Structured Thought . ORG

I own quite a few domains. Many times, when I have an idea, I’ll snatch up the domain name, just because they’re cheap, and in case I decide to run with it. Many times, I end up doing nothing with the domain and just let it expire quietly.

How the Expiration System Works

When you register a domain name, the records for that DNS entry are locked so that you have complete control over where the various records for that domain name send requests. At the time of registration, you pay a fee that guarantees your control over this record for a specified amount of time. Typical registration is 1 year, but many registrars will allow you to purchase up to 10 years on a domain name.

After the registration period is up, there is a period where the domain goes into limited availability. Many registrars will count the first 30 days as a ‘grace period’, where you can renew the expired domain without incurring any extra costs, or with minimal additional cost. After that period, a couple of different things can happen:

1. The registrar can release the domain back into the public pool, making it available for anyone to register.

2. The registrar can set up a ‘redemption period’, where the domain goes for sale at an elevated price, but the original registrant has first option to buy.

3. The registrar can put the domain up for auction (the most common option), allowing the market to dictate the registration price.

If the domain is not registered within the periods defined by #2 and #3, the domain falls back into the public pool, available for anyone to register at any registrar.

The ‘Tasting Period’

Before the ‘tasting’ period was developed, one had to be extremely careful when registering a domain. Domain purchases were non-refundable, and simple typographical errors during the registration process could be costly. To help alleviate the pain of mistyping a desired domain name, the ‘tasting’ period was developed.

Tasting a domain entails registering it just as before, but now customers have a five-day grace period in which to ‘return’ the domain name for a full refund. This allows someone that mistyped a name to get their money back and register the correct domain name. It also allows for people to follow through with buyers remorse. If the five-day period expires, the domain can not be returned, and the registrant may no longer apply for a refund.

The five-day grace period applies for all domain purchases, even those at auction or during registrar redemption periods. So, anyone with enough credit can purchase any expired domain within their limits and get the money back within 5 days.

How Scammers Abuse the System

Unfortunately, scammers have found a way to abuse this system as well. There are now people that troll the expiration records, snapping up expired domains the moment they come available. They then take the original contact information from the registrant and spam them with an offer to ‘reclaim’ their domain at an extremely elevated price. I have seen these ‘offers’ as high as $300 for a simple .com that has no intrinsic value except to the original owner. If the original registrant is not gullible enough to be hooked in by the scam within the first five days, the scammer simply cancels the registration for a full refund.

What Can be Done?

Unfortunately, this type of scam is perfectly legal, and there is currently no real way to stop them. One can discourage tasters from abusing the system  by informing others, and making sure to NEVER buy a domain from a taster, ever. Just like spam, the very few people that do bite are enough to fund the operation, and make all of the failed attempts worth it.

I hope that some day we will see a logical solution to the tasting scam problem. Possibly, it may come down to disallowing tasting of domains purchased at auction. This would be an inconvenience for some, but it would keep the tasters away, and possibly help keep prices down so that the person that REALLY wants the domain can purchase it at a reasonable price.