Just heard a crazy story about how a GoDaddy rep stole a domain. Here's a quick summary:
A guy, a legend in his industry and a serial entrepreneur that is also elderly, called GoDaddy to get help setting up a website for his company. At this point he has nothing but word of mouth and dozens of publications calling him one of the greatest in his industry's history.
GoDaddy rep asks for the standard stuff like his name and why he's getting a domain, then asks what domain he is considering and after awhile they determine it should just be the "nameofthebusiness(dot)com" domain - not exactly rocket science.
GoDaddy rep then says he has to take another call and disappears, phone gets hung up.
Guy waits a few minutes and calls back frustrated. A new GoDaddy rep answers the phone and gets things back on track. The new rep comes to the same conclusion on what the domain should be and helps the guy get an account set up so the order can be processed. Then horror strikes - the new rep discovers that the domain was just purchased minutes earlier and the owner's information is private.
The customer is furious, he thought for sure a new website would propel his small business into the stratosphere as he's now working for various celebs and elites in his city.
In an attempt to genuinely help, the new GoDaddy rep recommends adding a "Z" to the end of the domain where the original ended in an "S". The guy begrudgingly agrees and buys the domain and hosting over the phone.
Months ago he came to me asking for help with this situation. He can't really use the "Z" version of the domain since all of his work for years is already branded with the "S" version. I explained that the timing was suspect (the WhoIs registration date matched his claims btw) and that there was a real chance the GoDaddy rep hung up on him and used a phone or personal computer to somehow buy the domain.
While sitting in his office I did a little digging and we found it on the GoDaddy auction site for $25,000!
I explained to him that getting a stolen domain taken by an unscrupulous employee was not my expertise and that he would need specialized help, gave him some recommendations and wished him best of luck.
After a few months he finally decided to hire a domain lawyer (not sure who yet, not a recommendation by me). The lawyer agreed that it was clearly done by an employee who was hoping to hit a huge payday considering how quickly this man's star was rising. The lawyer was able to get the contact info from GoDaddy (magic I am told) and sent a notice to the owner demanding the domain be turned over. The domain owner then called and demanded a $25k payout.
The lawyer apparently explained that the domain is trademarked by an LLC of the same name that also has branded trucks and they were willing to sell him those assets for $500,000 along with the business and inventory if he registered the domain in good faith to start a business with the (very unique) name that happens to closely match the elderly guys name. The lawyer apparently also explained that otherwise working at a registrar and registering a customer's domain was clearly bad faith and they would sue for the same amount and pursue fraud charges or simply settle for the domain being transferred.
The domain owner then admitted bad faith registration and promptly transferred the domain in exchange for an agreement to not be sued.
After months of agony our elderly entrepreneur has his domain and a website up that he can start marketing. I am not sure how much $$ it cost or who the miracle worker was, when I find out I plan on hyping them up a bit.
Wild stuff.
