EnCirca Tapped to Handle Bulk Transfers for Last Pheenix Registrar

EnCirca Tapped to Handle Bulk Transfers for Last Pheenix Registrar

Domain Owners Should File Claims Now

(Boston, MA) EnCirca announced today that it has been tapped by ICANN to handle the bulk transfers for the terminated Pheenix.com registrar.  Pheenix was terminated by ICANN on May 20, 2021 for noncompliance of its ICANN contract described here:  https://www.icann.org/uploads/compliance_notice/attachment/1161/hedlund-to-tran-20may21.pdf.

The Pheenix registrar data escrow file contains both public WHOIS email contacts and, if a WHOIS proxy service is in use, a matching underlying set of email contacts,  In 2018, EnCirca previously handled bulk transfers of 49 other Pheenix-affiliated registrars.  Back then, EnCirca discovered that Pheenix failed to properly escrow domain ownership information for many of the domains utilizing WHOIS proxy services.  EnCirca has encountered similar data escrow issues for the latest Pheenix.com registrar as well.  

To mitigate this issue and to help ensure domains are released to their rightful owners, EnCirca has created a special claims process for affected domain name owners at https://www.encirca.com/pheenix-claims/.  Pheenix registrants can use this form to upload proof of domain ownership, such as credit card statements and Pheenix order confirmations.

What to expect if you have domains at Pheenix.

Based on the data escrow file from Iron Mountain, if an EnCirca account does not already exist for the registrant email address, EnCirca will create a new customer account and populate it with the domains listed for the email address.  Once the different registries complete the bulk transfers to EnCirca, we will send out “Welcome” emails so that you can access your transferred domains.  You can always verify the transfer status to EnCirca by checking the ICANN WHOIS at https://lookup.icann.org/

We anticipate that many domains will remain unclaimed due to bounced emails or inoperable proxy services.  Locating rightful owners will be problematic since the data escrow is often devoid of any identifying ownership information.

If ownership data is not evident from the data escrow file, we will rely on claims submitted via https://www.encirca.com/pheenix-claims/ to allocate the unclaimed domains.  To guard against fraudulent claims and other bad behavior, payment for a renewal or restore may be required to claim the domain names. 

Expect to Renew Your Domains at EnCirca. 

Bulk transfers do not normally involve a renewal or change of the expiration date.  However, due to unpaid registry fees by Pheenix, registries may be processing forced renewals of the domains after the bulk transfer. Because of this, domain name owners may be required to pay for a renewal or a restore for their names.  Some suspended domains may require more than one year of payment to be claimed.

Domain Owners Should Act Quickly to Claim Their Names.  

Some domain owners may have a limited time window to claim their names as some domains are already in the post-expiration processing cycle and may be deleted within 30 days after expiration.  Following deletion, names then enter the 30-day Redemption Grace Period before being dropped and released by the registry for re-registration. 

In addition, the forced registry renewals may trigger post-expiration processing described above.

To start the claims process, visit https://www.encirca.com/pheenix-claims/

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