[update posted 29 June 2010]
Dear Dean,
My name is Jonathan Volk (brother) and I contacting you on behalf of Jenee Volk dealing with this domain issue (BYAL.com) you have experienced.
My sister called me after she realized that her email and paypal account had been hacked and that her paypal account had made a large purchase. After filing the fraudulent charges, which were made by a hacker, she contacted me to see what she could do about getting your domain restored.
I will be assisting you in whatever way possible to ensure that Godaddy transfers the domain name back to you. I have a long standing relationship with Godaddy, having hundreds of domains, and will do whatever I can in order to have your domain pushed back to your account. We however have no access to the account that was created on Godaddy but again, we will do whatever we can.
In order for us to move forward, you must remove all instances of the content on the domain http://paypalproblem.com/.
We will be contacting Godaddy as per the following:
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The change has been completed and the available information has been recorded in our system.
If you feel this change is incorrect, please immediately contact undo@godaddy.com, and provide any information you may have that will assist in reviewing your issue.
Sincerely,
GoDaddy.com, Inc.
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Since we agree to help in getting your domain name back, we request your immediate compliance in removing the website content making wrongful accusations of someone who indeed was victimized herself.
Please respond ASAP.
Thanks,
Jonathan Volk
CEO
Surge Marketing Inc.
Jonathan,
Thank you for your contact. However, both her GoDaddy account and PayPal use the same email address, which she is in control of and it is the same email on her Face Book page - so I am not buying the story. With this evidence, it is reasonable to assume the domain name resides in her GoDaddy account. Restore the domain to my account and I will remove the content on PayPalProblem.com. The ball is in your court to move this forward.
Right now, the FBI is sitting on the case. As soon as I can get them to let it loose, Walnut Creek Police Department will be wanting to talk to Jenee.
My GoDaddy account is 330xxxx; email info@cougargulch.com - use this information to push the domain back, please.
Sincerely,
Dean Isaacson
Hey Dean,
What account did you push the domain to? j_volk2003?
Also, I'm trying to help you out simply because I have been scammed before too (but for much more) and... unfortunately, I know how little the FBI and local law enforcement actually care about your $600 case. (I've worked online full time for years)
And hey, I'm sorry for your loss. I know how mad I was when I got scammed as well.
That being said... I ask that you change your attitude or I simply will stop helping you. I don't care if you believe me / her story or not. At this point you have two options. Believe me and understand that I am actually trying to help you recover your domain. Be helpful, courteous, and polite.
... or continue being rude, keep that defamatory article up, and I simply say screw you and ignore you. Your $600 loss. Not mine.
Like you were saying, the ball is in my court. I will continue to investigate the issue for my sister but know that I could simply ignore the issue and she will remain innocent because of proof of hijacked accounts.
Thanks for your time.
Jonathan Volk
Jonathan,
The domain was pushed to account 35830286 ; email jeneevolk@yahoo.com.
I am sorry you have chosen to misunderstand my attitude. I too, look forward to a win-win resolution of this matter, despite your efforts to impute guilt upon me. However, I will remain firm that I will remove the content on PayPalProblem.com when Jenee successfully pushes the domain name, byal.com, back to my account.
Despite your claim she is a victim of fraud, the evidence does not weigh in her favor. Furthermore, she did nothing to resolve this issue with me or others until you discovered PayPalProblem.com - and, in fact, she still has not made any contact for explanation or apology. If indeed, she is a victim of fraud, I am certain that upon subpoena of documents, you will find the parties are closely related to or associated with your sister. To pull this deal off, the perps would have hacked into her email account, her PayPal account and her eBay account, and possibly her GoDaddy account.
Call me rude for sticking to my guns. So be it. You are rude for trying to impute guilt upon me when I am doing what any reasonable person would do to protect their position. Your attitude is not one of apology, empathy or assistance. Your attitude is one of intimidation and demand - not resolution.
Thank you, again, for your prompt attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Dean Isaacson
Hey,
The email jeneevolk@yahoo.com is unfortunately not an email owned or created by my sister. So the godaddy account you send the domain to was not actually owned or operated by my sister but by the hackers who gained access to her account. My sisters godaddy account is j_volk2003.
The unfortunate thing is that jeneevolk@yahoo.com is also the domain registrar email. Since we do not have access to that email, the amount of things we can do are very limited.
You have to remember, unlike myself, my sister is an accountant and nanny, not an advanced internet user. She didn't know what to do. From her point of view, all that happened to her is she lost $700 one day. My sister uses the same password for everything, had her password phished (look it up), and those credentials were used to purchase the domain.
What I recommend you doing is contact godaddy to get your domain transfered back to you:
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The change has been completed and the available information has been recorded in our system.
If you feel this change is incorrect, please immediately contact undo@godaddy.com, and provide any information you may have that will assist in reviewing your issue.
Sincerely,
GoDaddy.com, Inc.
-------------------
All the best,
Jonathan Volk
Jonathan,
If it is as you say, the notice you posted below from GoDaddy would never have arrived at Jenee's email.
The best to you, too.
Dean
It didn't come from her email.
It came from me having transferred and sold numerous domains in the past. Like I said, I am CEO of an internet marketing company.
She had no confirmation emails from Godaddy because her godaddy account is j_volk2003 (which is also the same email as her paypal and personal email) which further proves that the other account is not owned or operated by her.
j_volk2003 was used to register the domain operation-gogreen.com about a year ago. This is the only domain she has ever registered. As you can see, registration emails are different:
http://whois.domaintools.com/operation-gogreen.com
Sorry about your loss.
Thanks,
Jonathan Volk
Jonathan,
I appreciate your loyalty to your sister but maybe things are not as simple as she told you. Bear with me in this:
You say, jeneevolk@yahoo.com is not her email address. At least that is what she tells you. There are two scenarios:
1. She has a second email and/or this email does not exist but she still recorded it as the email of record for that byal.com and cuzy.com; or
2. As you say, someone else opened an account using her name and they own this email address, as well.
The reason I am having a hard time with number two is this: If her accounts were hacked, both eBay and PayPal, the perps would have had to change the email address in her profiles to pull this off, pointing it to jeneevolk@yahoo.com. Without this change, they would not receive the emails necessary to complete the purchase and transfer. If this happened, eBay and PayPal would have notified the previous email, j_volk2003@yahoo.com, which you have affirmed she is still in possession of. Having that notification, she would have known before the purchases transacted that a fraud was taking place.
All that being said, you claim Jenee is new to the internet and did not know what to do. She is not new to the human race. Most people, knowing a scam took place in their name, would contact the victims and offer an explanation and an apology.
A sidenote: you claim she lost $700 one day. If the fraud was limited to only byal.com and cuzy.com, the amount was $1377. If there were others, it is more than that.
A man of your experience knows there is nothing GoDaddy can do for me in this matter. I am not a powerful man. But you are and maybe they can help you clear your sister's name in this matter. After all, if what you say is true, there are scam artists who have registered a fraudulent account at GoDaddy in your sister's name. I have no standing to pursue this, but your sister does and she need to take care of this to clear her name. Until that is accomplished, it is only her word that she is the victim but the evidence shows the domain names are held in her name.
If what you say about your sister being the victim is true, I have empathy for your sister. However, please forgive me that I see too many holes in the story and I think there is more to it than what you have laid out.
Sincerely,
Dean
I have an idea.
What I'll have her do is contact Godaddy. Have her tell them the story, show that the domain is registered to her, but was hijacked. Since it's her physical address, and she can prove her residence, there might be something they can do in having it pushed back to the original acct.
I'll let you know the results.
Thx,
Jonathan Volk
Thank you, Jonathan.
I think it will take more than that but it is a step in the right direction.
Hoping for the best,
Dean
Jonathan,
It has been a month since you told me you would let me know the results. Did she take her story to ICANN? As I mentioned before, the fastest way to clear this matter is to go to court and get an order to unseal the GoDaddy account in question. Your sister has standing to do this, I do not. I only have standing to go after her.
Thank you,
Dean