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Register.com hit by breach notice over 62,232 domains

Kevin Murphy, September 12, 2013, 10:43:50 (UTC), Domain Registrars

Register.com, a Web.com business that is one of the top ten registrars by domains under management, has been hit by an ICANN compliance notice covering 62,232 domain names.
It’s a weird one.
ICANN says that the company has failed to provide records documenting the ownership trail of the domains in question, which all currently belong to Register.com itself.
The notice names 000123.net, 0011pp.com, 00h4.com, 010fang.net, 01rabota.com, 02071988.com and 020tong.com, but it seems that these are merely the first in a alphabetical list that is much, much longer.
Judging by DomainTools’ Whois history, these domains all appear to have been originally registered at various times by individuals in China and India, then allowed to expire, then registered by Register.com to itself.
The only common link appears to be that they were kept by Register.com after they expired, for whatever reasons registrars usually hoard their customers’ expired domains.
According to the compliance notice, ICANN wants the registrar to:

Provide a detailed explanation to ICANN how 62,232 domains in which Register.com itself is the registrant are used for the purposes of Registrar Services, as defined by Section 1.11 of the RAA;

The Registrar Accreditation Agreement says registrars have to keep registrant agreement records, except for a limited class of cases where the domain is owned by the registrar itself and used for registrar-related stuff.
Register.com, one of the original five oldest competitive registrars, has been given until October 2 to come up with the requested information for face losing its accreditation.
The registrar has almost three million gTLD domains under management. Combined with its Web.com sister registrars, which include Network Solutions, the number is closer to 10 million.


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Comments (5)

  1. no kidding says:

    Ahmm… Many registrars do that and keep names for themselves that have nothing to do with their business. What’s new(??)
    In addition, in some cases those names get to a UDRP and the registrar pretends that they dont know who the owner is, while they are the actual owners..
    Beyond that, there has been a case of a registrar which its accreditation was revoked, and was actually owned by another existing registrar, with the same owner… Of course, no one probably new that they were owned by this other reputable registrar at the same time

    • Kimberly says:

      Always my question, drives me crazy after more than a few times.
      When registering a domain name “Available”
      One clicks to pay domain not “Available”
      Registrars with domain suggestion tool,
      domain they suggest ” Available”
      Click to pay domain Now not “Available”
      Gosh that was a good one …..just saying.
      Opinions, Tell me this really does not happen
      have reseller domain account.
      There is no way I could or would view a domain
      customer wanted to register.
      Software getting so smart, had to ask
      Respectfully, to all
      September 12, 2013 at 12:13 pm
      Ahmm… Many registrars do that and keep names for themselves that have nothing to do with their business. What’s new(??)

  2. Kate says:

    Funny, I was rather expecting that they would be sent a notice of breach for failure to provide EPP codes.

  3. ED green says:

    FROM GOOGLE SEARCH
    Register.com SUCKS. They are DIRTY CROOKS.
    I have known for years that Register.com really sucks, but I had one domain there for a long time and never got around to transferring it to eNom.
    The domain expired a few days ago. When i renewed it, these Nazi Al Qaeda child-killing terrorists charged me $35 for one year registration and a $25 “reinstatement fee”. If the management or ownership of this company fall in their shower and die, I will be the first to laugh at their misfortune.
    Is that reinstatement fee even legal? Is it permitted by ICANN? I want to punch these slimebags in the face.
    NEVER USE REGISTER.COM – you know that before, and i am reminding you now
    ========================
    they also ripped me off for 3 renewal name took me off who is and now it shows REGISTER as owner and my account does not exist when I tried to push to GODaddy

  4. SomeDomainer says:

    Any updates on this? I’m curious.

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