Re: Help with buying domain name through escrow.com

[Dennis Vich <dvich () ACELATECHNOLOGIES COM>]

Tim,

You are smart to be cautious. You can confirm the legal ownership of any
domain name by checking it out on the website of Network Solutions. As
you may know they were once the only domain name registrant.

As owner of a domain name, you are required to register not only the
name but more specific contact information as part of the registration.
I own a couple domain names myself. On the Network Solutions website
you'll see a couple of tools that will allow you to look up the owner of
any domain name.

Switching ownership of a domain name requires that the owner prove
he/she owns it and formally releases the name to another party. The
transaction must be initiated by the owner through Network Solutions or
whoever the domain name is registered with. A third party cannot execute
a transfer or sale of a domain name.

Hope this helps. Good luck



-----Original Message-----
From: The EDUCAUSE Security Discussion Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Tim Lane
Sent: Thursday, July 22, 2004 11:01 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Help with buying domain name through escrow.com

Hello,

just wondered if someone could offer some help here.  Someone at our
University here in Australia is negotiating the purchase of a registered
.com domain name  through another party (an individual), who is claiming
title to the domain name.  The only contact they have at the moment is
an email address.  This individual wants the purchase to be done through
escrow.com, based purely on email address exchange.

Although this all may be legitimate, we are not sure of the process to
validate this and therefore are treating it with some caution.  Right at
the moment we only have an email address for the seller, nothing else.

The main problem is validating the process.

I am attempting to:

1) validate the authenticity of the claimed owner and;
2) validate the process for transfer of title through escrow.com

Can anyone give me some tips or ideas on how this could be achieved?

Thanks a lot,

Tim Lane
Tim Lane
Information Security Program Manager

Information Technology and Telecommunication Services
Southern Cross University
PO Box 157 Lismore NSW 2480

Ph:  61 2 6620 3290
Fax: 61 2 6620 3033
Email: tlane () scu edu au
http://www.scu.edu.au <http://www.scu.edu.au/>
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