I wonder how many people diligently manage their domain name portfolio?  How many keep an active spreadsheet, linked to a calendar, with a list of their domain names and renewal dates?

Remember that these domains are your brand, they also play an active part in your SEO and marketing of your brand. What would you do if your domain name was hijacked and for how long would your business be hamstrung whilst you spend weeks and months with lawyers trying to get your domain name back? Would your business survive such an event, have you taken out insurance to cover the costs and loss of business over this period?

Well there are sharks out there, believe me. I have had a few of these attempts on some of my domains and it still shakes me up a bit at the sheer audacity of some of these people and the tactics that they use. I have some of my domains listed with Hetzner and these I really don't need to worry about as Hetzner do not take instructions from anyone except the registered owner and nominated authority, so these domains are safe and Hetzner knows all these scams very well. No, the ones I am worried about are the ones that I manage myself directly with Coza. Imagine this scenario, I am away overseas for three weeks and someone puts through a transfer ticket on one or many of my domains, Coza only requires one yes in order to transfer that domain, if I am away and do not pick up that mail, this person could try and duplicate my email and perhaps get away with my domain?

Today just such a thing almost occurred, one going by the name of Juan Buys giving an address in the Strand, tried to have one of my domains deleted by sending through a deletion request to Coza, when I phoned the number he had registered, he told me that my domain was up for deletion, not the case, it is on a count of 3 which is when both Hetzner and myself pay for the domains. When I asked what gave him the right to request that one of my domains be deleted, he said because he could. I told him that this was an illegal act and that I would be reporting his activity to Coza, he said "so go ahead" and put the phone down in my ear.

Wonder how many times he has tried deleting other peoples domains and then waiting to register them for himself the minute they were deleted?

Look after your domain names treat them as if they were gold (which they are) but most of all keep a tight grip on your management of your domain names.