Domain Name Scam Warning

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geocom

594 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#81050 7-Apr-2011 09:54

Hi everyone just a heads up. I have been receiving letters from an Australia company called Domain Renewal Group.

This letter is very deceiving it looks like a bill for one or more of your domain names and is titled as an Expiry Notice. however it is a request to transfer your domain name which you will only notice if you read the underlying text.

If you do a google search for this company many of the results are from people being caught out by this.

If you do get a letter in the post from them just rip it up and put it in the bin as the cost is more than registering on there web site and in other places.

What makes it worse is that these letters are from an icann's accredited registrar(or at least they say they are) who are using WhoIs records to letter spam people.

p/s I could not find a category for domain name/internet related matters if there is a category for this. Mod's feel free to move this post

Geoff E

Oblivian

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#456257 7-Apr-2011 09:59

By golly. You are correct.

http://www.ben.me/domain_renewal_group.php
http://www.davidrisley.com/screw-you-domain-renewal-group/#
http://www.eukhost.com/forums/f27/domain-renewal-group-scam-7086/

Seem to do country by country. Much like the share buybacks etc

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
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Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#456305 7-Apr-2011 11:22

This is an old scam thats coming back. It used to be a "pro forma invoice" but they have now removed those terms and simply call it a "renewal reminder" or something like that.

Those are post out of Jamaica, and they are going around some .com domains at the moment. Received a few in the mail last week. They are charging AU$45 per year for a .com domain that usually costs US$10 or less.

Also remember to read the T/Cs which in some cases involve clauses that will lock the domain to their registrar for a long period, and you can't transfer to a cheaper one later.

Usually they send these to accounts departments. Some times they are lucky the person there sees the invoice-looking mail and decides it must be paid, without seeking advice from the IT department - and sometimes small businesses don't even have one, so these things get paid.