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Domain
investor/developer Morgan
Linton
has
seen fellow domain owners victimized by domain
thieves far too often, so he has
decided to try to do something about it.
Linton just launched his solution, a new
centralized domain database service at DomainTheft.org
designed to let buyers and sellers know
if any given name has been reported
stolen by its owner.
Linton
said that all
of the domains listed as stolen at
DomainTheft.org will be verified by a
proprietary algorithm called DTVS
(Domain Theft Verification System).
Linton noted, "DTVS does an initial
check to ensure that the theft report is
valid, then sends it to a member of
DomainTheft.org’s task force for
investigation." To
offset operational costs, Linton |
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said
domain owners will pay a small monthly
fee ($5 per month for a basic
listing or $10 per month for a
premium listing) to publicize their
stolen domains in a database that is
available to every major domain name
sales platform and marketplace,
including platforms like eBay
and
Flippa. |
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Morgan
Linton
Founder, DomainTheft.org |
Linton
said, "If every marketplace checks
our database before listing a domain for
sale it will not only dramatically reduce
the number of stolen domains, but also
improve the chance of recovery. Along with
listing domain names in our database we
have dedicated recovery agents that will
work with registrars and law enforcement
agencies to recover stolen
domains." Of
course, considerably more work would go
into a recovery effort than a domain
listing but, in a novel approach, Linton
said that rather than charge a set price,
DomainTheft.org will let domain owners
decide what the service was worth to them
and pay accordingly for successful
recoveries. Linton
noted that law enforcement agencies
currently do not have a procedure in place
to track domain theft and generally
nothing is done. He added, "Most
domain registrars |
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and
marketplaces try to stay-out of these
situations as well and assume zero responsibility
for the loss, even if the customer put
their life-savings into the domain. There
have been no domain name police, theft
database, or recovery agents, until
now." |
“Our
goal is big and the challenge is even bigger,
but we think that we can make a huge impact in
the Domain Name Security space," Linton
said. "If everyone checks our database
before they buy a domain name, it will be almost
impossible for thieves to sell domains. By
making it harder to sell stolen domains, thieves
will become less inclined to even attempt a
theft."
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