emulate

[ ˈemyəˌlāt ]

VERB

verb: emulate · third person present: emulates · past tense: emulated · past participle:emulated · present participle: emulating match or surpass (a person or achievement), typically by imitation:

"lesser men trying to emulate his greatness"

synonyms: imitate · copy · mirror · echo · follow · model oneself on · More

imitate:

"hers is not a hairstyle I wish to emulate"

computing

reproduce the function or action of (a different computer, software system, etc.).

          We’re back!  

          We may not be pretty - but we’re getting our act together.

          As you may have read on DomainGang - this domain name - emulate.com, which we have owned since 1998, was stolen from us in October 2015.  After a tortuous 3 months, and tons of calls and emails, we finally got the domain back.  

          How did it happen?  Unfortunately, even as computer and internet savvy as we thought we were, as our sons will attest, we likely fell victim to phishing, specifically to an email data call to validate our whois information masked as a GoDaddy website, as reported by DomainGang here and NamePros here.  (That phishing site has subsequently gone down.)

          Special thanks to DomainGang LLC; the Aftermarket Product Manager at GoDaddy LLC; and, the Support Team at Internet.bs Corp in helping us get the domain back.

          Of note - the final pivot point was when we provided internet.bs with substantiating documentation of our continuous ownership of the domain name: a copy of our Driver's Licenses, utility bills spanning 2012-2015 (showing our address), a copy of the GoDaddy receipt in 2013 showing transfer of all of our domains from Register.com and that we had paid for GoDaddy for 5 years (though 2018) for emulate.com (as well as our other domains), the name server change request from Apr 2015 when we rehosted all our domains to HostGator, Icann data update reminder from 2014, receipts from Register.com spanning 2009-2013, plus email correspondence from GoDaddy this fall.

          Word to the wise - we previously did not have two factor authentication turned on prior to this theft.  We now do.  Every domain owner should take heed and follow suit, and make an archival copy (PDF or paper) of your substantiating information supporting your domain ownership.  And NEVER click links in email - ALWAYS manually go to the website for your registrar.  We knew better - and fell for it anyway!

          If you’re wondering what the whois looks like now that it has been returned to us (as of January 9, 2016, 1602 EST):

          https://whois.icann.org/en/lookup?name=emulate.com - take a look at the PDF.