I recently found a nice 3 letter domain under the .mx tld. I tried visiting the domain but it wasn't registered, with no whois either. Upon trying to register it with Namecheap, I got as far the checkout, entered my credit card details, but the transaction failed. It wasn't my card, but the domain itself was apparently unavailable.
I then revisit the web address, and suddenly there appears a domain company's landing page with a message saying the domain is for sale and it gave me a UK number to call. Intrigued, I call the number (it was around 3 am in the UK) and it connected me to a call center in Eastern Europe, where the operator let slip that the call center belonged to Namecheap. This made me a little suspicious that perhaps Namecheap deliberately failed my transaction, registered the domain in order to get me to pay much above the standard price of the domain.
So I want to know: (a) has anyone experienced something similar? And (b) is this legally permissible? It sort of reminds me of front running in the stock market where the market makers are taking advantage of their privileged position...
I then revisit the web address, and suddenly there appears a domain company's landing page with a message saying the domain is for sale and it gave me a UK number to call. Intrigued, I call the number (it was around 3 am in the UK) and it connected me to a call center in Eastern Europe, where the operator let slip that the call center belonged to Namecheap. This made me a little suspicious that perhaps Namecheap deliberately failed my transaction, registered the domain in order to get me to pay much above the standard price of the domain.
So I want to know: (a) has anyone experienced something similar? And (b) is this legally permissible? It sort of reminds me of front running in the stock market where the market makers are taking advantage of their privileged position...