Blogger Gets Stolen Domain Name Back
Posted on December 28, 2007 in Technology
While on vacation in India, blogger and graphic designer David Airey received e-mails from friends telling him his website had disappeared. Someone hijacked his Gmail account and used his e-mail address to transfer ownership of his domain, DavidAirey.com, away from him.
The hijacker held the domain name at ransom, initially asking $650 for the domain, and later taunting Airey with a $250 “special Christmas offer.”
Airey stood by his principles and decided not to pay the hijacker. Instead, he wrote a blog post on the ordeal. The post received nearly 4,000 diggs and over 400 comments. It was also linked by The News York Times, Lifehacker, and numerous other sites.
Thanks to the overwhelming support, including e-mails to Bob Parsons, the CEO of GoDaddy, Airey now has his domain name back.
One of Parsons’ assistants e-mailed Airey, explaining how he could use an “Undo of Change” request form to nullify the transfer of his domain from his web host, ICDSoft, to GoDaddy.
Say what you will about GoDaddy, but they went above and beyond for someone who isn’t even their customer, because it was the right thing to do.
Airey’s ordeal has been an important lesson in security for bloggers and webmasters everywhere.
More importantly, as Airey said in his blog, it was a “testament to the good-will of the blog community.”
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Nice.
That must be an indictable offense, assuming you can find the prick. It would have been most excellent to have set up a sting, assuming the jerk would have some sort of PayPal account or something that would keep him somewhat anonymous had Mr. Airey decided to pay.
Thanks for the write-up, and all’s well that certainly ends well.
Only thing that hasn’t yet happened is to uncover the whereabouts of the thief.
All the best.