To gain entries into the contest, just do any of the following:

- Make a comment of value (not just “i agree”, etc.) on a post = 1 entry (remember to comment on all blogs)
- Subscribe to RSS via email = 2 entries (per blog you subscribe to!)
- Write a post about the contest on your blog (must include a link to this page and the links below to participating blogs) = 25 entries


Please note: If you are already subscribed to any of the sites below, you are already earning entries. Also, to get credit for posting about the contest, your post’s link must show up in the comments below or in the comments on one of the other blogs below.

How much easier can we make it? So you can sneak in with just one entry by simply posting a comment here, you can increase your odds by reading and commenting on a few more posts here and at one of the blogs below and maybe subscribe to a couple, or you can really up the odds and subscribe to all all of our blogs (which you’ll enjoy reading anyway), comment on a bunch of posts, and blog about this contest. The more entries you earn, the better your odds, of course. If you’re going to post about this contest, just grab the image and code from here.

The deadline for this contest is 12:00 AM June 1, 2008.

Who wants to pay you?
- JoeTech.com
- Link Bait
- Gorilla Sushi
- CK Marketing
- The Big Bald Blog
- Jason Boom
- Mr Javo
- AFrogToKiss.net

Before I had some issues with someone trying to walk off with all my domains, I was getting ready to sell a bunch of my sites and domains. Well, now that the dust has settled, I’ve listed what I’m selling in two auctions. The first is 11 sites for only $1 (or whatever the bidding get up to).

And how about 39 domains for only a buck?

http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/listings/35553

There you go.

Why?
I just need to focus more on my main sites and I just don’t have the time for all my sites.

On Sunday, April 20, 2008, I arrived at my office to get a little work done and checked my email. Noticing that there were an unusual amount of new emails in my GoDaddy folder, I opened it up first to see what happened. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that the 60 or so domains I had in my GoDaddy account had been transferred away to someone named Moses Francis. Luckily, the web sites, data, and any emails sent to any of my domains were never compromised, as I immediately began working with GoDaddy to recover my domain names. As you remember, I played a little trick on my readers on April first, and the result included a little bit of freaking out by people who were concerned that this affected widgets and other things served by JoeTech.com. The sites and all their data have always been secure. The real risk was in losing my domain names.

Who is Moses Francis?
Moses Francis, it seems, is someone like me, who lost his domains to a hacker. The difference is that I’ve recovered all but two of mine (still pending), while it seems he has been less fortunate (or is unaware that he’s lost his domains). Below is what the registration on many of my domains changed to:

Registrant:
Moses Francis
471 Taman Silibin
Ipoh, 30100
Malaysia

Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: JOETECH.COM
Created on: 28-Mar-97
Expires on: 28-Mar-09
Last Updated on: 19-Apr-08

Administrative Contact:
Francis, Moses mosesfrancis7@yahoo.com
471 Taman Silibin
Ipoh, 30100
Malaysia
3566754673

Technical Contact:
Francis, Moses mosesfrancis7@yahoo.com
471 Taman Silibin
Ipoh, 30100
Malaysia
3566754673

Domain servers in listed order:
DNS1.INEXO.COM
NS1.DERU.NET

You may note that the hacker left the DNS in tact. This is a blessing, but could have been a curse.

How this scam works
The hacker, who is from Indonesia in my case, steals your domains and then tries to sell them. His goal is to keep the site live and gain full control of it where possible. In my case, he was able to transfer the domains to a shell account and managed to move two of them to NameCheap, but the data and the sites themselves have not been compromised. Once the hacker has control of the sites, he tries to sell them. For example, here’s my hacker trying to sell other people’s sites on DNForum.com, and it looks like he’s making out like, well, a bandit. Buyers, unaware that they’re bidding on stolen web sites and domain names bid, thinking that they’re getting a pretty good deal. I tried several avenues of their site to contact DNForum admins, but every avenue requires me to purchase a membership upgrade with the exception of the support link, which would not let me log in. If you have an account there and have better luck than me, let them know.

How I got hacked
Technically, he just managed to get into my email via a web-based email system and a password I used in more than one place (I should know better). Once in my email, he quickly headed to GoDaddy, requested my password, and transferred the names out of my account. The whole process was pretty quick, and it was clear that he hacked my email just to get to my domains. I noticed the breech pretty quickly and changed my passwords, shut off webmail, and started investigating. Because I had become relaxed about the security of my password and accounts, this guy got in pretty easily and walked away with some great domain names.

The next step
After spending a large amount time researching and contacting registrars, I finally have all but two of my domains moved into my new account and back in my name. Besides getting the last two domains moved back to my account, I still have some work ahead of me. Because GoDaddy is an international company, they tell me that they will go after the hacker regardless of where he resides. I’d love to find out that he wound up in jail somewhere. To that end, I am gathering up my relevant server logs to send to GoDaddy’s security department, ic3 and whoever else needs to be aware of this guy. I also need to unify all my domain registration under my newly-registered company name. This makes it a little easier for me to prove ownership of my domains.

Sites for sale
What frustrated me quite a bit was the timing. I had been in the middle of preparing statistics and revenue information for a couple of my sites. I have been planning to sell most of my web sites so that I can focus on JoeTech.com and a few others. This definitely put that on hold for a couple weeks. However, I will be listing those sites for sale this week, and I will be taking what I can get for them, so look for good deals. More than the money, I just need to free up resources, so I’ll start the bidding very low for all sites and domains.

UPDATE: I was finally able to log into the support site and notify DNForum of the fraud. I also noticed that it seems they removed the seller.

Our March hundred dollar contest was a little delayed, but we can now finally announce our winner. This month, the winning entry came in the form of a comment posted on GorillaSushi.com.

After gathering up all 1,740 entries, we drew our seed numbers and averaged them to find the winning entry, which was entry #606. That entry belongs to diggnfordiamonds.com. Who will be getting $100 cold, hard PayPal from me as soon as he or she replies to my email.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering where your hundred bucks is, right? Keep entering and we’ll keep handing out money. April is already half over, so we’re gonna give out another wad of cash in just a few weeks.

TIP: The posts people make about the contest usually make up around half of the entries. Write a post about the contest and drastically increase your odds of winning.

This prize was provided by:
- JoeTech.com
- Link Bait
- Gorilla Sushi
- CK Marketing
- The Big Bald Blog
- Jason Boom
- Mr Javo