Must Renew Domain

  • Unknown's avatar
    giantpuppetssavetheworld · Member ·

    Hi,

    I set up my personal domain, tonimikulka.com, to be autorenewed on WordPress, but I didn’t see any of your update emails about the billing information being out of date.

    Now it looks like my domain has been taken by someone else and is being used for illegal activity. Someone from the FBI just contacted me…

    I need to get my domain back.

    I am so confused as to why I didn’t see a single e-mail or get a call for WordPress telling me this was going to happen.

    Please help.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • Unknown's avatar
    justjennifer · Member ·

    I replied to you here https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/site-hacked-some-weird-stuff-is-happening-to-my-wordpress-site?replies=2#post-2479912 that your site is not hosted on WordPress.com.

    However, the domain does appear to have been registered through their domain registrar WildWestDomains with Private registration. You can go here to make sure that the email you entered and which is on record is your current one. https://wordpress.com/me/account

    I’ve tagged this for Staff assistance. Please be patient while they get back to you.

  • Unknown's avatar
    justjennifer · Member ·

    Needless-to-say, it is up to users to update their account information to keep it current.

  • staff-ozmodiar · Staff ·

    Yes, I’m afraid that this domain expired Aug 23, 2015 and then was lost at a domain auction.

    Domain Expiration

    I sympathize with a lost domain. But I’m afraid there is nothing that can be done at this date. Once a domain is sold to another buyer, it is out of our hands.

    If you feel that you have been placed into the middle of a law enforcement issue, you should talk to a lawyer. However, please do be aware that there are scammers out there who will pretend to be all sorts of government agencies. So take care that you do not fall into a trap with someone pretending to be the FBI in order to get information out of you.

  • Unknown's avatar
    giantpuppetssavetheworld · Member ·

    Ok – clearly I lost my domain. There is nothing I can do about it now. I missed the e-mails that WordPress sent me asking me to renew (it would have been nice if they called me – I was dealing with a serious life crisis at the time and not paying much attention to my e-mail Update folder).

    Now, my old website, tonimikulka.com, still has the content I used to create it initially. If WordPress sold my website, shouldn’t my content also be protected? They can actually sell my website domain with content I created using WordPress template I used?

    Someone has control over the content I put on a website to represent me and now I can’t do anything about how they are using my info.

    Now, when you search WhoIs.com you see that ToniMikulka.com is registered to someone that also created an e-mail with my name to register it – (email visible only to moderators and staff) (I have never created this domain).

    Maybe you can help at the very least, remove the content of a website I created that someone is now using to falsely represent me?

    Also, when you visit http://www.tonimikulka.wordpress.com, I get an “Uh Oh…this domain expired message”…why wouldn’t my website simply appear without that annoying message?

    What other solutions can you suggest for recreating the website I lost while maintaining my information and identity.

    Thank you for the responses. I also see that you said I should contact an attorney. How does one even begin to choose an attorney for such an issue. Google searching a random attorney to help get back a website is a nightmare.

    Yours,
    Toni

  • staff-ozmodiar · Staff ·

    If WordPress sold my website, shouldn’t my content also be protected? They can actually sell my website domain with content I created using WordPress template I used?

    To clarify, WordPress.com did not sell your website. For some reason, the person who owns that domain now has copied the existing site from, it appears, a https://archive.org/ version of the site. I have no idea why they would do this. But it is beyond WordPress.com’s control.

    Also, when you visit http://www.tonimikulka.wordpress.com, I get an “Uh Oh…this domain expired message”…why wouldn’t my website simply appear without that annoying message?

    You should no longer be seeing that message. If you still are, could you try clearing your browser’s cache?

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