DENIC (www.denic.de), the German domain name registry for .de top-level domain names, reported on 2nd of September, 2004 that online Internet auction provider eBay was the victim of a domain hijacking incident on August 28 when it ceased to be the registrant of the domain name ebay.de.

According to DENIC rules, a domain name registrant can move their domain name to a different provider by completing a provider change form. eBay obviously had no intention of changing provider but a change request was submitted earlier, allegedly on their behalf. The original provider did not respond over a period of five working days and, because the DENIC rules treat non-response as consent, control of the domain was handed over. The new provider then requested DENIC to change both ebay.de's domain holder and nameservers.

eBay discovered the scam and persuaded DENIC to reverse all changes and to investigate how an unauthorised change went through. This is not the first time eBay have been the victim of a domain name scam, though. In December 2002, for example, the domain ebay.co.uk was accidentally detagged and thus deactivated by eBay's then Nominet UK provider.