the domain to be at Epik. This is an important way that we protect buyers from fraud.

The name looks to now have moved to Uniregistry and has a landing page up on the name. According to Rob the account was locked down at Network Solutions so hopefully this move was completely legit.

James Iles has now gotten confirmation from James Booth that he brokered the name.