This is nothing new

This practice has been going on for more years than NSI lets on. It happened to us back in the mid-1990s before criminal activities by ICANN and rogue registrars began coming into the main-stream press. It was happening on a regular basis to the point that in '97 we adopted the policy: "Don't search until ready to purchase"

At the time we only suspected registrars of (intentionally or not) aiding scalpers in getting searched-for names to return to the searcher with offers to sell the domain.

However, with all the controversy surrounding domain kiting, NSI obviously needed a story last week that would soften the blow of being implicated in online criminal activities.

Dig into the comments here:
http://www.circleid.com/posts/86208_domain_name_front_running/

See: http://www.knujon.com/news.html
(Registrars Release Suspended Domains to Attackers)

Columns like yours serves to raise awareness such activities. We applaud you -- keep up the great work!