And if they did snipe it, why wouldn't they list it for sale? What good does registering tons of domains that people search for and then just... not selling them to the people who wanted them?
It's a baseless accusation.
You yourself said it wasn't.
> it's now "make an offer"
"make an offer" shows up for all registered domains, clicking it will show you:
"Powered By DomainAgents"
"This domain is not listed for sale, but you can still make an offer. DomainAgents will track down the domain owner, present your offer, and bring them into the negotiation."
> the whois record shows name cheap as the owner
You mean it shows up as the registrar?
Like this:
> Registrar: NAMECHEAP INC
And possibly:
> Registrant Name: Redacted for Privacy
> Registrant Organization: Privacy service provided by Withheld for Privacy ehf
(that meaning you don't know who actually registered it.)
Do you want to disclose the domain?
so i may have jumped to a conclusion here, but ultimately though my question remains: i searched a domain on namecheap, it was available, and then suddenly it is taken a couple days later. the domain itself appears unused and for auction, and the registrar is also, conveniently, namecheap. so if namecheap isn't the actual registrant holding it for ransom, are searches shared or sold to third parties looking for potentially valuable domains? whatever happened it's hugely suspect - so the net effect is that im hesitant to search with or use namecheap again for my next domain without some insight here