Tell HN: A warning not to use namecheap.com – they'll steal your domain,

Re:Tell HN: A warning not to use namecheap.com – they'll ste... by version_five on Saturday October 02, 2021 @06:54PM (#28732839)

Edit 2: I looked at the images and read the other comments and realized the poster had a fanciful theory about Namecheap using Godaddy as a proxy to steal the domain name he searched for the previous day. This discussion should probably be closed.

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There was an article not too long ago where someone else claimed this (it was with a .quest domain name) and someone from namecheap categorically denied it.

FWIW, I have also checked domains on namecheap and have not had them squatted.

I'm cynical enough however to believe they could start doing this.

Edit: see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26327939 for the earlier discussion

And here is a the (putative) response from namecheap on reddit at the time, linked in the HN discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/lwgrkz/comment/gpjp...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tell HN: A warning not to use namecheap.com – they'll ste... by smoyer on Saturday October 02, 2021 @08:31PM (#28733460)

Funny ... I had a bigger issue with the word "steal". If Namecheap did in fact squat on the domain he searched for, they could only register it because he hadn't - I don't for a minute think this is ethical (or even nice) but I doubt you could argue this is an actual crime.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tell HN: A warning not to use namecheap.com – they'll ste... by asplake on Sunday October 03, 2021 @01:08AM (#28734677)

In finance it would be a crime, namely ‘front running’: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_running

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tell HN: A warning not to use namecheap.com – they'll ste... by andrewstuart on Saturday October 02, 2021 @07:14PM (#28732986)

>> the poster had a fanciful theory about Namecheap using Godaddy as a proxy to steal the domain name he searched for the previous day.

So what's your theory? Coincidence?

Why is it so fanciful that they would not use their own registrar? Seems the inverse to me - if you're doing something shady why would you explicitly identify yourself?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tell HN: A warning not to use namecheap.com – they'll ste... by HeyLaughingBoy on Saturday October 02, 2021 @08:21PM (#28733406)

Yes, coincidence. People (probably) search tens of thousands of domain names each day. A certain number of those domains will end up being taken by someone else in short order simply due to coincidence.

It's the same coincidence that causes every really good name I come up with for a site to have been taken years ago. There are a lot of web developers out there!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tell HN: A warning not to use namecheap.com – they'll ste... by andrewstuart on Saturday October 02, 2021 @08:54PM (#28733599)

>> taken years ago

this was taken the next day

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tell HN: A warning not to use namecheap.com – they'll ste... by groundpepper on Sunday October 03, 2021 @12:47AM (#28734603)

I think you're seriously underestimating how much it would cost to run an operation like this and how little it would return them. As well as how quickly it would be discovered if done at a rate higher than coincidence.

[ Parent | on HN ]