Ok, this is a first for me, though I have heard of some other people in the past that have had people email them randomly out of the blue wanting to purchase their domain name from them.
I own a domain name that I have now owned since 2003, so going on 10 years now. Not long ago I scrapped my old site and put up an "under construction" page informing the public that a new site was in the works and to visit again soon.
Some bright spark apparently interpreted that as "This site is completely vacant and up for purchase by the highest bidder!" - sure enough, they emailed me, expressing interest in purchasing the domain since they are starting a company under the same name as what my domain is.
I politely informed them that such a thing was not possible, because:
1. I am still making use of the site for my own purposes
2. The domain name and all content contained within were considered intellectual copyrights, with trademark pending on the site name itself (I'm in early stages of finding out what is involved)
3. I have owned the site for almost 10 years and am more than a little attached to it.
Roughly 48 hours later I receive a polite but firm email from Domainz (one of the main domain registrars in New Zealand) saying that they had received an email claiming I was cyber-squatting on a domain name that the person wanted. Surprise surprise, it was the person that I had shot down a couple of days prior!
Thankfully due to the extremely professional nature of the company, they had looked into the WHOIS records and seen that I have owned the domain name since 2003, plus observed that the site actually contains content and is not a placeholder site like a lot of true squatters and that no further action would be taken.
Apparently senor douchebag was not satisfied with the ruling of Domainz though and decided to persist with further emails demanding that I sell the domain name to him or open it for backorder - to which I replied "I will happily open my domain for backorder, it should become available for purchase some time in the year 2030, give or take a year."
I own a domain name that I have now owned since 2003, so going on 10 years now. Not long ago I scrapped my old site and put up an "under construction" page informing the public that a new site was in the works and to visit again soon.
Some bright spark apparently interpreted that as "This site is completely vacant and up for purchase by the highest bidder!" - sure enough, they emailed me, expressing interest in purchasing the domain since they are starting a company under the same name as what my domain is.
I politely informed them that such a thing was not possible, because:
1. I am still making use of the site for my own purposes
2. The domain name and all content contained within were considered intellectual copyrights, with trademark pending on the site name itself (I'm in early stages of finding out what is involved)
3. I have owned the site for almost 10 years and am more than a little attached to it.
Roughly 48 hours later I receive a polite but firm email from Domainz (one of the main domain registrars in New Zealand) saying that they had received an email claiming I was cyber-squatting on a domain name that the person wanted. Surprise surprise, it was the person that I had shot down a couple of days prior!
Thankfully due to the extremely professional nature of the company, they had looked into the WHOIS records and seen that I have owned the domain name since 2003, plus observed that the site actually contains content and is not a placeholder site like a lot of true squatters and that no further action would be taken.
Apparently senor douchebag was not satisfied with the ruling of Domainz though and decided to persist with further emails demanding that I sell the domain name to him or open it for backorder - to which I replied "I will happily open my domain for backorder, it should become available for purchase some time in the year 2030, give or take a year."
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