domain name taken but no record anywhere

[oilman]

I've come across a domain name I'd like to acquire. There is no information that I can find anywhere. I've hit every whois tool I know of and they all say there is no data on this name but if I try and register it I get told it's already registered. Anybody ever come across this before? I never have.

[Lisa]

yes, this is very common for domains that are about to become available again. Look at the last status and the update date and see what it says.

[pleeker]

Just to concur with Lisa, we had this same situation for a domain a client wanted to register. I watched that WHOIS record every day for about a week and eventually got it registered. Keep after it, oilman.

(I say "eventually" because getting that domain was one of the craziest episodes I've ever been through. I checked one morning at 9 am PT and it was still un-registerable. Client emails about 1 pm that day and says she just checked, and someone in California has registered it. I look at the WHOIS right away -- domain appears to be registered through Melbourne IT somehow. Go to Melbourne IT to do a WHOIS ... Melbourne IT invites me to register it! I go all the way through the process to make sure it's not a mistake, but don't bother paying. Go to register.com, which also says it's available. Go to our registrar, which also says it's available -- and I register it. Check the WHOIS and it still has the Melbourne IT info. -- not that I expected to see anything different. Check the next morning, and our client owns the domain. Bizarre.)

[fathom]

Might try the wayback machine > it should give a hint of a previous owner.

[oilman]

>>Look at the last status and the update date and see what it says.

there's nothing there. I can't even find a whois record.

I'll hang in there and see what happens :)

[pleeker]

there's nothing there. I can't even find a whois record.

Same thing with the domain I was mentioning oilman. I knew it had been registered at register.com before, but even their WHOIS record came up blank. By all accounts, it seemed like it should've been available. A week later, it was.