Domain-me.com: One scam or another, front running is gonna get ya’
Written on May 22, 2008 – 1:15 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Because of its malicious effect on our beloved web industry, we’ve discussed the practice of domain front running a lot on The Next Web. We have to get rid of it, that’s why we try to raise awareness. For those of you who don’t exactly know what is, Eric Litman from WashingtonVC once gave a good definition in the comments section of this blog:
Front Running: when a registrar purchases a name for themselves that someone either attempted to purchase or researched through that registrars web site.
So when you check the availability of thisdomainserviceisonebigscam.com at a domain company that just loves front running, chances are high they’ll register it for you. Even Network Solutions is has been accused of this practice once.
Yesterday I wrote about the popularity of the new .me domain. And when you think about it, it’s not that weird that these front running types also try to make some dirty money in this new area. Well, my co-editor Patrick has just discovered on of the first signs.
If you do a Google-search for “Register Me Domain“, one of the top results is Domain-me.com, a site that tries to appear as a trustworthy domain name registration service. They even have the dull stock photos thing going on. Yet when you check a domain, any domain, they say that your desired domain has already been taken. Even the thisdomainserviceisonebigscam.me one:
Let’s hope Google’s head of the Webspam team Matt Cutts will find this out soon and ban this “Market-Tek Enterprises” company from the search results.
I hope you like that post!
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By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on May 22, 2008
Or they just have a bug in their form, right?
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By mascha van T. on May 22, 2008
Why not use a ‘normal’ registrar like godaddy.com or something?? I never had any problems with them at all and they are not that expensive either.
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By Ernst-Jan Pfauth on May 22, 2008
@Boris yeah they might say that when they get in trouble. But if you take a closer look, you can tell the site is one big fake. Just look at the copyright claim for example.
@Mascha, of course you’re right. But you’ll have to tell that to less web-savvy people who can’t recognize a ‘normal’ registrar from a fake one.
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By mascha van T. on May 22, 2008
@Ernst-Jan : what on earth are those people doing registering .me’s when they can’t even tell a legit registrar from a [probable] rip off. What is the world coming to?? :) ps: I registered 3 yesterday through godaddy and I am excited to see what will happen!
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By Steven on May 23, 2008
NS did me up like this years ago. Never used them since.
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