Fans of the Love Live! franchise have noticed that the domain once used by the official Aqours Club fan site is now listed on a public domain auction, raising serious concerns about brand safety and the potential for online scams.

Aqours is the school idol group at the center of Love Live! Sunshine!!, one of the major entries in the long-running Love Live! multimedia franchise. The Aqours Club was the group’s official fan club, and its website ran on the domain “lovelive-aqoursclub.jp.” The fan club was shut down in June 2024, after which the domain showed a farewell message with the fan club’s logo. But as of May 1, 2025, visiting that domain no longer shows that goodbye page. Instead, it redirects to a live auction hosted by a Japanese domain registration service called Onamae.

The auction is scheduled to run until May 27, and the current highest bid has climbed to 97.11 billion yen, which converts to over $615 million USD. Most observers believe these figures are the result of fake bids or trolling rather than genuine offers.

The bigger issue for fans is not the auction price but what could happen if the domain lands in the wrong hands. Japanese tech news outlet ITmedia has outlined the risk if a third party buys the domain, they could build a phishing site that looks exactly like the original Aqours Club fan page. Because the domain is identical to the one fans knew as official, it could slip past browser security warnings and even trick password managers into auto-filling login credentials.

開設当初からずっとAqours Club入ってた者としても悲しいし、何よりこのドメイン使って公式っぽいサイト作ったり @lovelive-aqoursclub.jp のメアド作られて詐欺メールとか届いたら開いてしまいそうだし、悪用されるのを防ぐ為に公式は責任持って買い戻して欲しい。
年間数千円をケチった代償は大きい https://t.co/yTEWfxoEqL

— ロドリ下衆😈@Liand/アスルサポ (@rodo_sunshine) May 12, 2026

One longtime Aqours Club member shared their reaction on X, saying the situation made them genuinely sad and worried. They pointed out that a scam email sent from an address ending in @lovelive-aqoursclub.jp would likely fool even careful fans who recognize the domain name.

Fans have directed much of their frustration toward publisher Bandai Namco, which oversees the Love Live! franchise. The core complaint is that letting an official domain tied to a major fan community expire without securing it or redirecting it safely shows a lack of attention to both fan security and the franchise’s own brand image. It is not currently known who is responsible for the domain being listed on the auction platform, or whether this was an oversight or an intentional decision.