Ionus by 1&1 review: Domain name registration scam

My spouse was using an old email for communication with Ionus which hosts several sites for us. Spouse had an expired credit card and didn't realize what happened until I noticed the site I use most was down. Spouse called and paid a fee plus hosting, and website names for the next year. Problem solved WE WERE TOLD. He also put in his updated credit card AND a new email.

Two months later my personal blog with my name as the domain name was SOLD to someone in the Cayman Islands who is parking the site. Ionus sent information to the old mail which my spouse never checked because we thought they changed the email.

So one day I discovery that my site is not my site. I saw years of my life suddenly gone with no back up. I had what I hope now was an anxiety attack, and not something with my heart. I called my spouse who was at work, in a panic. I thought I'd been hacked or who knows what. Fortunately my files were safe.

But we were told that my spouse received a "credit" because he paid for the domain name but they'd put it up for sale! They NEVER told him this. They told him everything was okay. We thought we were okay but we weren't. It wasn't actually SOLD by their partner Sedo.com until weeks after we had paid to reregister it.

This is my NAME. My name could be a porn site. I could be extorted. Ionus's site partners with Sedo and for $70 Sedo will "negotiate" with the person who bought my site and I could be out thousands of dollars now if I want my name back. My name could be used to host a porn site or something else criminal.

Ionus is taking no responsibility for this but I'm sure it's not just us. They are not waiting the proper amount of time to sell off sites and we PAID them weeks before the site was sold. The only thing they did was CREDIT us for paying for the site they sold and we didn't see that because they sent that to the old email. They PROFITED from selling that domain name so we are sure it is not just us. Probably many people especially small businesses could be damaged for their "dump and sell" policy and partnership with SEDO in what looks like a scheme.

We are currently speaking with attorneys and looking into bringing a class action suit.

View 0 more photos