> A customer of ours let sunniskymini.com domain expire, it was grabbed
> on the drop by someone (who has an identity shield in place) and below
> is the extortion letter I received today <smile>

Though I'm certainly not going to excuse those sort of tactics, it's worth
noting that gTLD domains aren't dropped right away.  They are in a hold
state for up to 45 days after expiry (depending on the registrar) and then
in redemption period for another 30 (where the former registrant can still
restore the domain)... then they go to pending delete before being
released.

To have someone register it and try to sell it back to the original owner
is a bit dodgy, but really... how much opportunity does the existing client
need?  Two months not enough?

Regards,
Kirk