Do You Really Own Your Domain Name?

Inc.:

Just because you pay the domain name bill doesn’t mean you own it.

That’s right. You may not be the legal owner. Whoever is the legal owner of your domain name, that person has total control over it including — what Web site it points to, what domain name registrar maintains it, changing information about your domain name account, controlling who administers it, and being able to sell it.

Go to the WhoIs database and search for your domain. Whatever contact information is listed for both the “Registrant” fields and the “Administrator” fields, all of it, including any email addresses for these two fields, should be yours.

If you find this information is not yours, there are three possible reasons:

1. Private Listing
2. Host Hijacking
3. Designer/Developer Hijacking

Photo by ilco.

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