Nov 26 2008
Hosting Company Hijacking Customers?
There is one hosting company in Malaysia who has been calling up customers of other hosting companies to renew their expiring domain names and subscribe to hosting services with them.
Upon some checking, I found others in the hosting industry know about their practice too. Sometimes the company even unknowingly call up hosting providers and resellers.
A contact told me this company “hijacks” other companies’ customers. We may accuse them of “stealing” customers from competitors. But they could claim it’s their marketing strategy.
Legally speaking, they don’t do anything wrong, unless they mislead customers into thinking they are their domain name or hosting provider, which I guess is possible since many customers are not so IT-savvy on domain and hosting stuff.
There is no such thing as a “hosting industry association” in Malaysia. No organization for us to appeal to. We can’t complain against them. They also didn’t break any law, unless we can get the proof of their misrepresenting other companies.
For now they maybe able to “steal” many customers from others. But their name is notorious in the industry for what they do. This does not translate into good business for them in the long run. At the end the customers will know their plot also.
One interesting question is that, where do they get the list of expiring domain names? They told a “mystery shopper” that they check your domain name from the domain name search service (WHOIS) provided on the Internet. But without first knowing your domain name, how do they do a search on your domain name?
The company admitted they have such a list of expiring domain names but refused to reveal the source citing confidentiality. As I understand, domain name registrars like MYNIC, Webnic.cc and others do not share the list of expiring domain names to their partners and resellers.
A possible solution is to register customers’ domains under our own contact details. But for me this would be breaking my promises to customers. Another solution is subscribe for private WHOIS service, where customers’ details will not be available online. But it costs money and add to customers’ expenses.
For me, I think those companies who rely on “stealing” customers from others are desperate short-term businesses who choose to compete in the red ocean and have no unique business strategy for themselves. For them, I think they can choose to gain customers for today and lose their reputation for tomorrow.
What do you think?
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In the market that’s no “stealing” or “hijacks” but winner. Old Town always setup their shop near Starbucks, then should Starbucks go to complain Old Town? I still remember when I was a student, my teacher told me, “If you want to be kind to your competitors, then you better don’t run business”. Don’t you think so? I think if they offer is better, no harm to try. As I know, overseas’ hosting company offer better price than Malaysia, I think because more competition. To be honest, I like to see competition in this market, so that end user like us can get better benefit.
I think most of the end users are same, as long as got better benefit and better service, no harm to try new things.
Sorry to said that, this kind of thinking might out of date now, because it was happened in US long time ago when I was there. Try to learn from overseas might be good for Malaysia market as well.
Dear Choo, thanks for sharing
“Hijacking” is not my word, but “stealing” is mine. But as said, the company does not break any law just by calling up people to renew with them.
I’m not against competition. The fact is that, hosting companies, or all businesses for that matter, are “stealing” customers from one another. I won’t be blogging about a company competing normally in the market. But if I blog about this company, of course there are some reasons, apart from the fact that I and others are being affected.
Firstly, where did they get the list of domains? Of course it’s their business intelligence. But I’m concerned of anyone disclosing such information to them without customers’ knowledge.
Secondly, I’m only scratching the surface of what they do. There are other things that they are suspected to be doing that I would not disclose publicly online. Suffice to say that there were customers who somehow misunderstood that the company was their domain name or hosting provider.
Thirdly, if a business has to rely on taking away customers from others, then there may be problem for them. Of course they can choose to do so. But for me, I will not want to rely on competing in the red ocean to survive. But again, not everyone subscribe to the so-called “blue ocean” kind of business philosophy.
Oh I See, until now you still don’t know how they get the list. Hahahaha…
This is normal in US and almost all the IT person know how to do it, of course included me. At least they are one step ahead other hosting providers in Malaysia now. Since they are doing it, I think they will get success soon.
Now I think I am one of the IT pro, because I know something most of the Malaysian don’t know
Wow Choo, all IT people in US know how to do it. It seems I’m so backwards that I don’t know how to acquire such list legally and ethically. You guys are so pro. Mind to share and teach me?
Thank you! After today, at least I know I have one information to sell to hosting company
, I will teach you after I made money on this technology. Sorry nothing I can do for you at the moment. Talk to you soon 
Maybe you can publish and sell an e-book on this tip? Just like some years back someone sold info on how to withdraw funds from PayPal. Let me know when you do.
A lady of this company called me again, to “remind” me of the expiry of one domain name of mine. At first, she didn’t mention their company name but claimed to be from “domain registrar company”. When I asked her whether they are my domain and hosting provider, at first she said yes. After some probing, she revealed their company name and said they are not my provider.
The lady passed me to another lady. I asked her how they got to know my phone number, she said she searched online using whois. I asked her how she got to know my domain name at the first place in order to search my domain name online, she said as a “domain registrar company”, they know those who have registered domain names. I asked whether they are MYNIC. She said no. Later she said they just searched “randomly” on the Internet.
I persisted to ask how they got to know my domain name, and asked her to tell me step by step how to search online. She said she would pass to another person to talk on this.
Later somehow the call was hanged up, and they never called back. And I got part of the conversation recorded for future use if necessary