How do you prevent domain name theft? For instance, I have a domain name with a registrar. It has private whois. What prevents someone from phoning the registrar and saying they forgot the email address attached to the domain name and so fax in a fake id and have the email address changed and ultimately change the owner of the domain?
Registrar's would require a lot more information than just a Fax. They would also have all the real owners contact details, so would be able to check many references first. Although nothings 100% safe these days !!
Last time my parents needed to get involved with a registrar to get a domain moved who we had in our webmasters account, they needed us to fax them our business license and ID, that matched the domain name. Then they released the domain. THey don't just give it away.
BlueMan God help you if you YOURSELF are EVER in that situation! You are screwed! It takes one hell of a lot to get a domain registration hijacked. You're talking about someone else stealing what's yours - just try getting back what's yours if the info or registration info changes, and you're not in the driver's seat AND you forgot your username/passwords! My friend, I'd rather be a hijacker than an owner. Hijackers move on. Owners have to stay and fight.
Hmm, maybe not having the motivation? If you really want to prevent domain theft, stay on top of it and be ready to pay more for more protection.
You could always just register with godaddy and then get a spam complaint. They'll hijack your domain and charge you $250 to get it back whether you actually spammed somebody or not. (Granted, it takes more than 1 spam complaint, but it still isn't a policy I'm comfortable with.)
That's generally not hijacking. But then, some people have their own personal definitions of such. Read the sex.com saga. And unfortunately, it still does happen: http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/09/alert-more-stolen-domains/