Here is what happend: Last week I purchased a domain that was for sale in the domain names thread here on DP. The name was EducationWorld.com. I paid $1500 for the name and it was transferred into my Godaddy account. As soon as it got into my account it said "Domain on hold by dispute" I called Godaddy to see what was going on and they said someone had disputed the transaction of that name. On Monday the domain was taken from my account without even being contacted by godaddy and given back to the previous owner. I tried to find out what happend but Godaddy says the previous owner supplied evidence that the name was not rightfully transfered from their account. Godaddy refuses to give me anymore info without a court subpena After further investigation I found out that educationworld.com is an established company. I managed to get a hold of their lead tech person and he told me that they were having problems with godaddy but that he could not comment or else he would be held for legal issues. Now here is what I have concluded.. 1 of 3 things had to of happend. 1. The name was stolen from educationworld and then sold to me. However this seems unlikely because educationworld would of reported a dispute earlier and the guy who stole it would of of been able to transfer it to me. 2. Someone withen educationworld wanted to make some quick cash and decided to scam me and get their name back real quick. Seems pretty likely actually. 3. They let their name expire, it was picked up by the person who sold it to me, (he did say this happend) and then education world noticed their name was expired and filed a dispute. This seems like a major possibilty and seems very unfair. My father and I were talking and said that if someone sold you a car for $1500 and gave you a false title you would press legal charges. I am going to most likely do the same thing. However, I need to know if I have any ground in winning this case. Please let me know what you think.
A site like this would never has sold for only $1,500 - so that should have been a huge red flag. My guess is that the person accessed the real owners account and transferred it to to you, which caused the immediate dispute. Your recourse is going to be against the person who sold it to you. If you used a credit card to pay for it, I would immediately file a dispute.
I obviously would not have bid if I would of seen the entire site. When he was selling the name all it showed a blank while page.
I will doubt that such domain names was expired, the whois info shows that's the domain names was registered since 1995 and never got deleted so option #3 is out. 1+2 might fall under the same situation.. it seems like you got scammed by a domain thief. I'm not a lawyer but I think without any written agreement, it will be hard and almost impossible to have a case and fight for your money back. Good luck and let us know.
You dont have a written agreement when you buy a used car either. This is the same deal. If my credit card company cant get back the money then im hoping educationworld company will just settle with me and refund my money because they either did not have a secure godaddy account or someone withen sold me the name. They are a multi million dollar company so I dont think $1500 is going to do much damage.
1. You were scammed. 2. You have the right to sue the scammer and try to get your money back, but if you paid with a credit card your best option is to call them and tell them that someone sold you a stolen domain name and you want your money back since you received nothing. You should follow up this phone call with a letter in writing to your credit card company demanding all your money back due to a fraudulent sale. 3. You have no reason to seek money from EducationWorld and the idea that they would pay you (just because they have money) because you got scammed is absurd and you should not waste one minute on it. Why you are even thinking of trying to get money from the other victim instead of the actual scammer is beyond me.
How do you know that someone withen educationworld didnt sell me that name? It is their fault that their godaddy account did not have proper security.
And how do you know that's what happened? Without any real proof you're blowing hot air and making yourself look foolish. Get real. Tell you what, why don't you just go and ask them for some money, and once they've stopped laughing at you come back and tell us all how it went. By your logic that means that everyone who has ever had their home burgled was at fault for not having security equivalent to that of a high-security facility, or anyone who has ever had a car accident was at fault for driving on the road. The only person at fault is the one who sold you the domain when they had no right to sell it. You should be spending your time tracking them down, not wasting it blaming the wrong people.
Burglarized. Honestly, Contort, you won't likely get that domain other than maybe your money back. More so if you're not able to demonstrate what you argued is indeed what happened. Still, good luck.
I honestly think you lost the $1500. I understand that you are upset and mad about this but I don't see how you will get it back. Maybe buying a used car sounds similar but in reality it's not the DMV has all the records and you can easily track the seller anyway. online is pretty wide and that's why they have such service called escrow where both parties agree to the terms before proceeding. If you used your credit card to make the payment, I wonder who did you pay? did you use paypal? western union? what mode of payment? Concerning EducationWorld as an entity.. I will doubt someone there try to sell it to make some quick cash. I'm sure such they monitor their domain closely and any notification and /or change of status will be automatically sent to their IT dept. if not their CEO. Also keep in mind if you want to press any kind of charge against any party it will cost you more than $1500. This could be a lesson to use a secure escrow service to protect yourself. Good luck
I used paypal. Maybe you didnt understand what I said the first time. It wouldnt of mattered if I used escrow or anything even more secure then escrow. He could of pulled the same domain name dispute scam at any time.
Here's the original thread. Why anyone would have gone through with the purchase is beyond me. http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2053855 The only legal claim you have is against the person who sold it to you. Any civil action would cost far more than $1,500 and a waste of money. In reality, the only chance for getting your money back is by disputing it directly with your credit card company. Educationworld shouldn't pay you a penny, and if you aren't careful about what you post, they could have cause to sue you.
I didn't read anything saying paypal. I'm not getting into details concerning escrow as it's not relevant at this point anyway. why you don't dispute it with paypal instead of your credit card company?
Even if it was, then sue that scammer. I assure you it was a not a corporate scam on you and they are not liable for an employee stealing their domain and selling it to you. So again, go after the person who sold you the domain and not the other victim of his scam. To liken this to your stolen car example. You bought a stolen car and instead of going after the thief and scammer alone, you are making some bizarre claim that they guy who didn't padlock his garage is somehow responsible to pay you because you didn't get the nice car you purchased at an obviously low price. There is simply no basis in the law for such a claim
Domain was purchased before that thread turned into what it is. If I would of see that I would not of purchased.
Not in the Queen's English The burglar, burgled the house while committing a burglary. "Colonial" spelling! tchhh! Back to the post. If you bought the domain through paypal did you pay for the domain with a Credit Card? If you did, surely you have protection from the fraudulent purchase by your credit card company.
file with paypal for non-delivery. If it's within about 3 months, they will probably refund you (unless the scammer has closed the account, closed the associated bank Acs etc)
If you paid w/CC, then usually, the card company (if we aren't talking paypal) will tell you that you must 1st dispute - attempt to dispute- the charge with the person who wrongfully charged you. Once you've done that, then the card company likely will contact the wrongdoer and handle it. If the card company handles it, then what will you be asking for in a lawsuit? Most likely, you'll have to prove damages. Note: This is not legal advice.