Pool.com Namescout.com Momentus.com A Backorder Domain Name Acquiring Scam Ottawa Ontario Canada

 Hi Greg,

I am happy to research the specifics of your situation, I am the CEO of Pool.com and can provide some direct response to your posting, but without the specific domain in question its difficult for me to fully research.  But allow me to respond to some of your comments.

First, Pool.com and Namescout Corp are two different companies, both subsidiaries of Momentous Corp.  They have different executives and operate independently.  Namescout has been a strategic partner with Pool.com since the very start of the com/net drop at Pool.  When we are successful at catching a name for a customer, regardless of which one of our internal registrars actually catch the name, we stuff the domain into a Namescout account which provides centralized data management.

Second, you are correct in saying that if a domain drops and we catch it and it is in your backorder list that you will have an opportunity to get the domain either as a single order backorder or as a member in an auction.  But note, this will only happen after a domain enters pending delete and actually drops.  We do not publish names that are in expiry as candidates for backorders, we only publish names that are in pending delete and these can only be recovered in the drop, they cannot be reclaimed by any registrar, not even the original owner.  You indicate that you were told the name dropped and we caught it and you were not included in any subsequent auction.  This can simply not happen at Pool and again, if you provide the specific domain name I am happy to post the exact sequence of events.

Third, as you know, when a name expires in COM/NET, it enters an auto-renew grace period which is often referred to as the "expiry" period,  During this time, the original registrant still has the ability to either allow the renewal to prevail (in which case no action is required by Namescout) or request the renewal to be cancelled (in which case the registrar in question will issue a delete command to  the registry which is what sends the domain into Redemption Grace Period).  Most registrars are obligated to ensure the registrant is well aware that their domain had expired and they have a limited opportunity to renew.  Of course, once in RGP the domain can still be renewed by the original registrant but if not, it will proceed to Pending Delete and then drop.

Neither Pool.com nor Namescout offer expired domains for sale unless they are owned by a Momentous entity or such sale has been explicitly requested by the registrant.  I have posted in a number of forums in the past for buyers to be particularly aware of the practice where a registrar will sell a name that is in expiry status when in theory the original owner still has the rights to renew.  We simply do not do that but I can point you to a number of very large and popular registrars that do so routinely.

I welcome further comments Greg and remain available to investigate as you see appropriate.

Regards

Richard Schreier
CEO, Pool.com
richard@pool.com
407-612-6271