The process of front running or domain tasting 'should' be a thing of the past. Last year or perhaps 2009 ICANN imposed strict fees on any registrar that pulled

The process of front running or domain tasting 'should' be a thing of the past. Last year or perhaps 2009 ICANN imposed strict fees on any registrar that pulled more than 10% of their monthly registrations in the first 5 days. Obviously this only counts for ICANN TLDs and not ccTLDs. So... When you register a domain the registrar has to pay the registry com/net/org etc immediately. The registry will return the registration fees for any domains that are canceled. However if a registrar has >10% or their total monthly registrations cancelled within the 5 day grace, they do not get that money back. This has essentially ended these practices. HTH Full Disclosure: I used to work for a registry.