Want to contact domain owner but WhoIs record is inaccurate

How do I establish contact where I don't have good WhoIs info?

[geronimo jones]

What can you do when you cannot contact the domain owner because the whois info is incorrect, and their domain continually renews? They have no website, so I'm not sure if they are aware that their domain name automatically renews. It's possible it is charged to their credit card, without them knowing or perhaps they just don't care. I've contacted a few companies about making an offer to the owner, but they can't contact them either. Kind of aggravating to say the least.

[davezan]

If the owner doesn't want to sell, end of story.

Best you move on fresh, especially since the New Year has begun. :)

[geronimo jones]

What is the point of keeping a domain name if you went out of business, and you're not offering it up for sale? It seems like it's lost in the twilight zone.

[Webwork]

It's an assumption that the registrant is clueless. I've encountered many similar situations where the owner was indeed not clueless.

Want to smoke him/her out? Make a serious offer.

There are myriad ways to connect with a seemingly disconnected domain registrant, but nothing works quite like an offer of serious loot. Money tends to get people's attention.

Email subject line: "Offer $5,000 for Example.com"

Letter: "Offer $5,000 . . .

Phone message: "I'm very interested in . . and I am prepared to pay $5,000 . . .

Etc.

Money talks. Everything else walks.

[geronimo jones]

The email bounces back. The address is no longer in use.

I suppose the only way to get hold of them at this point is to have the registrar track the owner down by the phone number associated with credit card. Not gonna happen I'm willing to guess...

[Webwork]

gj, do me a favor: List all the different ways that you have thought of for tracking down the website owner.

Post up everything you have done, thus far, besides sending an email to the WhoIs record email.

Before doing that think of all the other ways you might track down the owner - and post those ideas too.

Brainstorm by yourself, post it up and then let's see what else we can suggest.