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Don't look stupid • Domain Renewal Scam
If you have a domain name chances are you've already seen one of these or will see one soon. This scam letter tries to make you think you need to renew your domain through them instead of your own registrar. There are two major issues with this scan. First, the rates they charge are mostly likely way higher than you are already paying to your current registrar. Second, you do not know what they will do with your domain name if it's transferred to them. Most of my domain names cost between $9.99 and $14.99 per year for renewal. If i renew them in larger groups the price drops, but, you may not have large numbers to renew. Still, you probably pay similar rates with your current registrar. These scammers charge $40 per year, over double to quadruple normal rates. They may change the hosting, placing it somewhere that places ads on your website. They may ransom you with continually higher rates. They may even claim ownership of it and auction it off, leaving you with no recourse and losing your domain name. The problem is that you may lose control of the domain name if you sign up with the scammer. A third potential problem is that the scammer may also be a credit card thief and will use your credit card information to steal money from your accounts or rack up extra charges. Read these notices carefully. If they're not from your current registrar then simply ignore them. They use a lot of underhanded techniques to make their paperwork sound official and trick you. This is especially a problem for organizations where non-technical accounting people may receive the scam instead of the IT people. Those unfamiliar with handling domain name registrations can easily mistake it for a bill and send in payment, thus starting the process of transferring the domain from your current registrar to the scammer. Do yourself a favor and make sure you know the name of your domain registrar. If you see anything from any other party concerning renewal it's a scam and should be tossed in the trash.
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