domain sniping

domain sniping

Registering an Internet domain name that has just expired with the intention of reselling the name back to the original owner. To consummate the sale quickly, the domain sniper might redirect the URL to a pornography site or other venue that might be embarrassing to the former owner of the name.

After the ICANN added a 30-day grace period, in which the registrant could restore its name, domain sniping decreased substantially.

It Could Happen to Anyone
In 2002, SIGCAT, the long-lived nonprofit industry association, let its sigcat.org domain name expire accidentally. In not uncommon fashion, its headquarters, Webmaster and ISP were in different locations, and each thought one of the others was handling the renewal. The domain was snapped up by traffic aggregator Domains For Sale, which for a while, redirected traffic to an adult content site. When the price to buy it back was deemed too steep, SIGCAT merged with another industry association. See domain warehousing and domain parking.