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I had an interesting dialog with Alexander Thomas from Breakline Agency (you might know him from this @Breakline or other forums).
Being a client of DomainCatch with his BREAKLINE registrar tag, Alex emailed me a couple of days ago with the following message:
(I believe this email exchange involves public interest and shows how some registrars are openly violating Nominet's policies and attempt to blackmail, if refused to be serviced, threatening to take their non-compliant business to a competitor, known to be happy not to ask any questions).
This was my response to Alex:
Unfortunately, Alex has started acting silly, under conviction that when he solicits creation of new tags to be run & managed by him for catching, sharing profits, it is the same "as [what] I am doing with DomainCatch" whose clients "catch domains for me" (!). I replied:
I have onboarded AMDOMAINS tag in March 2025, based on Alex's brief request "<..> If you’ll have me I would gladly come back to your system. I’ll bring my mate AMDOMAINS as well. I manage it for him. <..>" and it didn't raise concerns at that time, as knowing Alex as a long-term domainer, I haven't suspected any foul play.
It has obviously changed, when this time Alex much more openly requested to add his newly minted "friend" TAG to be under his own full management.
My arguments to link the tags with Nominet to become compliant and still enjoy improved catching chances didn't resonate with Alex:
Naturally, I am not the person who could stand being blackmailed or intimidated - especially for doing the right thing - so Alex Thomas' tags BREAKLINE, AMDOMAINS (and not yet active) MJEVANS are now banned from DomainCatch systems.
His pre-emptive reponse was:
I wish for a dear competitor Robert to show integrity toward the broader community by refusing to host TAGs that openly violate Nominet's terms, regardless of the financial appeal of adding a few more to his roster.
I also believe that if UKBO proceeds to host these tags banned for non-compliance, I welcome anyone reading this and using UKBO to switch away in an act of objection of supporting platform operating for years without any kind of informal KYC, responsible onboarding, and care for the existing customer base and the wider ecosystem. Turning a blind eye to ghost or fronting TAGs undermines the credibility of the entire system.
Being a client of DomainCatch with his BREAKLINE registrar tag, Alex emailed me a couple of days ago with the following message:
(I believe this email exchange involves public interest and shows how some registrars are openly violating Nominet's policies and attempt to blackmail, if refused to be serviced, threatening to take their non-compliant business to a competitor, known to be happy not to ask any questions).
Hi Denys,
I hope you’ve been well.
I have a new friend that wants to join Domain Catch.
I will be managing his account, domainlore and DC.
Tag is MJEVANS
Can you get him set up please?
Kind regards,
Alexander Thomas
This was my response to Alex:
You must be aware that using friends to obtain extra TAGs is against Nominet
"Anti-avoidance and Connected Persons" policy:
Acceptable Use Policies – Registrar Resources
This document outlines the Acceptable Use Policies for our domain query and domain management tools. WHOIS Acceptable Use Policy This is the acceptable use policy for the WHOIS. The acceptable use requirements are: The website WHOIS is intended for manual queries only. Any automated queries to...registrars.nominet.uk
I take pride in operating DomainLore and DomainCatch with strict adherence to
rules and policies, ensuring a level playing field for everyone
involved - clients and competitors alike - within the bounds of what I do and
what I can control. Unfortunately, not all competitors hold themselves to the
same standards.
Over the years, I could have invited many friends to participate in catching,
had I been willing to act unscrupulously. I invited zero, despite knowing how
beneficial a bit of extra income could have been for some of them. Honest
catchers constantly face unfair competition from those who operate multiple
"ghost" tags, undermining the value and fairness for legitimate participants.
I will assist in setting you up, but you should inform Nominet that you have a
personal connection to MJEVANS under the "Connected Persons" policy. While
your 1,000 daily limit will be linked, this will not negatively affect
catching performance. The improvement will be equivalent to having the tag
operate independently, since one TAG typically cannot use more than 500
requests per 24 hours when targeting competitive names.
So if you can confirm you are doing this, I'll add this tag to your existing
system now.
--
Regards,
Denys
Unfortunately, Alex has started acting silly, under conviction that when he solicits creation of new tags to be run & managed by him for catching, sharing profits, it is the same "as [what] I am doing with DomainCatch" whose clients "catch domains for me" (!). I replied:
Alex,
I get your point. You don’t want this to happen because it will hinder your
operation, obviously diluting the market and your potential catches.
I can either reject or take on board - it makes no difference to me and to my
catching. I rarely advertise vacant places on DomainCatch, as people apply in
hordes and I don't want this dilution. I respect my existing clients. I do not
invite friends, colleagues, business partners etc.. to catching. If I did -
this would have diluted everyone else, not me.
I am helping my friends with information and know how on how to catch expired domains
and use their tags instead of just having them dormant.
If their tags were created without your solicitation - that's different. And I
already explained that I don't have an issue with that.
Would have been perfectly fine, if so.. But it's not true?
"MJEVANS Mark James Evans" is totally new tag.
Same as "AMDOMAINS" was a new tag, when it joined.
Which dormant TAGs you are referring to, please?
I’m using my expertise within the drop catching community and software and
connections and I take a percentage of the earnings if we catch something.
Sure, Mark James Evans and Armen Mirzoian are community members?
What is strange to me is how you don’t get that you are doing the exact same
thing.
No, I am not doing the "exact thing" - soliciting new TAGs, which I plan to be
running.
This is not against nominets terms.
These guys have their own accounts and businesses and since I know a little
more about this I’m helping them navigate.
Of course their Nominet accounts are their own, but you have referred
them to create these accounts, haven't you? And you fully administer their
accounts, including sales and payment receipts - they have little idea of
what's going on with their tags, isn't that correct?
Nothing about their businesses is mentioned on their registrar data, as
a typical business would do.
From one page website
at https://amdomains.co.uk/ I can't see how this is not just a shim page.
You want to talk about this on domainer forum, see what the community thinks
and how their opinion would differ?
I have onboarded AMDOMAINS tag in March 2025, based on Alex's brief request "<..> If you’ll have me I would gladly come back to your system. I’ll bring my mate AMDOMAINS as well. I manage it for him. <..>" and it didn't raise concerns at that time, as knowing Alex as a long-term domainer, I haven't suspected any foul play.
It has obviously changed, when this time Alex much more openly requested to add his newly minted "friend" TAG to be under his own full management.
My arguments to link the tags with Nominet to become compliant and still enjoy improved catching chances didn't resonate with Alex:
as he thought to intimidate with threatening to switch business to a willing competitor (apparently expecting "no question asked" policy - something I lamented about for a long time, with how shady tags operating on UKBO are full and plenty).Denys, enough with the anecdotes.
You can either accept mark on your platform or he will go to Robert.
The choice is yours.
Naturally, I am not the person who could stand being blackmailed or intimidated - especially for doing the right thing - so Alex Thomas' tags BREAKLINE, AMDOMAINS (and not yet active) MJEVANS are now banned from DomainCatch systems.
His pre-emptive reponse was:
From: Alex Thomas <alexbr*@*.com>
To: Denys - DomainLore <aucti***@domainlore.uk>
Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2025 16:19:56 +0100
You do you mate. It makes no difference to me.
Just let me know if you disabled my tag so I can go ahead and switch to Robert as well.
I wish for a dear competitor Robert to show integrity toward the broader community by refusing to host TAGs that openly violate Nominet's terms, regardless of the financial appeal of adding a few more to his roster.
I also believe that if UKBO proceeds to host these tags banned for non-compliance, I welcome anyone reading this and using UKBO to switch away in an act of objection of supporting platform operating for years without any kind of informal KYC, responsible onboarding, and care for the existing customer base and the wider ecosystem. Turning a blind eye to ghost or fronting TAGs undermines the credibility of the entire system.