In their explanation for why they engage in front-running in order to protect against it, Network Solutions says: "Front Runners may get access to these searches through Internet Service Providers, Spyware, or registries. " I asked Network Solutions if they had any evidence to back this statement up or if it was just speculation. Personally, I've never seen any hard evidence for where front-runners get their tips. They said "We have enough evidence to back up what we've said." I guess the word "may" can make the statement mean anything, so nobody's lying. But do registries actually and provide data on domain searches to front-runners? I've spoken in the last couple of days to the CEOs of Afilias and PIR, which operate ,ORG, .INFO and some lesser domains. They swear up and down that they never sell this data, and I believe them. Of course, tasting and front-running are overwhelmingly .COM issues. I haven't spoken to VeriSign, but I don't believe for a second that they're involved. First, I just can't see them selling such data to these two-bit criminals. Second, when you do a whois request on .COM, it doesn't even usually make it to the registry. It's usually satisfied at some server further up the road. My own command line whois searches whois.internic.net. So VeriSign doesn't necessarily get access to the data in order to sell it. And don't even think of suggesting that the Internic.net, run by the IANA, is selling whois searches to domain tasters. How would ISPs get this data? Presumably by spying on your communications. Sorry, I think this would have shown up and been a scandal through other means long ago if it were true. Spyware is a plausible option; if a user, unbeknownst to them, is running a keylogger, and they do a whois, the spy can see this and jump the claim on the domain. I know of no direct evidence that this is happening, but I can see it happening. When I've heard of front-running cases, I've always been told that the domain was registered the day after the search, which is pretty fast turnaround for the spyware method. So this is possible, but count me skeptical. Where do most people go to search for domains? They don't go to registrars, unless the registrar is (like GoDaddy) also a major hosting service. They go to the hosting service and search there. These services have a web form which proxies a whois request behind the scenes. My money is on one or more of these hosting services, or some disloyal employee at them, selling the search data, especially for searches that don't covert to sales within some short period of time. When I was researching this subject heavily there was one hosting service name that came up more than once, but I couldn't ever nail them down or even get them on the phone. So it's not fair to name them. But anyway, that's what I think is happening, not that I have proof. Network Solutions' explanation doesn't persuade me.