Afternic’s Commitment to Listing Integrity: Response to a Recent Event

As the world’s leading domain name marketplace, we have a responsibility to our customers to ensure that we remain the trusted source to buy and sell domain names in the aftermarket.

Part of fulfilling that responsibility involves our continuous work in maintaining listing integrity.

On Jan. 23, 2024, we identified several fraudulent accounts attempting to list a large quantity of three-letter, four-letter and one-word .com domain names on Afternic.

Right away, our automated review system noticed this activity, stopped the listings and removed the accounts responsible.

Although our systems successfully caught and blocked the listings, opt-in emails were simultaneously triggered to registrants. As a result, many registrants received a Fast Transfer opt-in message from their registrar for three-letter, four-letter and one-word .com domain names. Fast Transfer opt-in emails from your registrar are often queued and may be received days later.

We are actively working with our team to re-configure the email system across our Fast Transfer network, aiming to prevent the sending of opt-in emails until after a domain has cleared an “active” status.

Domain names caught in our review system were placed in a “Block List,” which means they are not added to the Afternic network. The “Block List” prevents domain names from being added to the Afternic network without the listing party first performing additional ownership verification. These domains are not actively listed for sale, and if searched on Afternic.com, will return no match found.

This month, we added more automation to improve our detection and prevention of fraudulent listings, and we expect to continue making improvements to the system.

Listing integrity is something we take seriously. If you have any questions about this recent incident, our support team is ready to answer them. Alternatively, you can talk to your account manager, or GoDaddy Premier Services representative.