Theft Protection during domain transfer from to a different registrar

Question

I recently transferred to a different registrar. The transfer is under process. Before proceeding with the transfer, I turned off the Theft Protection on at the origin so that the transfer could proceed to the receiving registrar.

Now the receiving registrar tells me that it would take around 7 days for the transfer to complete. I have also received a notification from the current registrar that the transfer has been initiated.

However, I am now concerned if I should (or could) leave the Theft Protection turned off? I think that turning it on again would interfere with successful completion of the transfer, but I am not sure about that. I tried searching for documents on both the registrar's documentations and on the Web in general, but couldn't come to a conclusion.

What is the recommended practise here? Am I at risk with keeping the Theft Protection turned off? Ir is that something that's expected for the transfer to go successfully?

Answer 1

Theft Protection should mean registrar-lock. Indeed you should not change this while the transfer is in progress.

Nowadays you need an auth code. It's been like that since 2006 if I remember well, assuming we are talking about .com or another gTLD.

In the past it was easy to steal domain names, all it took was:

• an unlocked domain name
• owner asleep at the wheel, not checking E-mail notifications, or worse - lapsed E-mail address.

You may have noticed that some registrars are using scare techniques on customers trying to transfer domain names away (for better pricing, service or otherwise). Example:

"Theft Protection" is scary, and people who don't know don't want to take a chance.