All Transfers in using ENOM change the registrant, admin and billing contact to the ENOM account holder details!

[pacwebhosting]

Hi,

We recently noticed an issue where domain transfers in using ENOM for example for a .com once the domain transfers in the registrant, admin and tech contact are all changed to our ENOM Account details!

We contacted ENOM about this and they have said:

 

Quote

 

"Hi Paul,

Thank you for getting back to us.

I did some digging and managed to locate the API command used for the transfer of xyz123.com. I was able to determine the cause of your contact information being applied.

Back in May, the new privacy laws, termed GDPR came in to effect. These greatly changed the way personal information is being handled, as things are now substantially more private. This is also the reason that all whois information is now protected behind a wall.

Due to this change, we're no longer able to pull the information from the losing registrar to apply the contact information in our system. If the transfer order is submitted with contact information, it will be applied, but if not then it will automatically apply the account contact. You can rest assured that this wouldn't have impacted any transfers prior to May 25th of this year.

Below is an article we posted regarding how transfers have been modified due to GDPR.

https://www.enom.com/blog/changes-to-the-domain-transfer-process/

The specific section from the article regarding this is:

Moving forward, whenever a transfer into Enom is completed, the domain’s contact data will be updated to match that which was used for the transfer order. This is currently optional, but will become mandatory; we will no longer be able to rely on the registry-provided contact data to be correct and not include placeholder information, because other registrars may no longer share registrant contact data with registries.

That parameter "UseContacts" in the API command will now either apply the account contact if set to "=1", or will require additional input if set to "=0". Below is our article outlining the TP_CreateOrder command, which should hopefully assist in modifying the WHMCS process to ensure the correct contact information is gathered and applied.

https://www.enom.com/api/API%20topics/api_TP_CreateOrder.htm

Should you have any further questions, I have also linked our article on the GDPR changes below, but feel free to ask me if you have any others.

enom.help/gdpr "

 

 

WHMCS have confirmed this behaviour from their software and are looking at it (#CORE-12722) but I wanted to make everyone else aware that uses the ENOM module that all their transfers in will have the domains registrant, tech and billing contacts changed to theirs which seriously annoys customers, and to hopefully get some traction behind getting this resolved as it has been 2 weeks now with just a keep an eye on the changelog for updates scenario.

But in this time and since May 25th this year ALL transfers in using ENOM WHMCS module have behaved in this way so that will be a lot of transfers in! so this could do with greater attention.

Thanks

Paul

 

[Vox]

Hi @pacwebhosting,

Thanks for raising this as it is a serious issue if the following is correct!

On 10/1/2018 at 9:47 AM, pacwebhosting said:

the domain transfers in the registrant, admin and tech contact are all changed to our ENOM Account details!

The Registrant is changed to the ENOM account holder? Wow, that is certainly one way to build up a portfolio of domain names that you can then resell........ mmmm, but I guess your customers would be pretty upset about that. That is a whole can of worms I do not want to go anywhere near.

I guess ENOM should familiarise themselves with https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/transfer-policy-2016-06-01-en

In fact I stopped using ENOM as a result of their updates around 25th May that prevented the management and renewal of any .co.uk domains.

Also due to the fact that domain related emails are being sent to my customers from domains@whmcs.com instead of my account email. I opened a ticket with WHMCS, who passed it on to ENOM, who passed it to their developers, who said "that shouldn't happen."............ Oh! Really???

[pacwebhosting]

It certainly is a serious issue!

I am trying to gain some traction within the community to get this fixed ASAP

WHMCS have stated they have a CORE open for it however have just said keep an eye on the releases/hotfixes etc but this should be jumped on and sorted quickly.

Previously had another CORE open for a couple of years regarding a NOMINET module problem they could also recreate without reply and as far as I am aware resolution so just keep an eye out for releases doesn't give me confidence.

As the vast majority will likely use ENOM with WHMCS it is indeed a problem that needs fixing with urgency.

We are going through all the transfers in since May 25th and sorting with customers.

The problem here is how WHMCS is still sending the API string to ENOM but it has changed to how they (ENOM) apply it due to GDPR and now UseContacts needs to be 0 and the details to be used passed which it looks like WHMCS have totally missed.

Not sure how you would sort the domains@whmcs problem as we do not use the WHMCS provided ENOM account but agree thats an issue!

Edited October 2, 2018 by pacwebhosting

[Vox]

Hi @pacwebhosting,

41 minutes ago, pacwebhosting said:

I am trying to gain some traction within the community to get this fixed ASAP

Unfortunately, that may be a long uphill struggle.

Maybe if you had one of your "co-operative" customers to raise this issue directly with ICANN they may exert a little more pressure than we can in the community.

[pacwebhosting]

9 minutes ago, Vox said:

Hi @pacwebhosting,

Unfortunately, that may be a long uphill struggle.

Maybe if you had one of your "co-operative" customers to raise this issue directly with ICANN they may exert a little more pressure than we can in the community.

Hi @Vox

I agree it will be a struggle but hope not 🙂

Not sure there is anything ICANN can do to get around GDPR which is the reason the WHOIS details cannot be gained from Registry to Registry when a domain transfers now.

The solution is for WHMCS to recode their ENOM module to send the details to be used post transfer, complete pain but it appears it is the only way.

Maybe I will be surprised and this will be resolved soon!

[WHMCS John]

Hi all,

As the OP mentioned, we do have case CORE-12722 open internally to investigate what code changes are necessary to take account of these changes to eNom's API. I have also tagged this to the case for the development team's reference.