How to deal with cybersquating on a domain name?

[BrianB35]

Can anyone help me out? Our department's website domain name has been "acquired" by another company because it is claimed our registration ran out. I don't agree with that and they are showing inappropriate material on it.

Is there anything I can do to get our domain name back? Currently it's on all our trucks and it's embarrassing.

[DeputyMarshal]

This is why it's important to use a reputable domain registrar even if it costs a little more than one of the "bargain" services. A reputable registrar will give reminders and ample notice before a domain expires and is available for reregistration.

Who is the domain registrar? Is the site still registered through the same registrar you used originally or did the squatter reregister it elsewhere? You can determine who now owns the domain through a whois lookup. They may be willing to sell it back depending on their motivation for squatting it in the first place.

Cybersquatting is usually about either adding a busy site to a click aggregator or blackmailing the original owner into buying back their own domain...

Exactly what is the squatter using the site for?

(What's the domain name?)

[BrianB35]

www.bellevillefire.com

I did the whois and found who it was when they responded. They were hiding behind the whois privacy manager.

The registrar is different than what we used and the "owner" of the domain happens to have the same address but different name as the registrar.

I've asked them to disable the site until we reach an agreement but they have refused.

[DeputyMarshal]

It looks like you're dealing with someone with a history of questionable practices, enom.com. You may have to resort to a formal complaint with ICANN. Here's a link to the rules in such matters:

http://www.icann.org/dndr/udrp/uniform-rules.htm

Good luck!

[BFD1581]

Incident

How did your domain expire if you registered it in August? Seems fishy. What is the status of this incident? Any clarification of how this happened?

[SandraCTran]

Eh bien, je n'ai jamais trait? de cela mais je travaille pour un service de domaine en ligne qui nous fournit le meilleur nom domaine maroc et vous pouvez ?galement nous contacter en visitant notre site Web.