I am new here and just signed up to this forum because I saw good topics relating to similar issues and I wanted to ask a question. Was my ICANN search just tasted and purchased before I could act on it? I ask this because I used the ICANN (icann.org) search to look up a name and there was a longer delay than normal followed by returning a nealy blank info page which I have not seen before, then I went to whois.net to check the same name and saw this: """ Registrar WHOIS Server: whoisDOTnamecheapDOTcom Registrar URL: wwwDOTnamecheapDOTcom Updated Date: 2020-01-03T23:13:48Z Creation Date: 2014-10-22T12:37:50Z Registry Expiry Date: 2019-10-22T12:37:50Z Registrar: NameCheap, Inc. ... Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https ://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: pendingDelete https ://icann.org/epp#pendingDelete """ note: above I had to change "." to "DOT" so it was not a link.. I am very suspicious by the "Updated Date" and I do not know what timezone it is in but I searched for that domain only a few hours ago (it's currently 01:31:50 UTC Saturday, January 4, 2020) so it was nearly the same day/time I think. I see it going on GoDaddy for $95,000.00 Was I just pawned by ICANN? Or is there deeper reasoning?
Some unscrupulous companies do monitor searches and register so that they can cybersquat. They buy in bulk and with a flat rate so junk registrations are, essentially, free. If you searched on icann.org I'd expect a clean, unmonitored search but have no evidence either way.