Stolen Domain; Unknown Registrar
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My site was stolen shortly after I paid my annual subscription in January 2024. I thought my domain payment was supposed to keep it under my name.
The domain was stolen around March 2024; the payment in 2025 went through because I was unable to stop it. When you click on that URL you now get a blank page. But at first I was getting a page in Chinese. I have tried to translate what is in the URL now to no avail. We are a Christian ministry and for all I know the site could now be advertising pornography in China! This is unacceptable. And since you take our domain registration money and I have never seen the name of the registrar, I hold you responsible.
I had previously looked up the domain in ICANN and WHOIS to no avail. And now the domain info is locked.
How do I get my site back and how can I find out how to contact the registrar?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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(Sorry, the part about taking money for the domain registration was meant for the WP people. Disregard, please.)
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Hi @meechelle10
I understand how alarming this situation is, especially considering the importance of your ministry’s content and the confusion around where the payments were going.
I have investigated the domain associated with this request. It appears that this specific domain was never registered directly through WordPress.com. While you may have paid for a hosting plan or subscription here, the domain name registration itself was managed by a different provider.
Because the domain is not registered with us, we do not have control over its settings, nor can we retrieve it for you
My suggestion would be to contact the provider you originally purchased the domain with and see if they can help you cover it.
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I have several questions about your reply.
First, I pay you for the domain registration renewal every year, so I expected you would know who the registrar is.
Second, if I am not paying you for the domain renewal, where is my money going?
Third, if I choose not to renew how would I do that?
Apart from those questions, my biggest problem is that I took over this website from someone who has long since moved on; therefore, I cannot even ask which registrar he went through. Since the domain has been stolen and locked down I cannot see who the original registrar was. What recourse do I have to find that information?
Thank you.
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It appears to me that someone let that domain expire at wherever it was originally registered and it was purchased by others in China. That domain still links to an underlying wordpress.com subdomain. This happens regularly. The new owners either think they can piggyback on existing traffic or they place malicious script on the site to trap the unwary or even think they may be able to sell the domain back to the original owner (for a large fee).
The best thing you can do is start a brand new site with a similar address and put it down to experience. I doubt the current registrar would help as from their point of view you have no connection with that domain address. You could easily start a new free site here at WordPress.com or buy a new similar domain if you do indeed have a current paid plan.
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I see a member of staff replied to you back in 2024 confirming that domain was never registered here at WordPress.com. He said:-
I see that you’ve been paying us to map or connect this domain for several years now. It was never registered with us. It was a Domain Connection subscription.
You can confirm this by going to https://wordpress.com/me/billing and viewing your receipts. On the older receipts, it will say Domain Mapping.
To clarify, a Domain Connection lets you ‘connect’ an existing domain you own through another registrar. It doesn’t mean you own the domain through us at WordPress.com. Even with a Domain Connection, you still need to ensure the domain is renewed and pointed to your WordPress.com site from your domain registrar’s end.
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In addition to all the info you already got.
You can check the history of that domain at https://completedns.com/dns-history/. You can see that on Feb 14 2024 that domain was removed from the wordpress.com nameservers. On April 8 2024, someone registered that domain at juming.com, a Chinese registrar.
When you let a domain expire, you are literally saying you no longer need that domain. After some time, that domain becomes available to anyone who wants to register it. There is no (legal) way to claim that domain to be yours. A possible solution is to go for another TLD.
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Hi @meechelle10,
I want to confirm that the domain in question was never registered directly here at WordPress.com. The annual payments you made to us were likely for a Domain Connection subscription to your WordPress.com site. This service allows you to point a domain that is registered and owned at a different company to your WordPress.com site.
Because the domain was not registered with us, your payments to WordPress.com did not cover the renewal of the domain name ownership itself. That fee needed to be paid to the original registrar. It appears the domain expired at that original registrar and was subsequently purchased by a third party, which is why the content has changed.
As this involves your personal billing history and account details, we should discuss this privately rather than on a public forum. Please reach out to us directly through your account so we can review your receipts and explain exactly what happened with the subscription.
You can contact us directly here: https://wordpress.com/help/contact
Full details here: https://wordpress.com/support/help-support-options/
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