How to Steal a Domain

https://twitter.com/cryptofelon/status/1548049090490953728

by sytelus • 4 years ago

19 10 4 years ago

Can't you file harassment case against Binance for same? Why just defend yourself? Attack them back so they should fear before using similar tactic(s) again.

atlgator• 4 years ago

Can you sue Binance in a US court?

Doyce• 4 years ago

Is he a friend or at least someone you can communicate with? I ask because I have zero issue with contributing to his Canadian Legal Team fund. He doesn't have to make the court appearance so long as his lawyer answers for him.

notadev• 4 years ago

He tried to hide the domain name, but leaked it mid thread. He bought binance.ca to squat and wait for a big payout. When he was unreasonable they sued in Canada because it’s .ca.

SahAssar• 4 years ago

He bought it on 2017-10-27, binance was launched on 2017-07-14 (and for example binance.com was registered on 2017-04-01).

I think it's fairly reasonable to assume that he bought it because of the binance launch considering the timeline, his interest in crypto and that the term binance has basically 0 mentions on for example google trends before 2017.

MerelyMortal• 4 years ago

This is the second time I've read on HN about a company reaching out to someone to offer to buy a domain name, offering an unreasonably-low (disingenuous) offer, and then using that exchange as evidence that the domain owner is attempting to extort the company.

Moral of the story: Don't entertain offers to sell unless that was your real intention all along.

kavrick• 4 years ago

I have dealt with a lot of domain squatters and see a pretty common pattern here.

1. Regardless of when it was purchased, there is always a "project" behind it that has never materialized.

2. There will be some dated fragments of said "project" like a Internet Archive page showing it was once going to be something but it usually never was anything but a ploy to avoid looking like a squatter.

UDRP rules are pretty clear about bad faith registrations and most country TLD's (including CIRA, the .ca domain) use the UDRP to solve disputes.

If you own a domain, regardless of when it was registered, each year you renew you are 're-signing' under the terms of the UDRP.

It should be obvious to the registrant, that the domain will cause confusion with a clearly held trademark. If you are in Crypto, you know Binance. Them making an offer and someone countering demonstrates they are willing to sell the domain.

Filing a UDRP dispute by the trademark holder will cost approx $5k+ USD. They made an offer worth roughly that to avoid a lengthy battle, but if the registrant won't go for it and demands a ridiculously high price for something they clearly aren't using, it's cheaper to just hire a firm and just go through the UDRP process to seize the domain. Many companies don't do that, but it's an option.

I was involved in something similar where we just paid the squatter $7k vs. going through the UDRP process. It sucked, but it was definitely faster and less complicated.

When it's all over, I predict taking the $6500 they offered will have been easier and less expensive for this individual. Their out of pocket costs are in the (hundreds) so that could have been a tidy profit.

nikolay• 4 years ago

$6,500 was a good price, I agree.

amingilani• 4 years ago

At what point did he leak the domain name? How does everyone know it's binance.ca?

LocalH• 4 years ago

He forgot to redact it in one of the screenshots

How to Steal a Domain

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