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This is how thieves trick customers into wiring money to them
This lawsuit explains a prevalent scam.
More and more companies and their clients are falling victim to scams in which the customer wires money to the wrong account. A typo domain name is often involved.
For a simple explanation of how this works, take a look at this lawsuit (pdf) filed by law firm Revision Legal. In the suit, it explains:
12. On or prior to May 14, 2019, Defendant obtained improper and unauthorized access to Client’s email system.
13. Defendant then located emails between Plaintiff and Client pertaining to Client’s outstanding balance with Plaintiff for legal services.
14. Defendant then Defendant (sic) registered the “Infringing Domain” (revisoinlegal.com) which is a typosquatting registration as it transposes the “o” and “i” in “revision” and is intended to appear as Plaintiff’s URL, revisionlegal.com.
15. Defendant then inserted himself in the email thread while removing Plaintiff’s attorneys from the email thread.
16. Defendant then emailed Client falsely informing Client that Plaintiff was changing how it was accepting payments and attached an altered invoice instructing Client to send payment via wire transfer to Premier Bank, located at [removed] (“Fraudulent Account”).
17. Client, believing this information was accurate, wired in excess of $25,000 to the Defendant’s Fraudulent Account
Ouch.
A private equity group I invest with informed clients of a similar scheme perpetrated against it this year. Fortunately, a client noticed discrepancies in the email before becoming a victim.
It seems that email is the first line of defense. The perpetrators need to get into email to find out who the company’s clients are.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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A look at the Chinese domain market by domain choice
Kassey Lee provide an overview of domain extension use in China.
In my previous article Chinese domain market – the big picture, I highlighted the overall demand and supply of domains in China and concluded that there is great potential in this market. Now, I want to dig deeper and look at several important domain extensions. Let’s start with .cn. This analysis is based on data I have collected from China Internet Network Information Center reports published since 1997.
The chart shows a breakdown of domains registered in China as of December, 2018. As you can see, .cn captures the largest share: 56.0% or 21 million domains. This leading position has remained unchanged since 2007, so .cn will likely continue to be the largest domain extension in China for the foreseeable future. However, number does not equal value. Even though .cn has the number, corporations in China actually prefer .com and are willing to pay high prices for .com domains. (I’ll talk about it in the next article.)
The chart shows that registrations grew very slowly in the early years. Some likely reasons are late awareness of the internet in China, registration restricted to corporations only, complicated registration requirements, and simply bureaucracy. Note that .cn was released in 1990 while major country extensions such as .uk, .de, and .jp, were launched in 1985/86.
In the early days, only subdomains of certain types were available for registration, such as com.cn, net.cn, org.cn, gov.cn, and edu.cn. Subdomains on com.cn became the dominant category. In 2003, the rules changed and second level domains (e.g. Baidu.cn) could also be registered in addition to subdomains (e.g. Baidu.com.cn). Then, registration was opened to individuals, and investors outside China could also participate.
This culminated in a great boom in 2007 when lots of investors flocked in, lured by aggressive pricing of $1 or even less in registration fees. However, the boom came to an abrupt stop when the rules changed. In 2010, the Chinese government started requiring owners of .cn domains to submit their identification information such as photo
and ID. This upset a lot of investors, particularly those outside China. As a result, they simply let their domains expire.
The .cn market recovered two years later when domain owners became used to the new rules. This was further helped by China’s growing economy with startups springing up everywhere. In 2013, .cn registrations doubled. Since then, growth has remained on the up trend.
China differs from many countries such as the United Kingdom and Japan where subdomains on co.uk and co.jp, respectively, are the standard. In China, subdomains account for only a small number. For example, using data for 2018, you can see .cn captures 87.4% while com.cn secures only 10.1%, net.cn 1.2%, and org.cn 0.7%. The remaining adm.cn, gov.cn, ac.cn, and edu.cn all together take up less than 1%. In other words, Chinese prefer one dot (e.g. Baidu.cn). This will help moving toward a global domain naming style of just one dot to make it easier for consumers to remember.
In summary, .cn is No.1 in terms of volume in China. If you want to invest in .cn domains, remember 3 things: (1) be aware of the ID requirements, (2) pay attention to any rule change made by the Chinese government, and (3) remember the one-dot preference.
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How Ethos Capital could restrict .org price increases
The private equity firm says it’s agreeable to putting price caps into concrete agreements.
NTEN, a group that represents non-profits, held a conference call today with a number of participants impacted by the Internet Society’s transaction to sell .org to Ethos Capital.
Ethos Capital founder Erik Brooks said that it is evaluating ways to put teeth behind its commitment to limiting price increases.
The firm will hold webinars in the coming weeks to discuss mechanisms to do this.
One idea that has been done by another registry is to cap prices in its agreement with registrars. .Club had such a term in its registry-registrar agreement; it limited price increases to 15% total or inflation over the first five years.
The challenge is how long this is enforceable. It’s one thing to restrict prices in an agreement that lasts for a few years. It’s another to restrict it in perpetuity.
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After losing UDRP, PureTalk sues to upgrade its domain name
Company tries to get PureTalk(.)com through ACPA.
Pure Talk lost a UDRP, so it filed a lawsuit to try to upgrade its domain from PureTalkUSA.com to PureTalk.com.
Pure Talk, a mobile virtual network operator, has filed a lawsuit (pdf) to try to obtain the domain name PureTalk(.)com. The company uses the domain name PureTalkUSA.com.
This is the company’s second attempt to get control of the domain without buying it. In June, the company filed a cybersquatting claim under UDRP. The panelist denied the claim because the domain was registered before Pure Talk had any trademark rights, so it couldn’t have been registered in bad faith.
Now, the company is trying its hand with an in rem lawsuit against the domain for violating the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA). The lawsuit suggests that the domain was transferred to another owner after Pure Talk obtained trademark rights. That argument works in UDRP, but it can be harder under ACPA. I’m not sure why the company didn’t point out the potential ownership transfer in its UDRP.
Intriguingly, the company’s trademark for Pure Talk states a first use date of 2017. PureTalkUSA.com has been used for much longer, though.
The lawsuit also erroneously states that the registry for the domain is “VeriSign, Inc. d/b/a Public Interest Registry” and refers to Public Interest Registry as the registry a second time. Public Interest Registry is the registry for .org, not .com. Verisign is the .com registry.
But the in rem lawsuit strategy might just work. The domain owner needs to show up to defend the domain in court, or the judge might issue a default judgment.
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14 more end user sales
A Chinese plastic mold manufacturer, a recruiting firm and an online trading platform bought domain names.
The top ccTLD of the week is also the top end user sale this week at Sedo—at least that we know of. BRGroup.com sold for more ($30,000), but I can’t figure out who the buyer is yet.
Here’s a look at some of the domains end users bought at Sedo. See prior end user lists here.
PotenzMittel(.)de €19,000 – This was the top ccTLD sale of the week at €19,000. It was an adult website, and not it’s being used to promote sexual enhancement products in Germany.
Secker.com €10,000 – Secker Consulting already owns and uses the .org version of this name.
Moulds.com $10,000 – China Mould, a Chinese manufacturer of plastic mold products, bought this domain.
Naeco.com €8,000 – This was purchased by Nortpalet Fabrica, a manufacturing company that specializes in plastic pallets. The company also owns Naeco.eco, and it seems like its some sort of shorthand for the company’s name.
SMSForum.net $5,195 – It’s being used for a site about SMS messaging.
GVTA.com $5,000 – This 4-Letter .com domain currently forwards to GrapevineStaffing.com. This is a national search firm serving diverse Fortune 100 – 500 global organizations, providing recruitment services for manufacturing, industrial automation, medical device, life science and material handling industries.
Artecarta.com $4,880 – Forwards to Artecarta.it, an Italian food company with bakery, ice cream, Easter and Christmas food products and more.
Oleuropeina.it €4,250 – This domain was purchased by Bruno Farmaceutici Spa, an Italian pharmaceutical company.
IQOption.in $4,200 – IQ Option, an online trading platform for stocks, forex and crypto, currently uses the .com version of this domain.
HMH.de €2,590 – Forwards to HMH.gmbh, a home renovation services provider in Germany.
Safety.info $2,400 – This was purchased by CutCom Software, which offers AppArmor, a developer of mobile safety apps.
Vertux.com $2,275 – Bought by Promate Technologies, a consumer electronic accessories brand with a focus on mobile, tablet and computer accessories.
Breuer.net $2,250 – This was purchased by Maranello Motors, a German Ferrari dealer.
Wabe.de €2,000 – Forwards to Wabe-Hamburg.de, a daycare services provider in North Germany.
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End user sales at Uniregistry up to $160,000
A CBD company, eco-friendly hotel chain, and security company bought domain names at Uniregistry.
Nemo Power Tools bought Grabo.com to promote its electric vacuum lifter.
Uniregistry has had some strong sales over the past couple of weeks, and many of them have been to end users instead of domain name investors. Here’s a look at 14 domains I found that appear to have been purchased by end users.
GreenRoads.com $160,000 – As I wrote about last week, a CBD company bought this domain after losing a UDRP for it.
KohRong.com $25,000 – Koh Rong is an island in the Sihanoukville Province of Cambodia. The page has a coming soon notice and a logo with a heart in it.
AST.net $20,000 – The domain forwards to AstronautSecurity.com, the website for managed security company Astronaut Security Technologies.
RettSyndrome.com $15,883 – A CSC client bought this domain. Rett Syndrome is a rare genetic mutation affecting brain development in girls.
EcoHotels.com $14,500 – Guldsmeden Hotels is an environmentally-friendly hotel chain.
ChickenSalad.com $12,000 – Pawleys Island Specialty Foods forwards this exact match domain to its websites. It sells chicken salad, among other foods.
ARTHR.com $11,000 – VAS01 Limited is a new company founded in the UK. We’ll see what they do with the domain.
MyAthletics.com $10,100 – The domain resolves to a website for the Southeastern Program of Recreational Team Sports, or S.P.O.R.T.S. for short.
ShowPlus.com $9,500 – Forwards to ShowPlusESP.com, a site for equestrian insurance.
EastandWest.com $7,000 – The Whois is for SC IP Limited, which is in the online gaming business.
Hedonista.com $6,000 – A coming soon page suggests it will be some sort of beauty products company.
TEEU.com $5,000 – A coming soon page notes “TEEU® an Tom&Dom® Company”.
Grabo.com $4,500 – Grabo is a portable electric vacuum lifter by Nemo Power Tools. Looks cool!
ASFG.com $4,500 – American Skin Food Group LLC in North Carolina.
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November’s Top 5 domain name stories
.Org dominated the news last month.
November was a busy month in the domain name business, led by a planned takeover of the .Org registry. I’ve grouped many of the .org-related articles into one on the top 5 posts list. Here’s the full roundup of what got the most views on Domain Name Wire last month:
1. Private equity company to acquire .Org – There are a lot of connections to ICANN including its former CEO. Ethos is buying a money printing press and many groups aren’t happy about it.
2. Why this weird domain sold for so much money – You have to understand Chinese to understand this domain name.
3. Kit.com is losing its domain name, switching to Kit.co – The woes of a domain name lease.
4. All domain investors should read this analysis – I can’t take credit for it.
5. Tucows exits its domain name portfolio – Citing changes in domain name monetization and the domain aftermarket, Tucows sells off its portfolio.
Miss any podcasts? Check them out here:
Richard Lau and James Morfopoulos – This episode got rave reviews! Listen
What to expect at NamesCon 2020 – It’s coming up next month! Listen
James Booth – James returned to the show to talk about what’s selling, what’s not, and what the future holds. Listen
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GoDaddy files vanity phone number patent applications
Patent applications discuss using domain, website and Whois information to generate vanity numbers.
GoDaddy has applied for patents related to generating vanity phone numbers.
GoDaddy has filed two patent applications related to vanity telephone numbers.
Patent application numbers 15/990163 (pdf) and 15/990169 (pdf) describe methods of finding relevant vanity numbers for people based on factors such as their domain name, Whois information or website content.
The company offers phone numbers in conjunction with its SmartLine service.
Tapan Kamdar, SVP & GM, Productivity Applications at GoDaddy, is listed as the inventor. Kamdar is an inventor on at least 20 of GoDaddy’s patents or patent applications.
The applications were filed in 2018 and published last week on November 28.
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ISOC is leaving money on the table with .org, but…
A secretive deal was the only way ISOC could get a deal done.
I’ve written a lot about how Internet Society’s (ISOC) deal to sell the .org registry to a private equity company impacts the internet’s users and non-profits. From a credibility standpoint, it’s a bad deal for ISOC.
But from a financial standpoint, it makes sense for ISOC to sell the registry.
The registry throws off cash to ISOC each year but there is risk. There’s risk that the importance of domain names changes over time. There’s risk that the base of .org domains declines.
By selling the registry and creating an endowment, ISOC secures its future. And a $1.135 billion endowment is nice security.
The way the process played out, however, means that ISOC is leaving money on the table.
I’ve heard from multiple people who would have paid more. These are people who have the capability to acquire companies for over a billion dollars. A competitive bidding process would have led to a greater windfall for ISOC.
So why was the deal done without public consultation and not put out to bid? I suspect that if people caught wind of what ISOC was up to, the blowback would have been so big that the deal would have never gone through. This was a deal that needed to be consummated in secret.
From ISOC’s perspective, $1.135 billion is enough. Getting a few hundred million dollars more at the risk of not getting anything was too great.
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Judge dismisses harassment suit against Uniregistry
Judge rules that plaintiff waited too long to file lawsuit.
A U.S. Federal District judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought against Uniregistry and one of its former employees for sexual harassment by granting the defendant’s motion for summary judgment.
The former employee sued (pdf) the company and one of its former employees in July 2018, claiming sexual harassment and retaliation.
But judge Josephine Staton agreed (pdf) with the defendants that her lawsuit was time-barred.
There are strict time requirements for filing such as case, including a 90-day window after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission closes an investigation. The time limits are in place, in part, to ensure that potential witnesses to the activities are available and the parties have the best recollection of events.
In this case, some of the witnesses of the alleged harassment had left Uniregistry before Uniregistry was aware of the plaintiff’s claims.
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End user domain sales topped by a new TLD
Clean.tech leads Sedo’s end user chart for last week.
Last week’s end user sales at Sedo were led by a new TLD sale at $30,000. A solar power company bought clean.tech.
Here’s a look at some of the domains end users bought. See prior end user lists here.
Clean.Tech $30,000 – Electrious is a solar power company. It says it applies artificial intelligence to solar power.
CSelect.com $10,500 – Seliant ApS offers online tests to assess potential employees. This might be a name for one of its assessments.
HomeStatus.com $7,775 – Simple Commands is a home automation/smart home provider. For now, the domain forwards the domain to SimpleCommands.com.
Prodin.com $7,000 – Prodin is a Guatamalan company that makes car waxes, shoe polish, kids art products and more. It appears to have used the domain ProdinCA.com before buying this domain.
Plomero.com $5,980 – Plomero means plumber in Spanish. A Miami plumber bought the domain. This was a great buy.
Dedicated-Servers.com $5,000 – Hosting company LayerHost.
JoyClub.it €4,250 – Purchased by F&P GmbH, a German full-service creative agency. The domain is presumably for a client.
GreatGig.com $3,500 – Varsityplaza, which forwards this domain to jobs search site GreatGigs.com. It was smart to buy the singular version of the domain name.
Franke.id $2,500 – Forwards to Franke.com, a Swiss company that manufactures and installs kitchen equipment such as stoves and hoods, commercial kitchen systems, high-end coffee systems and water filtration systems.
KidsConcept.de €2,500 – Forwards to KidsConcept.com, a Swedish children’s furniture and room decor manufacturer.
CashlessCampus.com $2,000 – Gabbart Communications, a website company that produces and hosts K-12 school websites. It is based in Durant, Oklahoma.
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A fractional domain ownership idea
Aron Meystedt is on to something here.
Domain investor Aron Meystedt, who used to sell domains on behalf of Heritage Auctions, is selling fractional shares in the domain name NNR.com.
Meystedt is selling 300 shares in the domain for $100 each, valuing it at $30,000.
He has thought through some of the limitations of this type of deal. For example, he will refund the money if the domain is stolen or lost in a UDRP.
Meystedt is also working on an exchange in which people can sell their shares to other investors.
It’s a good concept and Meystedt appears to be trying it out as a minimum viable product. When expanded further, such a system would allow domain owners to obtain liquidity in their assets that might not sell for a while. It will also allow investors to own a part of domain names they might otherwise not be able to afford.
Whether it’s Meystedt or another existing aftermarket platform, it would be interesting to see this idea fleshed out more. Among the issues a fractional-ownership system will need to address are:
- Legal implications
- Tax implications
- The strike price at which the domain must be sold. Can the main owner deny an offer that would deliver 3x returns to owners?
- Secondary market sales of fractional ownership
- Security/escrow of the domain
- Who should pay for UDRP/legal defense costs
I imagine the legal and tax compliance costs of doing this one-off would be too high, but a platform could make it work.
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Doron Vermaat – DNW Podcast #263
An update on using for-sale only domain name landers.
Does making tweaks to domain sales landers lead to increased sales? That’s one of the questions I ask Doron Vermat, co-founder of Efty, on today’s show. We also discuss Efty’s sales volume, how to optimize sales and what it’s like running a business that caters to domain investors.
Sponsor: Name.market
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)
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NameSilo posts $7.85 million revenue, readies domain brokerage system
Registrar continues to grow, readies domain brokerage platform.
Domain name registrar NameSilo (CSE: URL) reported third-quarter earnings last week.
The company posted revenues of $7.85 million, up 58% from $4.97 million in the same quarter of 2018. Total revenues through the first three quarters were $21.29 million, more than double last year’s $10.59 million.
NameSilo currently has 3.37 million domains under management. It added 20,000 new customers and 220,000 net new domains under management last quarter.
While the company reported over $1 million net income before tax for the quarter, that’s for the registrar operating subsidiary. The parent company appears to be holding some of the costs, and reported a loss of $0.75 million for the quarter.
The company is getting ready to launch a website builder and, for domainers, a domain brokerage platform called NameLot.
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ICANN says it “does not have authority” over .org transaction
Domain regulator is unlikely to do anything about the sale of .org by a non-profit to a private equity firm.
Anyone holding out hope that ICANN will block the sale of .Org to private equity company Ethos should prepare to be disappointed.
The company issued a statement to Financial Times saying that it “does not have authority over the proposed acquisition”:
Pressure is now mounting for ICANN to block the transaction. Since it involves a top-level internet domain, the transfer of .org to a new owner requires the agency’s formal approval.
In a statement to the FT, however, ICANN appeared to brush aside the calls for action, saying that it “does not have authority over the proposed acquisition”. Instead, it said its job was simply to “assure the continued operation of the .org domain” — implying that it could only stop the sale if the stability and security of the domain name infrastructure were at risk.
Whether the deal will be delayed by ICANN’s accountability mechanisms or other action remains to be seen. But I wouldn’t put money on it.
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Spanish company tried reverse domain name hijacking
Attorney tried to intimidate domain name owner to settle dispute.
Decoweb Brands, S.A. of Spain has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name MaisonDecor.com.
It certainly seems like Decoweb’s counsel tried to bully the domain owner into handing the domain over. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization decision:
Prior to the filing of the Complaint, the Complainant’s legal representative contacted the Respondent, in English, seeking information about a possible sale of the disputed domain name. On July 22, 2019, the Respondent offered a price of USD 8,500 and, later the same day, USD 7,000. The Complainant’s legal representative made a counter-offer of USD 500 that the Respondent rejected. On October 17, 2019, after the filing of the Complaint, the Complainant’s legal representative sent an email to the Respondent making a further counter-offer of USD 300 for the transfer of the disputed domain name and settlement of this dispute. In that email, the Complainant’s legal representative alleged that if this counter-offer was rejected and the Panel ordered transfer of the disputed domain name, the Complainant could probably also initiate proceedings for indemnity and procedural costs against the Respondent.
That’s not good.
Decoweb didn’t provide proof of use of the Maison Decor trademark, despite it having acquired a Spanish trademark that was registered in 1994 by another party. Without proof, it was hard to convince the panelist that the Chinese registrant targeted it with the registration.
That said, it appears that the domain owner either mislead panelist Matthew Kennedy or Kennedy read too much into the response. Kennedy believed the domain owner was the original registrant in 1998. Historical Whois records show that the domain expired in 2010 and was registered by a party in China.
It doesn’t seem like this would have changed the overall decision, though. The respondent showed that Decoweb was founded in 2015. Without showing that it acquired actively used trademarks prior to 2010, it wouldn’t have mattered. Even then, with two generic words, it would have been an uphill battle to win this case.
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Ethos paid $1.135 billion for .Org
Internet Society reveals the price it is selling out for.
On a webinar today, Internet Society has purportedly disclosed that Ethos Capital will pay $1.135 billion to acquire the .org registry from it:
#Internetsociety offered 1b and 135mil$USD for #.ORG from Ethos Capital, disclosed only now at a special webinar
— Desiree (@Des) November 29, 2019
This was a savvy investment for former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé and Ethos Capital. Had .org been sold in a competitive process, it surely would have sold for much more.
At the same time, the deal makes financial sense for ISOC. It should earn a solid $50 million+ per year from its endowment, giving it stability without concerns to what might happen to its golden goose in the future.
The current wholesale price for .org is $9.93, bringing in around $100 million in revenue per year. Costs are approximately $25 million but can be dramatically reduced. If Ethos doubles the price, it will lose very few registrations and bring in nearly $200 million a year in revenue.
Let’s take Ethos at its word that it might, possibly, “potentially” just raise prices 10% per year. That’s more than what Public Interest Registry has done in the past, but it’s also what was allowed in the contract before price caps were removed.
At the end of ten years, that puts the wholesale price at $25.75. Assuming it still has 10 million domains under management, that’s $257.5 million in revenue and around $235 million in profit.
Per year.
Roll Donuts into it, take it public, and you get a nice payday.
More .Org Coverage:
Private Equity company acquires .Org registry
The interesting connection between the .Org deal and ICANN
The economics of .org domain names
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Man drags Qatar Tourism Council to U.S. Court in domain dispute
Qatar’s Tourism Council launched a fight over a domain name, and now it needs to defend itself in U.S. Court.
A man from Azerbaijan is suing the Qatar National Tourism Council—in Colorado.
Teymur Mehdiyev filed a lawsuit (pdf) in U.S. District Court, District of Colorado, after the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ordered that his domain VisitQatar.com be transferred to the tourism council.
The WIPO panel made this decision despite Mehdiyev having a registered trademark in the U.S. for “Visit Qatar”.
By filing the lawsuit, the domain name transfer will be stayed pending the outcome of the suit.
So why Colorado? When the tourism council filed the dispute, it agreed to submit to the jurisdiction where the domain name registrar is located. The domain name is registered with Name.com, a company in Denver.
Mehdiyev is asking the court to declare that his ownership of VisitQatar.com does not constitute cybersquatting. He’s also asking for a finding of reverse domain name hijacking, which comes with a penalty as high as $100,000.
Now, Qatar’s tourism council must defend itself in U.S. court or it might find itself on the wrong end of a judgment.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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Tutorial: How to register and purchase a domain using GoDaddy API
Alvin Brown provides a tutorial on how to use GoDaddy’s API to register and purchase domains.
Today’s tutorial aims to help many domain investors with a desire to harness the power of technology to streamline the registration and purchasing of domains using GoDaddy’s API.
Instead of using GoDaddy’s web interface and having to perform many time-consuming clicks at risk of losing out on hand registering domains, this tutorial will be the foundation for what could become an automated purchasing script (with a bit of elbow grease and database integration).
Script automation and database integration won’t be covered in this tutorial, but you can likely search the web for a few simple tutorials on automating PHP and MySQL database integration.
First things first, let’s discuss what you’ll need to start this tutorial. If you’re new to using GoDaddy’s Developer Portal and API, then I recommend perusing the following documentation:
TIP: More in-depth details are provided in the following tutorial: Get Started Using GoDaddy API with PHP.
API Method for Purchasing Domain via GoDaddyOnce you have your API account and credentials created, go to the Domains API section and search for the method to purchase and register domains: /v1/domains/purchase.
The only parameter required to make a successful API request to register and purchase a domain is the body — an instance document expected to match the JSON schema returned by the /v1/domains/purchase/schema/{tld} method.
Within the body parameter, the following attributes must be submitted:
- agreedAt — the time of day (DATETIME) for registration and purchase
- agreedBy — the IP address making the API request
- agreementKeys — the acknowledge of and agreement to the terms and conditions for registering and purchasing domains with GoDaddy; value is DNRA
- period — number years to register domain
- privacy — whether or not to add privacy to purchase
- nameServers — primary and secondary name servers to be set for domain
- renewAuto — whether or not auto renewing is enabled or disabled at the time of purchase
In addition, be sure to have the following contact information on hand for the Billing, Registrant, Tech, and Admin sections of the body:
- Address One
- Address Two
- City
- Country
- Postal Code
- State
- Phone
- Fax
- Job Title
- First Name
- Last Name
- Middle Name
- Organization
Open a text editor of your choice, naming and saving the following file: domain-purchase.php.
The first and most critical step is defining API Key and Secret variables with your respective GoDaddy API key and secret values.
$API_SECRET = “your secret”;
$API_KEY = “your key”;
Without properly defined secret and key variables with their respective values, this tutorial will be unable to register and purchase domains using the API.
Next, set and define the domain variable with the domain you desire to purchase.
$domain = “alvinbrownie.xyz”;
If you so desire, you could integrate this tutorial with a previous tutorial about searching for whether or not a domain is available to register and purchase before attempting the domain purchase API method.
The next set of variables were mentioned in the previous section as attributes of the body. Set their values accordingly:
$dnra = “DNRA”;
$autoRenw = “true”; // either true or false
$period = 2; // for 2 year registration
$privacy = “false”; // either true or false for privacy to be included
$agreeAtTime = “2019-11-22T18:50:13Z”; //format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ
$agreedByIP = “123.123.123.123”; //IP address of your client or web server executing script
// custom name server values to point/redirect domains
$nameserver_one = “ns50.domaincontrol.com”;
$nameserver_two = “ns60.domaincontrol.com”;
Last but not least, the following contact information variables need values.
// address information for domain
$addressOne = “12345 Test Blvd”;
$addressTwo = ” “;
$city = “Austin”;
$country = “US”;
$postalCode = “78910”;
$state = “Texas”
// contact information for domain
$email = “info@dnstrategies.com”;
$fax = “+1.5121234567”;
$jobTitle = “Owner”;
$nameFirst = “Joe”;
$nameLast = “Doe”;
$nameMiddle = “B”;
$organization = “JBD Strategies, LLC”
$phone = “+1.5121234567”;
The most tricky variables are the fax and phone variables. Both variables need to include the country code and the decimal after country code. Do not include spaces, dashes, or parentheses.
TIP: Using a domain you currently own, perform a GoDaddy’s Whois Lookup to view an example of what the expected contact information, specifically the phone, fax, and date for $agreeAtTime variable, should be and how it should be formatted.
Once all variables are defined with their respective values, each variable can be concatenated as values within the JSON of the body variable content (see below).
$bodyContent = ‘
{
“consent”: {
“agreedAt”: “‘.$agreeAtTime.'”,
“agreedBy”: “‘.$agreedByIP.'”,
“agreementKeys”: [
“‘.$dnra.'”
]
},
“contactAdmin”: {
“address1”: “‘.$addressOne.'”,
“address2”: “‘.$addressTwo.'”,
“city”: “‘.$city.'”,
“country”: “‘.$country.'”,
“postalCode”: “‘.$postalCode.'”,
“state”: “‘.$state.'”
},
“email”: “‘.$email.'”,
“fax”: “‘.$fax.'”,
“jobTitle”: “‘.$jobTitle.'”,
“nameFirst”: “‘.$nameFirst.’,
“nameLast”: “‘.$nameLast.'”,
“nameMiddle”: “‘.$nameMiddle.'”,
“organization”: “‘.$organization.'”,
“phone”: “‘.$phone.'”
},
“contactBilling”: {
“addressMailing”: {
“address1”: “‘.$addressOne.'”,
“address2”: “‘.$addressTwo.'”,
“city”: “‘.$city.'”,
“country”: “‘.$country.'”,
“postalCode”: “‘.$postalCode.'”,
“state”: “‘.$state.'”
},
“email”: “‘.$email.'”,
“fax”: “‘.$fax.'”,
“jobTitle”: “‘.$jobTitle.'”,
“nameFirst”: “‘.$nameFirst.’,
“nameLast”: “‘.$nameLast.'”,
“nameMiddle”: “‘.$nameMiddle.'”,
“organization”: “‘.$organization.'”,
“phone”: “‘.$phone.'”
},
“contactRegistrant”: {
“addressMailing”: {
“address1”: “‘.$addressOne.'”,
“address2”: “‘.$addressTwo.'”,
“city”: “‘.$city.'”,
“country”: “‘.$country.'”,
“postalCode”: “‘.$postalCode.'”,
“state”: “‘.$state.'”
},
“email”: “‘.$email.'”,
“fax”: “‘.$fax.'”,
“jobTitle”: “‘.$jobTitle.'”,
“nameFirst”: “‘.$nameFirst.’,
“nameLast”: “‘.$nameLast.'”,
“nameMiddle”: “‘.$nameMiddle.'”,
“organization”: “‘.$organization.'”,
“phone”: “‘.$phone.'”
},
“contactTech”: {
“addressMailing”: {
“address1”: “‘.$addressOne.'”,
“address2”: “‘.$addressTwo.'”,
“city”: “‘.$city.'”,
“country”: “‘.$country.'”,
“postalCode”: “‘.$postalCode.'”,
“state”: “‘.$state.'”
},
“email”: “‘.$email.'”,
“fax”: “‘.$fax.'”,
“jobTitle”: “‘.$jobTitle.'”,
“nameFirst”: “‘.$nameFirst.’,
“nameLast”: “‘.$nameLast.'”,
“nameMiddle”: “‘.$nameMiddle.'”,
“organization”: “‘.$organization.'”,
“phone”: “‘.$phone.'”
},
“domain”: “‘.$domain.'”,
“nameServers”: [
“‘.$nameserver_one.'”,”‘.$nameserver_two.'”
],
“period”: ‘.$period.’,
“privacy”: ‘.$privacy.’,
“renewAuto”: ‘.$autoRenew.’
}’;
With all necessary variables defined, PHP and curl will be used to make the API request to register and purchase a domain. To do so, define a url variable to have the following value:
$url = “https://api.godaddy.com/v1/domains/purchase”;
Next, set your API key and secret variables:
$header = array(
“Authorization: sso-key $API_KEY:$API_SECRET”,
‘Content-Type: application/json’,
‘Accept: application/json’
);
Once the url and header variables are set, the following curl attributes can established with their necessary variables as arguments — $url, $timeout, $bodyContent, and $header.
//open connection
$ch = curl_init();
$timeout=60;
//set the url and other options for curl
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST, ‘POST’); // Values: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, UPDATE
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, $timeout);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, $bodyContent);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, $header);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER,false);
//execute call and return response data.
$result = curl_exec($ch);
//close curl connection
curl_close($ch);
// decode the json response
$dn = json_decode($result, true);
The aforementioned curl code does the heavy lifting to execute the call using GoDaddy’s API to purchase and registered submitted domain.
Using an if/else statement, the last bit of code to add is error checking should a non successful API request be made.
Once error checking is added, then the $errmsg variable can be printed or echoed to the screen to know the status of your API Request to purchase and registered submitted domain.
$errmsg = ”;
// check if error code
if(isset($dn[‘code’])){
$errmsg = explode(“:”,$dn[‘message’]);
$errmsg = ‘
< h2 style=”text-align: center;”>’.$errmsg[0].’ </h2>
‘;
} else {
$errmsg = ‘Domain purchased.’;
}
echo $errmsg;
Closing thoughtsThat’s all there is to this tutorial, and you’re now be able to register and purchase a domain using GoDaddy’s API in a fraction of the time it takes to use the web interface.
As stated at the beginning of this tutorial, this tutorial can be extended to include a domain search for availability, and easily automated and integrated with MySQL using a bit of PHP.
In addition, a submission form much like the domain search could be used to submit domains for registration and purchase using GoDaddy’s API.
I encourage you to download the tutorial code, make necessary modifications, and see how far you can take this simple, yet robust tool.
DOWNLOAD domain-purchase.zip for GoDaddy Domains API
Last but not least, please don’t hesitate to leave comments should you have questions or encounter technical challenges with tutorial implementation.
Thanks and that’s all for now!
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
Related posts:Categories: Domains
ISOC chapter breaks ranks, criticizes deal to sell .Org
Netherlands chapter calls on others to join it in denouncing sale.
Shortly after Internet Society (ISOC) announced a deal to sell Public Interest Registry (which runs .org) to a private equity company, ISOC sent a notice to its local chapters telling them not to talk to the press about the sale:
…You can address any questions you are asked directly by saying that this transaction is between Internet Society (global), PIR, and Ethos Capital, and that as a Chapter of the Internet Society you are not in a position to comment on the news. Instead, please refer these questions to your main contact at the Internet Society…
Some ISOC members still privately denounced the transaction, and now one affiliate has publicly broken ranks.
The Netherlands chapter of ISOC released a statement objecting to the sale.
It states (in part):
We believe that the 2019 decision of ISOC Global to sell PIR to private equity firm Ethos Capital is not in line with ICANN’s criteria from 2002 and the subsequent promise from ISOC Global. Despite ISOC Global’s assurances to the contrary, we share the misgivings of the international community about giving a single privately owned entity the power to raise tariffs, implement rights protection mechanisms possibly leading to censorship, and suspend domains at the request of local governments. We also fear that ISOC Global’s reputation has been severely harmed by even contemplating this transaction.
We therefore call on ISOC Global’s leadership to reverse this decision immediately, and do its utmost to restore faith in ISOC as the one global organisation that through its many professionals and dedicated volunteers sincerely strives for an internet for everyone.
The statement calls on other ISOC chapters to join it in publicly denouncing the sale.
© DomainNameWire.com 2019. This is copyrighted content. Domain Name Wire full-text RSS feeds are made available for personal use only, and may not be published on any site without permission. If you see this message on a website, contact editor (at) domainnamewire.com. Latest domain news at DNW.com: Domain Name Wire.
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