Prank Almost Led to $150k Lawsuit Due to Domain Name Lock

Vice published a story about a guy who tricked his friends into thinking he was arrested. To pull off the prank, he registered a domain name that was similar to the local news website, and he made his site look nearly identical to the news website. The prank went viral, and he was threatened with litigation related to the domain name registration and usage.

Have a look at this story and see how ICANN’s 60 day transfer lock on this new GoDaddy domain name registration caused quite a bit of fear for this prankster:

In the end, it looks like the news station decided to file a UDRP to take control of the domain name, and it prevailed in this 2016 proceeding.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

4 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks for sharing Elliot..

    That is one hell of story…I don’t have words to say about this person…but I do think that local news station head doesn’t understand what it means “I can’t transfer…because its in lock period”

    The TV station head might have realized afterwards that he can’t do anything about transfer of the domain. 😉

    The prankster doesn’t show any regret of this incident…rather he is proud!! poof family and friends suffered…

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