Recently our Hotmail account was hacked into and it was used to gain the login and also password to our main domain Registrar's control panel. Although we had our domain on lock so that it can't be transfered some how this hacker has managed to change the WHOIS data and also sell our domain name to himself by using just our email address! He sent us this email when we tried to login to our Register.com control panel and reset our password: Don't be a silly girl Charlotte. You have neither the intellect nor the creativity to gain access to my Register.com account. According to register.com, the sale of Bond and Mayfair should be complete in just a few days. You're a naughty girl trying to claim you never agreed to sell - I saved all the emails you sent me prior to the sale. Kind regards, James ----------------------------- We contacted the Register.com and also forwarded the above email and now they have locked the domain and passed it onto their legal department. Would anyone here in the great digitalpoint have any information on what happens next? Will we need to go to court like sex.com?
No info, but find somebody (a hacker or internet investigator type person) to figure out who the a.h. is, and contact their ISP. The ISP can investigate and provide logs and things. You could also give their info to the FBI.
Hopefully not. At this point your best recourse is to continue working with the Register.com legal group handling this matter and ask what's their position.
I am trying to communicate with Register.com at the moment but every time I call them they give me the same answer. They said that it has been forwarded to their legal department and they will send me a prompt email to let me know where I stand. The hacking was reported to them on the 13th and I was asked to provide them with a Company letterhead with a Notary signature alongside mine requesting to change my email address and confirm that I didn't sell my domain name. I went to my Business solicitor, my Notary Public and also the Police to get help. They have all co-operated with me as my business is 100% legit, I pay my National Insurance and all my TAX. I have provided Register.com with everything I could possibly give them to say that I am still the Proprietor for my company but they still haven't changed the registrant back. All they can confirm is that the domain name is locked and it is being investigated. I really hope I can get my domain back as I worked very hard to get where I am and not going to let it go so easily. I have taken ilikenwf's advice and will pay to find every single bit of electronic evidence I can gather to take this culprit to the Slaughterhouse. If anyone knows any (data retrieval expert) Hacker, please let me know. I want this guy badly as his gone too far. His also sending me threats by text messages to my mobile phone but unfortunately police suspect it is a Pay As You Go sim. The Police have also said that the Hacker used a mobile device to get what he wanted, I am now waiting for more news. We have an address from the WHOIS database but it looks very fictitious yet maybe real.. The PS said that it would be better to gather the evidence first before he can be arrested otherwise they will have to let him go after the arrest has been made and another warrant would be difficult to get. Thanks Dave Zan I understand where you are coming from but now this has got very personal, he is using my ID and my hotmail.co.uk account to pretend he is me! Hotmail will not give me back my account because the Hacker has changed the Credit Card details I used to sign up with for their Premium service. I want this guy found and I will pay good money to find him so please PM me if you think you can help. Any information you guys can give me would also be very much appreciated.
bmint, First, I would not spam other threads with links to this one, that will possibly get you in trouble here and you are upset enough as it is. When a domain is "locked" it cannot be transferred. Therefore you are safe for now. Register.com is letting you know that they have frozen the ability for the domain to be transferred away from them and are investigating the manner. These things take time. Once they have confirmed that you really are who you say you are they will, I'm sure, double check with whoever the buyer is, and make sure that they don't have any cancelled checks that went into your bank account, etc. If it all checks out then you should be fine, I'm sure. That's because they don't have anything new to report, I would stop hassling them, it won't hurry things along to do so. Drink some herbal tea. Try some yoga. Quit freaking out. -Michael
Thanks mvandemar I didn't realise I was spamming, it won't happen again. I am not freaking out, I am trying to get more info on how to... Please excuse me.
I am speaking to a few people that have been though this before and they have told me that register.com has possibly taken this matter to a even higher department like a Law firm. This is really good news I feel much better now. Now it's time to report the this matter to the FBI! ;-) Thank you all for your views and advice, special thanks to ilikenfw, I have found some very good leads. Hope to see you guys around in the forum a few weeks time once all this is resolved.
Indeed they do. The "fastest" I've seen this issue resolved is 9 calendar days, the longest about a year or so. A registrar will see fit to return the domain name to its "rightful" owner if they see no potential risk in getting sued by its currently listed holder, or if a court order for such is secured. Take it from someone who's handled a few, and not once has it ever been easy at all as some seem to believe for some reason. One thing I'm curious to know though, bmint: has Register.com asked you to, say, sign a waiver of some sort? I ask this because it seems to become more frequent among a few registrars I know.
They have a copy of our receipt on file Dave Zan, we also have the Credit Card numbers for the renewal of the domain in 2004 and we renewed it till 2011. We got a company Letterhead signed by our Business Solicitor stating that bondandmayfair.com is ours and also got a letter from a Notary Public to verify who I am. This is what they requested. ilikenwf I know what you mean but it will give me greater pleasure to see him behind bars for what he has done to our business, I have spoken to the police and if we can get enough evidence on this hacker he is looking at up to 14 years. His texting my phone and sending threatening messages, scaring my clients away buy putting crap in the HTML coding and a whole lot of other stuff like hacking into my MSN buddies email as well! I mean the guys a loony bin thinking he can take control of my agency! What the hell does he think his doing, does he even know how to control 60 - 70 female escorts especially when their based in Central London? The other thing is doesn't he realise that I am the agent for the girls on the site? Even if he did get the domain, he wouldn't get the girls because he'd be known as a thief. My clientele, they would also. His a gutless jealous little swine who can't make it in life. The other thing is his threatening me that we run something illegal and how his sent info to the 5 O! How is taking appointments for escorts illegal???!!! I've been to court and they dealt it as a civil matter a number of years back cause I started it from home and the phone was disturbing the neighbours, didn't get jack. We want to know where he really lives.
I read somewhere that it isn't illegal in the UK...its only illegal if you solicit sexual favors, which I think are insinuated to be against your policies on your site. Even though I don't really agree with this type of thing, it is wrong to try to take somebody else's business away.
I perfectly understand your views and you are correct ilikenwf. I am the equivalent to a connesiours desk. I am hoping to at least receive an email this week from register.com in the mean time I am going to start a few more sites to fall back on if the worst was to happen. My fault for using a hotmail account.
No it's not. I'm pretty sure that all email accounts can be hacked into given enough time. If you used a private email that you got with another domain name I don't see it as being any more secure, honestly. The guy who did it is to blame, not you. Unless you accidentally gave away your password in some phishing scam, anyways, and even then it's not your fault if you didn't know any better, and having an account other than Hotmail still wouldn't have helped. -Michael
Just do whatever you can, and eventually it will get sorted out...If you end up having to, you could probably contact ICANN.
Thanks ilikenwf I'll call them right now it, think their time is PST so it's early afternoon where they are.
mvandemar I know the damage is done now. You gave me an idea though when you said that I was spamming theards but I wasn't aware that thread jacking actually exsited, I got a warning from the adminstrator but now I feel it has saved my business. There are a few more remaining tricks up my sleeve but it may mean losing No1 position for about a month or two on Google. This is why the hacker has done this I reckon, he thinks by taking the domain he can take my ranking positions for all keywords like London escorts, London escort etc. So I am going to get my bondandmayfair.com band from Google and take my clients to a better Bond & Mayfair ;-)
Actually, bmint, I wouldn't do anything rashly as of yet. If your rankings are fine now I wouldn't screw with them. It may take time to fix this... or it could be straightened out by tomorrow. I advocate patience at this point, it really hasn't been that long. The reason the hacker probably did it was to make you panic, don't give him the pleasure of doing so. -Michael