DomainInvesting.com

I wrote about the fraudulent domain name sales listing attempts at Afternic that have triggered Fast Transfer authorization emails to be sent to GoDaddy customers over the past few days. This isn’t a new issue, but it seems to be more widespread now than it was previously.

I reached out to GoDaddy seeking comment about this, and a company representative responded to me today with a comment:

Last Summer, I wrote an article urging caution to domain investors who might be tempted to blindly approve “Authorize your domain listings” emails from Afternic. If someone fraudulently lists your domain name for sale on Afternic and you click the approval link, it could get listed in someone else’s account without your approval. This could cause major problems down the road.

Andrew Allemann mentioned that he received a fast transfer opt-in email for a domain name he wasn’t selling. I also received an email for MLR.com that I reported to Afternic immediately. Their system had it removed by the time an account manager had a look.

Other domain investors mentioned receiving multiple approval emails:

This is getting out of hand. I've gotten dozens of these over the last 24 hours and have had some previously. I have zero names at afternic now. Too risky if I do not know who is instigating a listing. @GoDaddy Needs to be a better way other than letting anyone list any name

— adamstrong 🌲 (@adamstrong) January 23, 2024

I received 9 emails from @afternic in the last 12 hours to "authorize your domain listings".

I did not list anything, so I have no idea what is going on with that.

All of them were for LLLL, many of which I have owned for well over a decade. https://t.co/KjJxjZozHU

— DataCube (@datacubecom) January 23, 2024

I believe a third party – or multiple third parties – is creating faulty listings on Afternic en masse. I don’t know what the objective is, but I know the potential damage this could cause if an investor accidentally approves a listing they did not authorize.

If you receive one or more of these emails, be wary. They come from Afternic, but if the emails weren’t sent because you added domain names to your account, someone else might have added them for sale in their account. By clicking the email, you are authorizing a fast transfer.

I believe I was told one work around is to add domain names to your account that you own but aren’t selling and put them as “Not Listed” for sale. People should not have to do a workaround to prevent fraudulent listings, but it was something I was told a while back.