Beating Domain Poachers at their Own Game

Recently, I received an email from a 3rd party alerting me that they were going to auction off swimalberta.com and a link where I should click to bid on this link.  I did a whois lookup and found that the domain had 2 days left in its 60 day retention period.  In other words, the poacher had not renewed the domain that they purchased in 2003 and was going to use the ICANN 60 day (free period) in an attempt to sell the domain.  As part of the email, they told me that it was a premium domain name and that I should bid early if I wanted to obtain this domain.

Preferred Domain Availability Notice:

swimalberta.com is going to be listed for auction in a few days.  This domain might be useful for you, since you own a domain similar to swimalberta.com

To express interest in owning this domain, just fill out the simple form here: http://ROBCROMBIE.COM/20f479df56a44414.2981

Sincerely,Alexander
9050 Carothers Pkwy Ste 104-27 Franklin, TN 37067

If you do not want more business proposals like this one, click the following linkhttp://ROBCROMBIE.COM/1/20f479df56a44414.2981

Reliable and friendly service.

I waited and when it expired, I attempted to purchase it.  Unfortunately, this is when I learned about registrar’s who then attempt to sell the domain after the retention time.  It appears to be more common and some reports of registrar’s who will do this for domains that you issue whois lookup’s on their site.  In my case, I was using my own whois lookup from the shell.  In most cases, it appears to be about 5 days from some reports.  In my case, it was 5 days and I received an email from a different company 8 hours prior to the domain becoming released to the general public.  I waited it out and purchased it.