On January 24, 2007, I (Fyodor) woke up to find that my domain registrar, GoDaddy, had suspended one of my most popular domains (SecLists.Org) because MySpace objected to content posted by some user to a mailing list which SecLists archives. They didn't give me a chance to dispute or resolve the problem -- just a voicemail saying my domain was “scheduled for suspension”, followed up by a Domain Suspension Notice exactly 52 seconds later. Note that neither of these included a phone number for the abuse department or a reason for the shutdown. It took many hours of phone calls (to general support) and emails (to the abuse department) before they even gave me the reason for the shut down, and fixing the problem took longer still. You can read the full details here. One thing I forgot to mention in that email is the secret phone number to their abuse department: +1 480-624-2505.

Note that SecLists was never hosted by GoDaddy. They were just our registrar, whose job is to maintain a list of the 18 million domains their customers own and the corresponding name servers. They aren't the web content police and shouldn't go suspending domains at MySpace's behest without a court order.

Even after this episode made news worldwide, GoDaddy refused to admit they were wrong. In a News.Com article, GoDaddy general counsel Christine Jones “pointed out that GoDaddy's terms of service say the company 'reserves the right to terminate your access to the services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever.'” In that same article, Jones refuses to rule out suspending a site such as News.Com if a reader posts illegal information in a discussion forum. In another article, Wired reporter Kevin Poulsen catches Jones in a lie. When Kevin notes that GoDaddy shut down the domain only 52 seconds after leaving the voicemail, not one hour as Jones previously claimed, Jones “admits she doesn't know exactly how much notice [Fyodor] had” and declares that “I think the fact that we gave him notice at all was pretty generous”. Is this the sort of company you would hire to manage your domain names? This could happen to any site which allows reader comments or other user generated content. If someone wants to shut down your domain, they just need to post what looks like MySpace usernames/passwords and send a complaint to GoDaddy abuse!

The truly frightening aspect is that this isn't an isolated incident. Many people have posted and emailed similar stories of GoDaddy hijacking their domains without any sort of court order or other due process. Others have paid extra for the so-called "domains by proxy" privacy service, only to have GoDaddy unmask their identity just because someone made a single legal threat (example). Sometimes GoDaddy will suspend a customer's domains and hold them ransom for up to $200 each before they will reactivate or allow a domain transfer (example1, example2, example3). So maybe I should consider myself lucky that they didn't didn't charge me for the privilege of having my domain name wrongly suspended!

I created this site to document instances of customer abuse at GoDaddy. The goal is for GoDaddy to either improve their policies and customer service, or suffer continued loss of market share to their customer-focused competition.

While I gave this site its bare skeleton, it has become a community effort. As noted in the acknowledgments section, the site logo, some html work, the forums, and legal help have all been donated by volunteers. Even this domain name itself was donated by someone with his own horror stories about GoDaddy!

• CNET News.Com: GoDaddy pulls security site after MySpace complaints
• Slashdot: MySpace and GoDaddy Shut Down Security Site
• Domain Name Wire: GoDaddy Faces PR Nightmare Over Domain Suspension
• Wired News #1: MySpace Allegedly Kills Computer Security Website
• Wired News #2: GoDaddy Defends SecLists Takedown
• Politech: MySpace, GoDaddy pull plug on computer security domain name without warning
• Digg: GoDaddy makes security site disappear after MySpace complains
• Securityfocus: MySpace tactics raise researcher's ire
• InfoWorld: MySpace, GoDaddy shutter popular hacker site
• Web Host Industry Review: GoDaddy Hits Bump on Road to Super Bowl
• San Francisco Bay Guardian: The self-appointed censors at GoDaddy
• SecurityPro News: MySpace Asked GoDaddy To Drop SecLists
• Digital MediaWire: GoDaddy Yanks Security Site Offline After MySpace Complaint
• SecuriTeam: Fyodor only gets 60 seconds warning?
• Tech Dirt: MySpace And GoDaddy Shut Down Huge Archive Of Security Mailing Lists
• P2PNet: GoDaddy trashes SecLists.org
• Windows IT Pro: GoDaddy.com Abuse Policy Takes SecLists.Org Offline

For the very latest news on GoDaddy, try Google News Search. Whenever you see a new GoDaddy fiasco in the news, please post a link at the NoDaddy Forums.