domain hostage situation
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- kush
client i'm working with booted a employee that was running all the web stuff for them and now he's holding their domain hostage and he's trying to get an insane price for it.
anyone have experience with this and how did you deal with it?
- mayo0
Was the domain purchased with company?
- graphiknature0
Call a lawyer.
- ukit0
- acescence0
i don't suppose their name is trademarked?
- ETM0
Is the domain actually in the employees name, or is he just not giving up the login? How was it paid, billed to a company CC?
- mydo0
if he's actually sent emails that imply blackmail/hostage it's pretty easy to win. i've had 2 clients win back domain names.
- utopian0
Just give the kid 500k and call it a day!
- yerolda0
What country? In the UK that's illegal as long as the domain is related to the business name... call a lawyer and take the wee f*cker to court!
- tOki0
I had a former employer who had several domains of mine sitting on their servers...One day I mysteriously lost all access to my e-mail after trying to get them transferred and they now point them back to said companys website. I was freelancing under one of them and it was my one universal point of contact for anyone who knew me. I've never got them back and they still completely ignore me 3 years on. The worst thing is how they keep re-registering the domains every fucking year..
I have moved on and have no desire to start a legal battle, but god people can be cocks at times.
Lesson learnt - don't trust anyone..
- Hosting your domains on their servers is pretty dumb though.ximeraLabs
- formed0
Yes, I am continually amazed at the lows people go to. More amazed at the effort people put into reaching for lower lows just to f*ck someone else over. No wonder this world is such shit.
If he bought them while in their office, on the clock, even if he registered it with his name, I'd guess that it wouldn't be hard to prove that they are the companies property.
- ceiling_cat0
yo kush, imma let you finish, but Beyonce had the best video of all time!
- doesnotexist0
can't your IT dept. find emails with that info in it and lock him out of the account?
- that will prolly work if he hasn't changed the passwords -SlashPeckham
- I'm sure there are email records of him changing it as well if he's using the work email addydoesnotexist
- If it's his account, they are fucked.comicsans
- dMullins0
If you're in the US, and...
a. The domains are registered to the fired employee, then the company is fucked, and will have to buy the domains from him...Really fucking stupid move to allow an employee to setup this stuff without using the company card, and having a legal paper trail of it.
b. The domains are owned by the company, and the fired employee is holding them "hostage," then he's a fucking moron and is going to find himself in a massive world of shit if he doesn't turn over the access privileges and tries to blackmail the company. If this is the case, the company can simply get in touch with the domain/hosting company, and reassume access privileges. Thereupon, they can file a suit of their own for lost time/resources in doing so, but at this point they would likely drop the issue cause they got what they needed/wanted.
- comicsans0
There are people who specialise in domain name disputes. I know an Edinburgh based outfit who act for a lot of high profile clients. I'm sure there are US based equivalents.
Depending on the exact circumstances it will be carrot or stick.