Can your domain be moved to a new registrar without your consent? The answer is now yes. On 11-12-04 ICANN changed their domain name transfer policy where registrars must honor transfer requests even if you do not confirm the request for transfer.

Now supposedly this new policy is still safe. According to ICANN, "the new policy and its efforts to provide strong protections against unauthorised transfers and to facilitate choice in domain name registration, all registrars are now required to use a clear standardised form of authorisation that provides for the express consent of the domain name registrant prior to the initiation of any transfer."

What this change supposedly will do is keep any registrar from holding you hostage. I'm not too sure about this. Is it possible for someone to request a transfer of a domain to a new registrar and get it through the system without the owner of the domain being fully aware of what is going on? The crooks on the Net seem to be able to find loop holes and take advantage of opportunities like this. Just in case, there are some safeguards you can take.

Login to your current registrar and find out if they have a method of locking your domains. If so, do this. I know that my accounts at DomainNamesCheaper have this safeguard. Turn the locks on. Not only will it stop unauthorized transfers, but it'll make sure that changes made to your account are fully authorized by you.

BTW, it probably is a good change. I have seen registrars hold customers hostage to their high pricing models. I've also seen customers move to higher priced registrars (Network Solutions, for example) when false advertising makes them think their about to lose their services. I just found out about one of my old clients that thought his domain was about to expire and he'd lose it, so he followed Network Solutions process and is just paid $95.00 for a 5 year renewal. He'd have paid $43.25 if he'd registered his domains for that same period at DomainNamesCheaper. Oh well, some folks like paying more.