A few days ago, I received an “Action required: Authorize your domain listings.” email from GoDaddy. It listed several domain names I own that are listed for sale on Squadhelp. When I listed them on Squadhelp, I removed them from Afternic.
This email is the Afternic Fast Transfer authorization email. If the approval link is clicked, the domain name(s) will be opted in to Afternic’s Fast Transfer network. If the domain names subsequently sell via the Afternic network, they will be automatically removed from my account and transferred to the buyer.
I forwarded the email to my Afternic account representative to ensure the listings are removed, and they were deleted. Yesterday afternoon, I received another one of these authorization emails from GoDaddy. It was for another domain name I have listed for sale on Squadhelp.
I do not know if my names are being targeted, if someone is targeting Squadhelp-listed domain names, or if something else is going on with fake listings. Someone who receives many of these automated emails might click the link and approve the listings without thinking. When buy a name at a pending delete auction and list it via Afternic, I receive these same emails when the domain name is more than. It’s easy enough to quickly approve these listings.
People who list domain names for sale on Afternic should be aware of this and report fraudulent listings to Afternic if they notice the issue. Hopefully someone from GoDaddy investigates and resolves this so nobody loses any domain names.
One thing I may have been able to do to prevent this is deactive my Afternic listings when I listed them Squadhelp instead of deleting them. That said, I shouldn’t be required to do that because the same thing would have happened had I never listed them on Afternic.
Also, I would request that Fast Transfer sales still require DTVS authorization for accounts that have enhanced security. I have no problem with an extra step to ensure my domain names aren’t transferred out if I accidentally approve a listing.
I’ll be curious what you learn about this. If I had to guess, it isn’t someone else submitting your names — it’s something in Afternic’s system trying to reauthorize the listings even though you deleted them.
So far, I learned it was two different new sellers. It was not something done by Afternic nor was it automated.
I suspect I was not targeted primarily because they were SH-listed names I did not mention publicly and I have a private SH profile. I think SH was the lynchpin since all of the names I was asked to authorize were listed on SH.
None of my higher value names not listed on SH or AN were added, which is why I suspect I was not targeted individually. Otherwise, I think someone would have started with those.
Interesting, thanks.
With that in mind, it would be nice if those authorization emails included the price — it could help you notice an additional anomaly in the listing if it was outside how you would have priced the domain.
That may be helpful. The only reason I noticed was because I had recently listed them on SH and don’t have that many listed there. If I received this email in 6 months or a year, I may have forgotten, and if the prices weren’t crazy, it wouldn’t have been helpful.
For me, I think having to do the DTVS task would be helpful. It would be nice to be given that option so people can choose whether or not to slow down FT a bit.
Or maybe require domain ownership verification on all domains when not listing through List for Sale at a registrar.
This has happened almost daily to me recently. It is definitely not a system error. Other people are listing my names at low prices at Afternic and trying to get me to enable the Fast Transfer.
It is extremely annoying and dangerous, and Afternic needs to get a grip.
Once you click the godaddy link you have agreed to sell the name and they will remove the name without you needing to enter the transfer code. I thought I still needed the code for them to remove the name and sell it but they can do it anyway. In my case the buyer took to long to accept the offer and I no longer wanted to sell so when I got the transfer request weeks after I agreed to sell I denied it and godaddy transferred the name anyway.
Thank you for this information. Someone in Toronto mentioned your name in a conversation regarding domain sales. You are a breath of fresh air in this b business.Thank you for your information and I will pass it on. I have a listing on domain agents but I will be more diligent from now on.
The same thing happened to me last month with a couple of names. One was already listed (not by me) with a BIN price in afternic. I contacted Godaddy and they removed the listing. I never authorized anything and they replied “It appears that the domain [edited].com is currently listed with one of our partners that use Go Daddy Auctions as a “feed” to sell for their clients. It was more than likely listed by the previous owner, and never removed when ownership changed hands. We have removed the domain from our platform, and have notified our partner to do the same.”
I learned a little more about this on a namepros thread and another article from DomainInvesting…
https://domaininvesting.com/dont-blindly-authorize-a-listing-on-afternic/
I receive emails to authorize domains for listing on premium platform at least 3x per week.
Not sure I understand — does this indicate potential sellers have clicked on these domains that are listed or registered somewhere else?
I had 2 fast transfer sales this week – nothing major ..mid 4 figures each. They prob were worth more, but they were hand regs back in 2003. So no big deal.
“Not sure I understand — does this indicate potential sellers have clicked on these domains that are listed or registered somewhere else?”
Let’s say you own SuperbSteve.com and do not have it listed for sale on Afternic. If I list it for sale on Afternic for $1,999, you, as the domain registrant, would receive an approval email like the one I mentioned. If you click the authorization link without thinking about it, your domain name will be for sale on Afternic’s Fast Transfer network.
It’s a very common scam in which Afternic are both complicit and well aware of the number of scammers the facilitate who are trying this.
Thanks, Elliot …good to know!
I have removed all my domains at afternic and Dan