It seems obvious, and even trivial, but keeping your WHOIS data current
is extremely important!
We get busy, time goes by and before you know it your getting a notice that your favorite domain name has expired, or worse has been forfeited!
You can avoid all this headache by following a few simple rules to ensure your domains do not expire, nor change hands without your consent.
1) Keep WHOIS data current
Seems obvious but you would be surprised how many domain names expire every day because the domain owner or administrator did not keep the WHOIS data current and accurate. This results in missed renewal notices and attempted contacts. You change emails or the contact for the domain within your company no longer works for you but oops! someone forget to change that in the WHOIS database, and viola! your domain is gone. Is this right? would this be stealing? Sorry, but the blame lies with the domain owner who "FORGOT". It is not stealing, simply stated, you did not care enough about your domain to keep it, and you let it expire, which means you no longer own it! I want to help you avoid this by stressing to you the importance of keeping your WHOIS data current. This can be done with a very easy process that is done on a monthly basis. Go to step 2.
2) Validate your WHOIS data monthly
I do not care how many domains you own, this is a very easy thing to do, here is why. Say you own 2000 domain names, they are registered with 4 different registrars. You only need to log into the 4 different registrars to verify you WHOIS data. You do not need to check the domains individually, just the WHOIS data on file with the registrar. This will take you 15 minutes at the most. Do this EVERY month at the very least. This will ensure not only your WHOIS information is accurate, but you can verify nothing has been messed with and things are ok. Please note, this simply verifies the accuracy of the WHOIS data, not the actual domains themselves. That is a separate issue. If you are a company with that has staffing managing your company domains, go to step 3.
2) Verify employees AND WHOIS
If you are a company who has multiple employees then this complicates it somewhat, but still it is manageable. Chances are you have a dept within your company who is the contact or administrator for your domain names. You must have a BACKUP contact within the company to oversee the current contact. What if the contact for the domains is fired or leaves the company? Devious things have happened to companies because of this simple flaw. If it were me, I would have a monthly check requirement, and EVERY time an employee is relieved, fired, quits, etc, have a quick audit done on your domains. It could cost you potentially millions of dollars to NOT do this.
This is a quote from the ICAAN site regarding your WHOIS data:
"* At least annually, a registrar must present to the registrant the current Whois information, and remind the registrant that provision of false Whois information can be grounds for cancellation of their domain name registration. Registrants must review their Whois data, and make any corrections."
This means for example: if your email is outdated or changed but you forgot, then the email on file IS FALSE. There is no distinction between intentionally false, or just a bad memory and forgetfulness. You could lose your domains! Do not risk this. KEEP YOUR WHOIS DATA CURRENT!
