Another problem with Moniker Privacy service?
 

I just received an email from somebody trying to sell me a domain.

This is how the email begins:

"Hello Sir,

We understand that you are the owner of the domain name xxxxxxxx.com,"

They emailed me directly using the email address that Moniker has on file. My privacy guard is active. WTF yo?

When I pull up a whois, I get:

Moniker Privacy Services
20 SW 27th Ave.
Suite 201
Pompano Beach
FL
33069
US

So, how in the hell did these people get my email address?

Not sure about their service but don't they show an email like this: [email protected]

and it forwards it to your listed email?

Thats what namecheap privacy does.

Yup, the messages are forwarded to the email you have on file.

In the past, Moniker has contacted me directly to tell me somebody else was trying to reach me. I've never received an email directly like this before.

True, should be an email from the privacy service.

godaddy and namecheap both forward your emails automatically :2 cents:

Ahh okay, I use Namecheap and they will automatically forward all emails to your email address but won't display your email on the whois information.

Pretty sure this thread is about Moniker. I honestly don't care what other registrars do.

You should be able to tell from the email headers what really happened. If the email was sent directly to you, they might have gotten it from somewhere that your information was cached before you turned privacy on?

I add privacy to all domains at the time of purchase.

I will check the headers though. Thanks for the suggestion.

Moniker forward emails sent to what is listed as your WHOIS email, eg [email protected]. Check the headers, the email would have probably come from mail.domainsystems.com.

I receive one or two "hey wanna buy this cool domain that I think is related but in reality it sounds almost nothing like yours" spams every week this way.

FWIW, Moniker privacy has burped at least a couple of times, reverting to a standard WHOIS with all normal contact details. Any domains you've had with them for a few years probably have your real WHOIS archived somewhere.

because it looks like they do what all other registrars do and Moniker lists [email protected] which identifies your domain, whether they forward the email to you or not is up to them.