Ask HN: Host Gator Hijacked my domain name. What should I do?

14 points by jahansafd 13 years ago | 5 comments

This is for a friend who just posted this on fb

"Need Your advise on something : I have had a blog about linux since 2007, today after 6 years I transfered my domain name (shevin.info) to Hostgator, when I noticed they charged my credit card 5 times, I emailed and they said they are sorry and refund me soon, but soon I got an email from their billing depratment they said my domain got deleted and blocked because I am from Iran and acording to US law they are not allowed to do bussines with me, the sad part is , they do NOT let me to transfer my domain back to godaddy.com they have chagned my domain name ownership from ME to Hostgator, I am pretty sure what they do to me is illegal, since I am In USA LEGALY and not in IRAN and they should NOT deny service to me because of my birthplace...so Hostgator hijacked my domain name...I need everyone's advise, is there any media or place I can go and ask to kick their ass ? what should I do ? I knew apple did it and they had to appolgize ( they had denied to sell an iranian an ipad after medias talked about it they appologized that iranian) which media would help me ?"

shanelja 13 years ago |

If you are in the US, then Host Gator just stole from a US citizen on racial grounds, not only is that morally reprehensible - it is illegal.

Get a lawyer involved, I have no doubt at all that if this goes to court and you can prove you were in the US for the entire time this was going on (and living there legally with a proper visa) that you will win (and most likely be awarded some kind of compensation too, it might only seem like something small but they just violated federal law.)

The Federal Civil Rights Act guarantees all people the right to full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin. [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964

Bare in mind that in this act, a place of public accommodation means anywhere which serves the public at large

xauronx 13 years ago |

Why would he register it to an Iranian address if he's living in the US legally? I highly doubt that they have any interest in stealing his domain, they probably just had to register it to someone rather than leave it in limbo. I think that contacting them, explaining the situation and waiting a reasonable amount of time will probably suffice. No mass hysteria and hate toward GoDaddy is (probably) needed.

derekja 13 years ago |

you should probably get a lawyer to write a letter, unfortunately. Publicity won't hurt, but a legal letter is probably what will make them notice.

jahansafd 13 years ago |

thanks!

thoughtcriminal 13 years ago |

This really sucks and I'm sorry this happened to your friend.

I suggest your friend writes a blog post about it (with images of any evidence) and submit the link to HN. Who knows, maybe we'll upvote it to the front page. I'll vote it up, that's for sure.

By writing a blog post about it, your friend is giving people a chance to link to it and share this story. Maybe then some justice can be served.