Domain name owner

vicwatson

Have tried looking it up on whois.net but no joy, is there another way to find out that a website is kosher, or even find out the owners? It looks like a legitimate website but would like to check. Prefer not to say what it is publically if that's ok? it's for a holiday home

campo

vicwatson wrote: »

Have tried looking it up on whois.net but no joy, is there another way to find out that a website is kosher, or even find out the owners? It looks like a legitimate website but would like to check. Prefer not to say what it is publically if that's ok? it's for a holiday home

Has it a SSL Certificate ??

ED E

Whois privacy exists for some TLDs (eg yes for .com but not .ie/.eu) and even in the ones that dont support it you can register by proxy (pay a company to do so on your behalf) then its totally anonymous.

The alternative is to find out the business name/trading name and use that for the likes of a CRO check.

Atlantic Dawn

Hard to say really, the Whois will show who it's registered to but often these details may be to a company handling it rather than the actual company owner. Try typing the URL in to Google to see if there's any reviews of the site, the newer the site is in terms of a few weeks or months the more risky it will be.

Does the site have contact details on it where they supply a phone number and address they can be contacted on?
Does the site handle online payments through a secure payment provider or insist on bank transfers and Western Union for payments?

vicwatson

campo wrote: »

Has it a SSL Certificate ??

Says its not a secure connection when I click on the question mark top left

ED E wrote: »

Whois privacy exists for some TLDs (eg yes for .com but not .ie/.eu) and even in the ones that dont support it you can register by proxy (pay a company to do so on your behalf) then its totally anonymous.

The alternative is to find out the business name/trading name and use that for the likes of a CRO check.

yes, its showing up as registrar - www.tucows domains inc

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

Hard to say really, the Whois will show who it's registered to but often these details may be to a company handling it rather than the actual company owner. Try typing the URL in to Google to see if there's any reviews of the site, the newer the site is in terms of a few weeks or months the more risky it will be.

Does the site have contact details on it where they supply a phone number and address they can be contacted on?
Does the site handle online payments through a secure payment provider or insist on bank transfers and Western Union for payments?

Yes has a gmail address and phone number, no physical address for the owners - they are also one of the big holiday home websites and I contacted them through that first, then realised they had their own direct website for the property

The direct site doesnt handle online payments no, the owner said the procedure is they would send a booking conf, then you pay 20% deposit and the rest 4 weeks before arrival which is months away so probably safe enough (though i dont know how this will be asked for yet - best way to call them and give credit card details by phone?) at least some comeback then

Atlantic Dawn

If it was me I wouldn't deal with a site like that, looks dodge. Any reputable site would have a facility online to deal with payment and transaction would all be though the same site.

vicwatson

Atlantic Dawn wrote: »

If it was me I wouldn't deal with a site like that, looks dodge. Any reputable site would have a facility online to deal with payment and transaction would all be though the same site.

Suppose if deposit is paid via CC then you'd be covered by Chargeback

andy t

if its not too far away then maybe a trip over might be the safe option...
might seem drastic,,,but could save you loads if it is a scam

vicwatson

andy t wrote: »

if its not too far away then maybe a trip over might be the safe option...
might seem drastic,,,but could save you loads if it is a scam

3500 kms :eek:

jenearl

Did you find any reliable looking reviews on them? With the absence of that and any other registry details, it's probably best steering clear just to be on the safe side. For something small it might be worth the risk, but perhaps not this!

vicwatson

jenearl wrote: »

Did you find any reliable looking reviews on them? With the absence of that and any other registry details, it's probably best steering clear just to be on the safe side. For something small it might be worth the risk, but perhaps not this!

Found them on owners direct and contacted them though this site (legit), then I subsequently found they had a website for the actual property, tried to get info off that like above but no joy, they are also on an open facebook page (i'm not on the fbook), offered to deal directly with me to avoid the owners direct fees after I saw it being about €100.00 cheaper on their direct website, owner told us the additional money would be ownersdirect website fees i.e. €100.00 dearer