Quick Tip: You have reached a domain that is pending ICANN verification

icann-registration-pending
Just tried to log into one of my client’s websites this morning and was met with the lovely notification you see here. I’ve never encountered this before on any of the other sites I’ve built.

So, why am I seeing this now? Apparently, the domain owner’s name and email address were never verified via the follow-up email they sent out after the domain was registered.

Here’s what Ryan Your Tech Guy says:

The domain has to be verified. You will have to verify the domain with the email sent to the whois contact email. Once you have verified the domain, ICANN will un-suspend the domain.

So, if you find yourself facing a similar message one day when trying to visit or work on your site (or any other site for that matter), do yourself a favor and (1) check your email, then (2) verify your contact info (or be helpful and “resend verification email” to the site owner – hopefully with an Inbox full of those emails, they’ll remember to click on one to verify their info).

Here’s some additional info:

  1. Dreamhost’s Official Verification Policy
  2. Ryan Your Tech Guy’s Write-up
  3. TechRepublic’s News Article

(Actually, I’m a bit surprised to be seeing this now. I’ve worked on and built up the site since July 2014. Why suspend it after 6 months of production? Why not earlier?)