ufopro
Rookie
- Jul 25, 2010
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In early 2002, I created a small online business managing domain names and hosting smaller websites. I currently have about120 domain names at godaddy, most of which belong to motel owners from India. Note: I have all emails and other documentation immediately available as proof positive as to the accuracy of what you are about to read.
On June 12th 2010, I renewed 4 domain names at godaddy. I paid for the renewals using my paypal account which has been on file with godaddy for about a year. Moments after making my payment I received a receipt in my inbox from godaddy.
On June 15th 2010, I tried to log into my account to complete a domain transfer to godaddy, but my password would not work. When I tried to reset my password, I received an automated response saying that the same email address that I'd had on account at godaddy was invalid.
I immediately called godaddy customer support and was asked for my PIN #.
When I gave them my PIN #, I was told that it was not correct and that I would have to furnish them with the last 6 numbers of the credit card that I had renewed my hosting subscription with last year. I could not remember which credit card that I had used to renew my hosting account.
Since August 2008, I have transferred over 90 domain names to godaddy and renewed quite a few more more using a variety of my credit cards, (I do have all of these cards in my possession) and my PayPal Account # which was recorded on file with godaddy.com. None of the cards matched the card I had used for the single transaction I made one year earlier. Despite all of the proof that I had available to validate that this was my account, godaddy refused to investigate the theft of my account.
Godaddy's customer support, (Including 2 supervisors) have informed me that the email address associated with my customer ID # was a gmail.com account and that if I could not furnish them with the last 6 numbers of the card that I used, that there was absolutely nothing that they could do for me.
After dozens of calls to godaddy customer service, they told me to fill out a PDF form located on the godaddy website and send it with scanned color picture of my State Issued ID to the change department for further assistance. I went to Kinkos and complied with their request.
Two days later, I received this response: We cannot assist you with gaining acess to the account that the following domains reside in as you are not the current account holder. If your payment information is on the account you can contact customer support. How could this be? I've owned that account for over 4 years and I gave NO authorization for any of the changes that had been made!
On June 18th 2010, after countless calls to godaddy, a guy in customer service finally gave me a phone # to the change department at godaddy. After about 7 or 8 calls to the change department, I finally spoke with a girl, Stephanie, who seemed to care enough to take a serious look at my dire situation. She took the time to do a whois check on all of my domain names registered at godaddy and found my name on 26 of them plus an additional 8 domain names at domainsbyproxy.
I went to the domainsbyproxy website and clicked on reset my password using my email address, and received a new password seconds later. domainsbyproxy is a privacy site that is offered as a paid option on the godaddy website! Still not enough proof???
On June 19th, after spending an additional 4 hours at kinkos at a cost of $32.00 sending the required forms, I recovered 23 of my domain names and successfully transferred them to my newly created account at godaddy. In the meantime, the rest of my domains, website files and email accounts remain in the possession of theives.
Update: Today, June 22nd 2009, I received an email from godaddy which contained the list of my remaining domain names at my godaddy and their statis. I immediately noticed something peculiar. One domain name had apparently been updated after my account was hi-jacked. The email said: "KOLATHHOSPITALITYGROUP - Annie Kolath, this domain is no longer in your account as well." When I did a whois, I saw that the domain had been updated on the 18th, three days after I had been locked out.
Annie Kolath is the widow of Hotelier, George M. Kolath, aka Mathai George who made headline news when on June 17th, 2009 his private plane plunged into the Mohawk River, killing him, his 10 year old son and a friend. George was a client of mine during that time and lived in Albany, NY. I was very fond of him and even created an online memorial in his name.
In early December, the annual renewal fees for almost all of the Kolath domain names were overdue. I was trying to help her as much as I could by charging her a fraction of her overdue balance, but when she started lying to me by breaking her word over and over about sending me a check for her renewal fees, I started feeling like she was taking advantage of my kindness and generosity. Finally, after repeatedly urging her to pay her domain name and hosting fees to prevent the loss of her websites, all but 2 of 8 domain names expired. I still have all of the emails during that time.
Now, I was asking myself, how and why she had transferred her last remaining domain name out of my godaddy account after my account was hi-jacked? It was the only domain name that had been tampered with in my account. I was convinced that Annie had something to do with my account being hacked into and locking me out. So, I called her and left her a message stating that I knew that she was somehow responsible for the hi-jacking of my godaddy account. It didn't take her long to call me back. At first, she pretended to know nothing about what I was talking about, then she started justifying her actions by blaming me for the loss of her 7 hotel websites. My biggest question is, HOW could anyone access my account?
I told her that if she did not return my account by that evening, I would go to the police. She said that she did not want to hurt me and would try to contact the person who she had hired to get into my account. I don't know Annie Kolath very well, but I have learned that she has very little regard for people other than herself. The following day, I called her again and she acted as though we were talking for the first time. Again, she was complaining about her expired websites and that I was responsible for their loss. I told her that I still had her website files on my computer's hard drive and would have worked with her if she would have just shown an effort on her part, but because she was involved in the hi-jacking of my account, she should be thankful that I would not involve the police if my account was quickly returned to me.
I was stunned when she told me that she would return my account, but only after I sent her all of the website files on a CD via overnight express. At that point, all I wanted was my account back, so I sent her the files , but not by land. I sent her the files via email and I have the sent emails in my MSN inbox. I also have an email from her telling me that I had missed several specific files.
I felt that taking legal action against her might result in a considerably costly delay in accessing my account at godaddy. Well, it's been 23 days since I emailed her the files and I have not heard from her and she is not answering my calls. I have also discovered that she has all 5 websites up and running thanks to the files that I sent her, yet, I'm still living a nightmare locked out of my account.
As I am typing this, Annie just now called me and said that she wants a cash refund for the domain that was renewed before she would release my account. Is this considered extortion?
Annie owns the following hotels.
fultonvilleeconolodge
clarionhotelfremont
qualityinnofcatskill
greenparkinns
kolathhospitalitygroup
sunsetmotelandsuites
Well, I have just learned how Annie accessed my go daddy account. Last year her husband George had given me an American Express credit card in his aka name for partial payment of my services. After repeated tries, I was unable to process his card through paypal, so I told him that I would use his card to pay some online bills and deduct it from his balance. He said no problem. One of the charges put on the card was to pay godaddy for my hosting package. I still have the the email sent to me from George, authorizing me to charge $150.00 on his card, the cost of my hosting renewal fees.
As I said, a few months later, George and his 10 year old son were killed in a tragic crash of his small plane. At the time, I had no idea that anyone with the last 6 numbers of that credit card could access my account, nor would I have been concerned that a man of George's integrity would do something so cruel and dishonest. Well, his wife Annie has accessed my account using her deceased husband's credit card number. At first she said that she just wanted to take control of her last domain name, but it is becoming quite clear that this is not the case. I was locked out of my account on the 15th of June, today is July 25rd, and I am still locked out. According to the public information below, Annie has obviously convinced herself that she now owns my company.
Registrant:
Kolath Web Designs
P.O. Box 5759
Albany, New York 12205
United States
Domain Name: KOLATHHOSPITALITYGROUP
Created on: 17-Jan-07
Expires on: 17-Jan-12
Last Updated on: 18-Jun-10
Administrative Contact:
Kolath, Annie
Kolath Web Designs
P.O. Box 5759
Albany, New York 12205
United States
+1.5183912628 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Kolath, Annie
Kolath Web Designs
P.O. Box 5759
Albany, New York 12205
United States
+1.5183912628 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
DOMAINCONTROL
DOMAINCONTROL
I am not the owner of all of the hotels, however, I do know each hotel owner on a personal level. Not one of the hotel owners has ever even heard the name Kolath.
Furthermore, when my hijacked account was opened, it was done with MY credit card, Georges credit card was only used to renew MY already established account.
Well, it's been over 5 weeks of desperately trying to get some help from godaddy. How could every bit of information in my 5 year old account with godaddy be changed without my knowledge or authorization. godaddy's final word is that there is nothing that they can do to help me, yet, I am the legitimate, rightful owner of that account. Not one of the dozens of godaddy service reps that I have spoken to has disputed the fact that the account was owned by me prior to me being LOCKED OUT.
I had to open a hosting account at network solutions and have successfully moved 38 of my 120 domain names at godaddy. I have lost 18 clients who are preparing to sue me, not only for the cost of their expiring domain names, but also for their hosting fees and numerous other damages. My last call to godaddy was about 10 minutes ago. The woman who I spoke with, was much more concerned about my tone of voice, rather than the intense stress that was causing my voice to sound uncheerful on the phone. I am finally getting some positive responses from several local news stations, and I will not quit until the world knows that godaddy is responsible for this unecessary and very costly nightmare. Perhaps Go Daddy should spend more money to protect their customers and less sponsoring the Super Bowl.
The bottom line is that being a paying customer of godaddy.com has destroyed 8 years of hard work. The choice should have been solely that of the owner of the email address on file for that account, ME!
From this experience, I have learned that godaddy does not offer their customers any security from internet predators. Once your account is illegally accessed, the criminal can easily change both your Pin # and the last 6 digits of your credit card on file, making it impossible for the real owner of that account to ever regain access of their account again. In a country where not wearing a seatbelt is illegal and strongly enforced, yet thieves, extortionists and frauds are given every opportunity to flourish with no resistance.
On June 12th 2010, I renewed 4 domain names at godaddy. I paid for the renewals using my paypal account which has been on file with godaddy for about a year. Moments after making my payment I received a receipt in my inbox from godaddy.
On June 15th 2010, I tried to log into my account to complete a domain transfer to godaddy, but my password would not work. When I tried to reset my password, I received an automated response saying that the same email address that I'd had on account at godaddy was invalid.
I immediately called godaddy customer support and was asked for my PIN #.
When I gave them my PIN #, I was told that it was not correct and that I would have to furnish them with the last 6 numbers of the credit card that I had renewed my hosting subscription with last year. I could not remember which credit card that I had used to renew my hosting account.
Since August 2008, I have transferred over 90 domain names to godaddy and renewed quite a few more more using a variety of my credit cards, (I do have all of these cards in my possession) and my PayPal Account # which was recorded on file with godaddy.com. None of the cards matched the card I had used for the single transaction I made one year earlier. Despite all of the proof that I had available to validate that this was my account, godaddy refused to investigate the theft of my account.
Godaddy's customer support, (Including 2 supervisors) have informed me that the email address associated with my customer ID # was a gmail.com account and that if I could not furnish them with the last 6 numbers of the card that I used, that there was absolutely nothing that they could do for me.
After dozens of calls to godaddy customer service, they told me to fill out a PDF form located on the godaddy website and send it with scanned color picture of my State Issued ID to the change department for further assistance. I went to Kinkos and complied with their request.
Two days later, I received this response: We cannot assist you with gaining acess to the account that the following domains reside in as you are not the current account holder. If your payment information is on the account you can contact customer support. How could this be? I've owned that account for over 4 years and I gave NO authorization for any of the changes that had been made!
On June 18th 2010, after countless calls to godaddy, a guy in customer service finally gave me a phone # to the change department at godaddy. After about 7 or 8 calls to the change department, I finally spoke with a girl, Stephanie, who seemed to care enough to take a serious look at my dire situation. She took the time to do a whois check on all of my domain names registered at godaddy and found my name on 26 of them plus an additional 8 domain names at domainsbyproxy.
I went to the domainsbyproxy website and clicked on reset my password using my email address, and received a new password seconds later. domainsbyproxy is a privacy site that is offered as a paid option on the godaddy website! Still not enough proof???
On June 19th, after spending an additional 4 hours at kinkos at a cost of $32.00 sending the required forms, I recovered 23 of my domain names and successfully transferred them to my newly created account at godaddy. In the meantime, the rest of my domains, website files and email accounts remain in the possession of theives.
Update: Today, June 22nd 2009, I received an email from godaddy which contained the list of my remaining domain names at my godaddy and their statis. I immediately noticed something peculiar. One domain name had apparently been updated after my account was hi-jacked. The email said: "KOLATHHOSPITALITYGROUP - Annie Kolath, this domain is no longer in your account as well." When I did a whois, I saw that the domain had been updated on the 18th, three days after I had been locked out.
Annie Kolath is the widow of Hotelier, George M. Kolath, aka Mathai George who made headline news when on June 17th, 2009 his private plane plunged into the Mohawk River, killing him, his 10 year old son and a friend. George was a client of mine during that time and lived in Albany, NY. I was very fond of him and even created an online memorial in his name.
In early December, the annual renewal fees for almost all of the Kolath domain names were overdue. I was trying to help her as much as I could by charging her a fraction of her overdue balance, but when she started lying to me by breaking her word over and over about sending me a check for her renewal fees, I started feeling like she was taking advantage of my kindness and generosity. Finally, after repeatedly urging her to pay her domain name and hosting fees to prevent the loss of her websites, all but 2 of 8 domain names expired. I still have all of the emails during that time.
Now, I was asking myself, how and why she had transferred her last remaining domain name out of my godaddy account after my account was hi-jacked? It was the only domain name that had been tampered with in my account. I was convinced that Annie had something to do with my account being hacked into and locking me out. So, I called her and left her a message stating that I knew that she was somehow responsible for the hi-jacking of my godaddy account. It didn't take her long to call me back. At first, she pretended to know nothing about what I was talking about, then she started justifying her actions by blaming me for the loss of her 7 hotel websites. My biggest question is, HOW could anyone access my account?
I told her that if she did not return my account by that evening, I would go to the police. She said that she did not want to hurt me and would try to contact the person who she had hired to get into my account. I don't know Annie Kolath very well, but I have learned that she has very little regard for people other than herself. The following day, I called her again and she acted as though we were talking for the first time. Again, she was complaining about her expired websites and that I was responsible for their loss. I told her that I still had her website files on my computer's hard drive and would have worked with her if she would have just shown an effort on her part, but because she was involved in the hi-jacking of my account, she should be thankful that I would not involve the police if my account was quickly returned to me.
I was stunned when she told me that she would return my account, but only after I sent her all of the website files on a CD via overnight express. At that point, all I wanted was my account back, so I sent her the files , but not by land. I sent her the files via email and I have the sent emails in my MSN inbox. I also have an email from her telling me that I had missed several specific files.
I felt that taking legal action against her might result in a considerably costly delay in accessing my account at godaddy. Well, it's been 23 days since I emailed her the files and I have not heard from her and she is not answering my calls. I have also discovered that she has all 5 websites up and running thanks to the files that I sent her, yet, I'm still living a nightmare locked out of my account.
As I am typing this, Annie just now called me and said that she wants a cash refund for the domain that was renewed before she would release my account. Is this considered extortion?
Annie owns the following hotels.
fultonvilleeconolodge
clarionhotelfremont
qualityinnofcatskill
greenparkinns
kolathhospitalitygroup
sunsetmotelandsuites
Well, I have just learned how Annie accessed my go daddy account. Last year her husband George had given me an American Express credit card in his aka name for partial payment of my services. After repeated tries, I was unable to process his card through paypal, so I told him that I would use his card to pay some online bills and deduct it from his balance. He said no problem. One of the charges put on the card was to pay godaddy for my hosting package. I still have the the email sent to me from George, authorizing me to charge $150.00 on his card, the cost of my hosting renewal fees.
As I said, a few months later, George and his 10 year old son were killed in a tragic crash of his small plane. At the time, I had no idea that anyone with the last 6 numbers of that credit card could access my account, nor would I have been concerned that a man of George's integrity would do something so cruel and dishonest. Well, his wife Annie has accessed my account using her deceased husband's credit card number. At first she said that she just wanted to take control of her last domain name, but it is becoming quite clear that this is not the case. I was locked out of my account on the 15th of June, today is July 25rd, and I am still locked out. According to the public information below, Annie has obviously convinced herself that she now owns my company.
Registrant:
Kolath Web Designs
P.O. Box 5759
Albany, New York 12205
United States
Domain Name: KOLATHHOSPITALITYGROUP
Created on: 17-Jan-07
Expires on: 17-Jan-12
Last Updated on: 18-Jun-10
Administrative Contact:
Kolath, Annie
Kolath Web Designs
P.O. Box 5759
Albany, New York 12205
United States
+1.5183912628 Fax --
Technical Contact:
Kolath, Annie
Kolath Web Designs
P.O. Box 5759
Albany, New York 12205
United States
+1.5183912628 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
DOMAINCONTROL
DOMAINCONTROL
I am not the owner of all of the hotels, however, I do know each hotel owner on a personal level. Not one of the hotel owners has ever even heard the name Kolath.
Furthermore, when my hijacked account was opened, it was done with MY credit card, Georges credit card was only used to renew MY already established account.
Well, it's been over 5 weeks of desperately trying to get some help from godaddy. How could every bit of information in my 5 year old account with godaddy be changed without my knowledge or authorization. godaddy's final word is that there is nothing that they can do to help me, yet, I am the legitimate, rightful owner of that account. Not one of the dozens of godaddy service reps that I have spoken to has disputed the fact that the account was owned by me prior to me being LOCKED OUT.
I had to open a hosting account at network solutions and have successfully moved 38 of my 120 domain names at godaddy. I have lost 18 clients who are preparing to sue me, not only for the cost of their expiring domain names, but also for their hosting fees and numerous other damages. My last call to godaddy was about 10 minutes ago. The woman who I spoke with, was much more concerned about my tone of voice, rather than the intense stress that was causing my voice to sound uncheerful on the phone. I am finally getting some positive responses from several local news stations, and I will not quit until the world knows that godaddy is responsible for this unecessary and very costly nightmare. Perhaps Go Daddy should spend more money to protect their customers and less sponsoring the Super Bowl.
The bottom line is that being a paying customer of godaddy.com has destroyed 8 years of hard work. The choice should have been solely that of the owner of the email address on file for that account, ME!
From this experience, I have learned that godaddy does not offer their customers any security from internet predators. Once your account is illegally accessed, the criminal can easily change both your Pin # and the last 6 digits of your credit card on file, making it impossible for the real owner of that account to ever regain access of their account again. In a country where not wearing a seatbelt is illegal and strongly enforced, yet thieves, extortionists and frauds are given every opportunity to flourish with no resistance.
