Reader Complains About The .NG Registry Stealing Games.ng and Nigeria.ng From Him

I received an email from a reader called Gao Tianyong from Beijing describing his horror story dealing with the .ng registry. .NG is the ccTLD for Nigeria. The reader is not a native English speaker so bare with him (I made a few corrections). Here is his story:
“Here are the details about my story about .ng domains (the cctld of Nigeria):
.ng domains is using the registrant-registrar-registry model.
1.
I checked games.ng from the registry website and the registrar website and it was available. Then I paid $100 and registered it through the registrar http://www.whogohost.com/ on 2013-05-24. More than one month passed and on 2013-7-4, nira (registry) transferred out this domain from my account suddenly even without an email notice then sold it privately for $10000 usd per year, every year. (I heard the price from a registrar later)
On 2013-12-24, Sunday Folayan (the vice president of nira) told me that:

“NiRA and Nigeria are not interested in your games.ng, so I do not see any reason why you should not get that one.”
but until today, they not only haven’t given back games.ng to me, but also they haven’t given back the money they sold for it. I sent them more than 1001 emails in the past but no reply, they have wasted such a lot of my time, but I got 0 domain from nira and I got $0 from nira until now.

The Story Behind Games.ng: http://domainrobbing.com/the-story-behind-games-ng
Why Games.ng belongs to me :http://domainrobbing.com/why-games-ng-belongs-to-me
Voices of nira’s coo and registrars: http://domainrobbing.com/voices-of-nira-coo-and-registrars

2.
I registered nigeria.ng for $100 with http://netorb.ng/  (registrar) on 2013-04-16, this domain was also used for a Nigeria travel website for a long time. On 2013-12-09, nira (registry) suspended my website suddenly, and stole my domain suddenly again. This time, I don’t know how much do they want to sell this domain after they stole it from me.

The Story Behind Nigeria.ng: http://domainrobbing.com/the-story-behind-nigeria-ng
Why Nigeria.ng belongs to me: http://domainrobbing.com/why-nigeria-ng-belongs-to-me
Voices of nira’s coo and registrars: http://domainrobbing.com/voices-of-nira-coo-and-registrars

.ng: the cctld of Nigeria
nira: Nigeria Internet Registration Association (.ng registry)
nira website: http://www.nira.org.ng/
NiRA 3RD EXECUTIVE BOARD:
http://www.nira.org.ng/index.php/who-we-are/nira-bod/176-nira-3rd-executive-board
.ng whois: http://whois.nic.net.ng/whois.jsp
NiRA Admin
Address: 9 Kofo Abayomi Street,Victoria Island,Lagos,Nigeria
Email: admin@nira.org.ng
Mobile: 08033476573, 08172004270
NiRA Technical Support
Mobile: 08172004278, 08172004279, 08172004280
accredited registrars of nira:
http://www.nira.org.ng/index.php/registrars/accredited-registrars”

I made some research and it seems that Gao Tianyong was the original owner of Nigeria.ng until it was grabbed by the Nigeria Internet Registration Association about a year after registration. It now displays this status in Whois:

This domain is reserved for government

The reader above bought Games.ng at WhoGoHost. It was then transferred somehow to MarkMonitor.com and is now owned by Spil Games Intangibles B.V..

So what do you think? I guess they don’t call it a Nigerian scam for nothing…

Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

18 comments

  1. Domain Observer

    If the story is true, it is terrible for the stability of domain industry itself. He should report it to ICANN and they should investigate the case and take an appropriate measure. ICANN is getting money from domain holders every time a domain is registered, don’t they?

    • Icann has no authority on ccTLDs.

      Sadly, Nigeria has a reputation for being corrupt.
      With countries like these you have to expect a few surprises.

      • you are right,Icann has no authority on ccTLDs.
        i have sent an email to ICANN ombudsman before,although he do not have jurisdiction for country code domains and issues,but on 2014-3-6,he still send an email (i have published the email on my site:http://domainrobbing.com/) to nira (.ng registry) and want to mediate the dispute,but until today,there is no reply from nira, because nira know clearly they are wrong to steal and resell my domains,they are scared of the mediation. they did not reply to me,they also did not reply to icann.
        quote: Nira stole huge amount of money and they are trying to cover

  2. The new owner, Spill games is an Dutch company who owned a lot of domains and sites all associated with games. They have some of the top names in portfolio with millions of visitors every day. If you want the story side of them, just give them an email or if you want, they are close to me and I will ask around for some information.

    • It would be great if you can get a reply. Thanks

    • yes,Spill games is a very successful company. they are the buyer of games.ng,but i never contact them before,because i think this is not their fault,this is only due to nira theft,because nira always change customers domains whois without notice and permission,after nira change the domains whois to himself,they can sell the domains to everyone who paid them.

      just like nigeria.ng,even nira sell nigeria.ng to another buyer,i also think it is not the buyer fault,because he do not know i am the owner of the domain,because nira has already changed the domain whois to himself many months ago,nobody know i am the original owner of the domain.
      (if i did not publish the story after nira steal nigeria.ng from me,i believe nigeria.ng was also sold already)

      just like http://www.ng,i also want to register this domain before,but nira said it is not supported and not allow to register,but only 2 days later,this domain was registered by another registrant. i also think this is not the registrant fault,this is only due to nira theft,i even appeal nira dont do bad things to http://www.ng.
      the story behind http://www.ng:
      http://domainrobbing.com/the-story-behind-www-ng

      from my own example,you can see that nira manage their .ng domains extremely bad,and, i am not the only case,you can find many victims on my site.

  3. I’m not surprised, corruption in Nigeria is a real part of the economy 🙁 It’s one of the reasons doing business in those regions is like poking into a wasp nest and hoping you won’t get stung. Unless you know the right people doing business there is like playing a fruitmachine.

  4. NIRA Moves to Address Hiccups in Domain Name Registration

    [quote]…some of the identified challenges include: arbitrary pricing of the domain name by registrars; fear of insecurity surrounding the hosting and usage of the domain name….[/quote]

    Article can be found here: http://allafrica.com/stories/201405080293.html

    • [/quote]”arbitrary pricing of the domain name by registrars;”[/quote]
      so many years passed,there are only very little .ng domains registered,nira cannot realized himself problem,but shirk responsibility to registrars,there are about 20 .ng registrars,
      almost all the registrars told me that:
      “this NIRA people are crooks”
      “they (NIRA) have been cheating for a long time”
      “And that your mail has exposed several irregularities in the way they have handled the domain registration business so far”
      “NIRA doesn’t want to do the herculean task of guarding the registry property & look away from domains which they ought to have protected ”

      one of the registrars told me that “nobody wants to lose its accreditation”,so no registrar take this issue as a real fight with nira,especially after i publish the story,all the registrars were warned by nira.

      [/quote]”fear of insecurity surrounding the hosting and usage of the domain name”[/quote]
      nira even accusations nigerians of non patriotism who do not register .ng domains,they cannot realized that nigerians dont use .ng domains not only because .ng is the most expensive domain ($100/year),but also because .ng is the most dangerous domain. and the danger is not come from outside,it is come from nira itself.

      .ng domains is not successful,who should responsible for it? it is not the registrars,it is not nigerians. it is nira,the registry itself should responsible for it,it is nira leaders who should responsible for it,Mary Uduma is the president of nira,Sunday Folayan is the vice president of nira,both of them have worked in nira early from 2007.

  5. I’ve send Spill Games an email regarding the games domain. I know they are not responsible for the loss of your domain but mayby we get some more information about they way Nira works.

    • thanks for you care,Spill games is a very successful company. they are the buyer of games.ng,but i never contact them before,because i think this is not their fault,this is only due to nira theft,because nira always change customers domains whois without notice and permission,after nira change the domains whois to himself,they can sell the domains to everyone who paid them.

      • just like http://www.ng,i also want to register this domain before,but nira said it is not supported and not allow to register,but only 2 days later,this domain was registered by another registrant. i also think this is not the registrant fault,this is only due to nira theft,i even appeal nira dont do bad things to http://www.ng.
        visit the story behind http://www.ng on my site:

      • just like nigeria.ng,even nira sell nigeria.ng to another buyer,i also think it is not the buyer fault,because he do not know i am the owner of the domain,because nira has already changed the domain whois to himself many months ago,nobody know i am the original owner of the domain.
        (if i did not publish the story after nira steal nigeria.ng from me,i believe nigeria.ng was also sold already)

        from my own example,you can see that nira manage their .ng domains extremely bad,and, i am not the only case,you can find many victims on my site.

      • Reason I wrote spillG is to know more about the situation. I know that company. Also, if they have ‘bought’ the name in good faith, how long will they keep it if mayby tomorrow someone else offers more for the domain. So it’s for both sides.

  6. from my own example,you can see that nira manage their .ng domains extremely bad,and, i am not the only case,you can find many victims on my site.

  7. it seems that i made some repeat comments,sorry about this…

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