So I guess we are now at the coverup stage...
Brad
Is the registrar required by ICANN to keep domain transaction records (new,renewal, transfers, sales, etc) available to customers???
If "Epik" is deleting / hiding that info, IMO it would seem like a registrar violation of the ICANN agreement to me, but what do I know?
Regardless deleting/hiding domain history records is a VERY, VERY alarming development that I would not expect from ANY reputable registrar that expects to be a "going concern" (not to mention from a registrar that is ALREADY in BREACH of ICANN.)
I don't know anything more than what I read in the NP forum, domain news, etc., but
I would STRONGLY recommend anyone that has ANY domains still at Epik to transfer them out ASAP (preferably this weekend or Monday at the latest). Remember Epik's 21 days to proveably FIX the issues causing the breach with ICANN end on June 22nd). Personally,
at the absolute latest, I would want domains out of Epik on or BEFORE June 21th.
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IF true, there is another potential angle to it. We know the "old Epik" seemingly had a tendency to use Rob's contact info for domains with WHOIS privacy. I believe there have been several domain disputes that clearly mention that issue.
So let us engage in a little theoretical scenario.
If the current owner(s) of "Epik" thinks or knows the registrar is going to LOSE ICANN accreditation, then the domains are going to get transferred out to some other registrar. We know MOST people use WHOIS privacy (either because it is default or required (ie EU buyers). We also know from the issues the Pheenix. com registrar had when it lost ICANN accreditation and the domains were transferred out that the ACTUAL ownership records of domains that had WHOIS Privacy ENABLED was SORELY lacking. Obviously, the NEW registrar would have to require PROOF of ownership in order to gain back access to the domain(s) to ensure someone else isn't stealing them.
So if someone didn't keep their old emails (they liked a tidy inbox, their hard drive crashed, etc.) OR they had someone else or some other company running the billing, etc for them OR they used an "Epik" "reseller" (ie Rightforge). There could be many people that won't be able to prove ownership of a domain in time (or at least not before it expires). Especially if they didn't make it a HABIT to save emails, Epik billing statements showing domain names, or screenshoots.
REMEMBER a CC bill or bank statement ONLY shows you PAID "Epik". It very likely will NOT PROVE you owned a SPECIFIC domain(s), since domain names are typically NOT listed on the CC card/bank statement.
So if someone wanted to potentially steal some (high value) domains, they would want to make it very hard / impossible for someone to save that info NOW (if they haven't already) and the best way to do that is scrub all that info from the customer's view of the registrar BEFORE ICANN announces anything official. That way by the time ICANN announces (in this theoretical scenario) that Epik's accreditation is being terminated, when everyone goes to the website to grab that data, it is already long GONE.
Now back to the beginning, since the contact info likely shows "Rob" as the domain registrant (owner), "he" (or anyone else with access to that data, if the "new" owner(s) are actually different, could theoretically claim ownership of a LOT of domains that "he"/they didn't actually own, not to mention domains that "he"/they only temporarily owns (ie domains sold on a payment plan). Now obviously "he"/they wouldn't try to claim ownership of everything, but "he"/they certainly could cherry pick the good domains....
and as I said at the start this is ALL a theoretical angle and close to a worse-case scenario too.
