Have you ever wanted to identify the owner of a website? The WHOIS database contains domain name ownership information. A domain name, or URL, or web address, is registered through a domain name registrar, who in turn reports registration information to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) so that there is a unified database of URL (Uniform Resource Locator) ownership preventing two or more people from registering the same domain name.
While WHOIS Information is not made available directly through ICANN, a “shared database” is available through many different registrars who choose to make WHOIS information available through their websites. The problem here though is that sometimes registrars will only share that a domain name is registered through their service within this shared database and you will have to visit their website directly to query their WHOIS database.
My favorite WHOIS search provider is another meta-search provider which basically queries all of the different registrars for information, as well as offering several other different web tools, and returns more than just a simple WHOIS search result. This search is available through http://whois.domaintools.com/.
As an example of the information returned when conducting a WHOIS search here is the information returned when searching on my private investigation agency website domain name, compasspointpi.com:
Registrant:
CompassPoint Investigations
6706 N. 9th Avenue, Suite D-13
Pensacola, Florida 32504
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: COMPASSPOINTPI.COM
Created on: 05-Dec-99
Expires on: 01-Oct-11
Last Updated on: 05-Sep-08
Administrative Contact:
Harrell, L Scott lscottharrell@aol.com
CompassPoint Investigations
6706 N. 9th Avenue, Suite D-13
Pensacola, Florida 32504
United States
8509326466 Fax --
Domain servers in listed order:
NS285.HOSTGATOR.COM
NS286.HOSTGATOR.COM
While WHOIS information is essential in investigating a website’s ownership, it should also be noted that there are service providers available who register names on behalf of domain name owners in an effort to help keep ownership information private. These domain registration proxy service providers will not release registration information without a court order and have rebuffed my numerous attempts at pretexting registration information from them in the past. They have the whole anonymity thing down pat and I wouldn’t hesitate to use such a service should I ever want to keep my domain name ownership confidential.
Archive.org provides a service called the “Wayback Machine” which is a HUGE archive of millions of websites and what they have looked like in the past. It can be used to visit websites that are no longer available on the Internet or what a current website might have looked like several years ago. An archive of my website goes all the way back to October of 2000 until June of 2007 with over 46 individual snapshots in between.
When profiling a website, or trying to determine the ownership of an anonymously registered URL, I like to check Archive.org to see if I can find additional information about the owners or the company. I often find information which was once posted but has since been taken down. I can’t recall whether or not the “Wayback Machine” has ever led me to a missing person (probably not) but I know that the thoroughness of my work product has always impressed clients when I am able to “magically” dig up old information even though it may not have added any intrinsic value to the investigation.
This article is a small excerpt from The Art of Skip Tracing and Missing Persons Investigations, an online skip tracing course for private investigators.
Recent Comments
This is a very helpful article
This is a very helpful article
Not all that helpful when you’re looking at a site covered by private registration. However many times you’ll find that the domain owner has slipped up, originally registering the domain name in his own name, then later putting it under private registration.
In a case like that, use the DomainTools.com website and get the full registration history of the domain in question. It’s often worth the $100-$1000 they charge.
Not all that helpful when you’re looking at a site covered by private registration. However many times you’ll find that the domain owner has slipped up, originally registering the domain name in his own name, then later putting it under private registration.
In a case like that, use the DomainTools.com website and get the full registration history of the domain in question. It’s often worth the $100-$1000 they charge.