Best Way to Protect a Domain Name from getting Stolen

Lately, number of domain name thefts taking place in online world is increasing. There are several reasons as how you can loose your domain name and not able to prove that you were the real owner of the domain name in question. Instantly a question pops up as what is the best way to protect a domain name from being stolen.

First and foremost thing to do is to make sure that you really own your domain name. What a silly advice…you might say. No, it’s not if you know what we are talking about. Go through this article and you will instantly want to check whois data of your domain name. Once you are sure that you really have complete ownership of your domain name then search for a registrar that you can trust.

Next step is to keep your whois information current and accurate and make sure every detail provided works. Do not use privacy protection feature. If your phone / fax number doesn’t work or your address is the place you lived few years ago, it will be hard for you to prove that you used to own the domain when it does get stolen. Keeping your email id is of utmost importance as in online world this is the primary source to receive all communication from registry regarding your domain name.

Next step is to lock your domain name. Locking feature makes domain non-transferable unless the lock is removed and this feature is provided by most of the good domain registrar companies. If your domain registrar doesn’t provide this feature then immediately change your registrar.

Alternate would be to strike a deal with your registrar. In this deal all rights to your domain name will be in your favour however the registrar company will take care of all and any changes made to the whois details of your domain name. You can have a two or three tier verification process in place with your registrar in case you need to make any update to your details. Of course, the registrar company might charge you some premium for this facility. Anubhooti Internet (registrar and host of this site) provides such facility to its select clients. However, they don’t advertise it and anyone requiring this service must contact them over the email.

For those who do not trust even their shadow, they can go and to get their own ICANN registrar accreditation.