While there is some recourse under existing U.S. law, it’ll be practically difficult for a non-U.S. registrant to contest this if ever it turns to be actually false.

“To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.” —H.R. 3261

from: http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/112%20HR%203261.pdf

I get worried. Its just like the health care “reform” Bill, this Bill does nothing to protect anyone and everything to further strip people of their freedoms.

“and for other purposes” ???? Just like the health care bill, “lets pass it so we can see whats in it” Pelosi BS…

Lets see, lets pass SOPA to find out the OTHER purposes are to COME TAKE YOUR HOME AND CAR and give you no recourse.

Its all BS.

I’m sorry to read what happened to you. Honestly it’s not looking good from what you described.

Was the issue brought up with Whois.com before AMEX was involved? Personally, I would’ve tried to resolve the issue with Whois.com first before contacting my bank or credit card company.

I wrote some articles about domain chargebacks before:

http://davezan.com/why-not-to-chargeback-on-a-domain-name.html

http://davezan.com/registrar-bills-man-200-for-com-domain-name.html

When AMEX eventually reversed the charges, Whois.com lost money on that. Domain providers typically lock up accounts of those who disputed any charges with them, which is (mostly) stated in their contracts.

I hate to tell you this, but registrars (like many other businesses in other industries also) typically don’t want to pay for one’s losses unless they actually agree with you. It’s good, though, they’ve agreed to finally reverse all the charges and (hopefully) allow you to regain access to those domain names.

If you really want to pursue those damages, you’ll have to find a lawyer who’s willing to take your case. Personally, your chances aren’t good.

Ultimately, it’s really up to you to decide what’s more important at this point. Good luck.

David
DaveZan.com

I have a few domains with whois.com

I have been using one of the domains since 1993 and I run all of my business and personal email through that domain. It appears as if you do the same thing with your domain!

If I shut your domain down, would you be upset? This is what happened to me.

About two weeks ago a person in my office ordered some domain names through whois.com and some of those domain names were not requested by me. The person misused my credit card.

I reported the unauthorized use to American Express immediately when I found out.

In the mean time whois.com shut down all of my domains. I was out of business for two weeks while I argued with the company. I had to reroute all of my emails and business through a new account with gmail.com which is not a very professional way of doing business for me.

I didn’t know that the domains were shut down for a few days. I was away from the office. When I returned I tried to send email and it of course failed to send. And all of my business and personal friends where not able to contact me. I lost some business and had 2 companies cancel completely.

I sent inquiries to whois support and never received responses. Finally, I got response and they said to contact whois.com directly. Apparently the support company doesn’t support whois.com totally.

I contacted support@whois.com and they told me they shut down the domains because I didn’t pay an order that was pending. The order had nothing to do with the existing domains. They were holding my old domains as hostage for payment for new domains. I have been told that this is illegal. Is it?

The company, whois.com refuses to accept responsibility for my losses. They kept my domains closed down for two weeks. These domains were paid for and some are paid for 5 years or more. They only just turned the domains on a few days ago after I told them I was going to complain with the BBB and FTC.

So, who is a fault? Me, because someone placed an order without my permission? Of course that person no longer works with me. Or is whois.com at fault and should they be held responsible?

Whois.com is finally telling me that they will reduce the charges or cancel all charges. I’m not sure what they want to do but it seems that they don’t want to compensate me for damages to me personally and my business.

Also, whois.com changed all of the DNS’s to the domains. I found this out when I contacted the company that assigned the original DNS’s to the domains.

I would love for this event to be published in the papers and put on youtube.com. I would love to sue the hell out of whois.com.

Of course I have all of the emails. Whois.com is arrogant and even could be consider “nasty”. They even demanded that I prove that the person didn’t work for me anymore. They wanted a police report. But American Express laughed! Amex said it was an internal problem and I did not need to provide anyone with any confidential documents. After 40 years with Amex they good to me.

I only want $14K from whois.com. That will cover my damages. You think I can get it from them?

I am currently in Quito, Ecuador. I live here part-time.

Robert Deming