A former Google employee named Sanmay Ved somehow bought “Google.com” from Google Domain after the firm forgot to renew its domain name. He owned it for only about 1 minute before Google reversed the transaction, he said on LinkedIn.
Google Security reached out to Ved to offer him a reward, saying it was offered to him “in a very Googley way.”
Ved bought the domain Google.com for $12 at 1:20 a.m. ET on Sept. 29, 2015.
“I was learning more about the Google Domains interface, and typed google.com and clicked search domains. To my surprise, Google.com was showing as available!” he wrote. “I clicked the add to cart icon beside the domain (which should not appear if the domain is not available for sale). The domain actually got added to my cart as seen by the green check-box, and the domain appeared in my cart.”
He added: “I was hoping I would get an error at sometime saying transaction did not go through, but I was able to complete purchase, and my credit card was actually charged!”
