[unreal37]

GoDaddy could seize the domain until the dispute is settled. If everyone recognized she was the previous owner, that should be enough to cause an investigation into the transfer.

Not saying a claim from anyone should cause a seizure, but the legitimate previous owner should be able to dispute it for a time period. Domains are stolen all the damn time.

[shiftpgdn]

I worked in webhosting for nearly a decade so I'm quite familiar with the volume of fraud and stolen domains. But to play the devils advocate how would you feel if somebody claimed a domain you own was stolen just to freeze your account and waste your time. You'd be furious at GoDaddy for freezing your account over a fictitious claim.

[philbarr]

They only need to freeze the account if the domain was moved very recently.

[dsrguru]

This. I want to upvote this comment a hundred times. If there's a dispute with probable cause, temporarily freezing the domain while launching an immediate investigation seems by far the best balance of thwarting domain theft and minimizing fraudulent claims.

[shiftpgdn]

By ICANN policy domains can only be moved once every 60 days. Did you want the domain name taken offline?

[dsrguru]

I'm not very familiar with their policies. Does that apply even in the case of theft? Didn't the article's author recover her domain within a few days?

[shiftpgdn]

It's no matter what you are only allowed to move domains once every 60 days. It is to prevent somebody from stealing a domain and moving it through 10 different registrars to wash the history of ownership.

[unreal37]

No, not offline. Just have the administration of it frozen.

And it's only for recently transferred domains where it's the previous owner disputing the legitimacy of the transfer.

Domains are entries in a table. A "60 day freeze", if it exists, is just a policy.

[weaksauce]

And that you were demonstratively the previous owner.