Tell HN: Namecheap pre-purchasing searched domain names?

25 points

a year ago

Yesterday afternoon, I was playing around with domain name ideas and landed on getfitgpt.com Checked it out on namecheap.com nice, it's available. Mind you, it was the first time I had ever typed or even imagined this domain name before.

Today I decided that it has a ring to it and I'll go ahead and just buy it.

What do you know, it's already bought...

Checked whois getfitgpt.com:

Registry Domain ID: 2987595751_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.namecheap.com Registrar URL: http://www.namecheap.com Updated Date: 0001-01-01T00:00:00.00Z Creation Date: 2025-05-29T23:29:02.00Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2026-05-29T23:29:02.00Z Registrar: NAMECHEAP INC

The timing is also suspicious: 23:29:02, as if it was a script that was scheduled to buy searched domain names at midnight?

Namecheap was the only domain lookup I used, I don't trust godaddy. Apparently I can't trust namecheap also anymore?

I mean there's just too many coincidences.

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