1. The first search
Record the date, approximate time, service used, exact spelling, extension, and what the service showed. A screenshot is much stronger than memory alone.
Evidence guide
DID SOMEONE REGISTER IT AFTER YOU SEARCHED?
That sequence is worth documenting. It is not, by itself, proof that the company you searched with used your query to take the domain.
The term
WHAT “DOMAIN FRONT RUNNING” MEANS.
ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee historically used the term for a situation in which a party with access to an Internet user's domain-availability interest uses that information to preemptively register the name. ICANN later described the concern as a registrar using insider information to register names for resale or advertising revenue.
Important: ICANN's 2008 SSAC report said it had insufficient information to conclude that front running was practiced in any appreciable measure by query-service providers. It also said the practice was difficult to prove and that plausible alternative explanations existed for the cases it studied.
What to preserve
THE TIMELINE MATTERS MORE THAN THE ANGER.
2. The availability change
Record when you next checked, what changed, and whether the name became registered, reserved, premium-priced, parked, or listed for sale.
3. Independent records
Preserve RDAP/registry facts, nameservers, seller pages, broker correspondence, and archived pages. These can establish later facts even when they cannot reconstruct the earlier availability screen.
4. What you cannot prove yet
Do not assume timing establishes who caused the registration, what data they saw, or why the domain changed status. Those are separate factual questions.
Our dataset
WE RECORD THE CLAIM WITHOUT PROMOTING IT TO FACT.
Our public research form can record that you say a domain appeared available before later becoming unavailable, where you searched, and the approximate elapsed time. That information remains explicitly user-reported unless independent evidence corroborates it.
Keep digging
RELATED GUIDES
What a parked domain tells you
Separate the current page state from assumptions about motive or history.
Before you negotiate
Build an evidence file before an aftermarket price becomes your anchor.
Use the right legal label
Understand the difference between resale activity and trademark-based cybersquatting.