As a owner of several websites, I regularly get misleading domain expiration notices from companies that are not my domain registrar.
Sometimes the notices are about domains that really are expiring soon. Today, I got a notice of expiration notice from a place called domainregisstra.com from verranhaddad@sellstones.com. While the email never stated the expiration of the domain, it implied one by stating a “due date” of May 13, 2011. The email text stated:
Attn :
This solicitation is to inform you that it’s time to send in your registration for [mywebsite.com]. DRS is a submission service and search engine ranking provider.
Failure to complete your search engine registration by May 13, 2011 may result in the cancellation of this offer (making it difficult for your customers to locate you using search engines on the web).
Your registration includes search engine submission for [mywebsite.com] for 1 year. You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer by May 13, 2011. This notice is not an invoice. It is a courtesy reminder to register [mywebsite.com] for search engine listing so that your customers can locate you on the web.
So I looked up my domain at whois.com and found out the real expiration date of April 20, 2015.
The main scam here is that this looks like a renewal notice from my registar. But it’s from a company that wants to move me to a different registrar. If I was going to renew my domain, I’d just go to my real registar.
The price quoted from this email is $75 per year. That’s a scam considering that places like hover.com and godaddy offer domain registrations for $5 to $15 per year. The only claimed extra value is a “search engine submission”, which is really a worthless service. If your site is brand new and no search engine knows about it you can submit it to Google and submit it to Bing for free.
Thanks for the info. DRS trided to get me to pay $75 for this bogus service. All carefully worded to make me think it was my regular service, except my regular service only charges me $10. These are the evil scum suckers that roam the internet. Beware!
On 6/16 at 3:22am I received a similar email with the title, Attn Domain Expiration from gythageiger@anez20.com. I was suspicious since there was no company name. I googled this website and could not find it. I contacted the company I originally registered my domain name with and found out they did not send this. How can we get the news out?
Here is a copy of the email I received:
Domain Name: NANCYBANFIELDJOHNSON.COM
Bill To: Nancy Banfield Johnson Invoice # 1308208916
10 Morton Road Invoice Date Jun 16, 2011
New, York Terms Net 14
14889 – US Due Date Jul 1, 2011
+1.6075896381 P.O. #
SAFELY PROCESS PAYMENT
Domain Name Registration Price Term
NANCYBANFIELDJOHNSON.COM Jun 16, 2011 – Jun 16, 2012 $75.00 1 Year
To: Nancy Banfield Johnson
This solicitation is to inform you that it’s time to send in your registration for NANCYBANFIELDJOHNSON.COM. Domain Registration Services is a search engine ranking and submission service organization.
Failure to complete your search engine registration by Jul 1, 2011 may result in the cancellation of this offer (making it difficult for your customers to locate you using search engines on the web).
Your registration includes search engine submission for NANCYBANFIELDJOHNSON.COM for 1 year. You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer by Jul 1, 2011. It is a courtesy reminder to register NANCYBANFIELDJOHNSON.COM for search engine listing so that your customers can locate you on the web.
This Offer for NANCYBANFIELDJOHNSON.COM will expire on Jul 1, 2011. Act Now!
For Domain Name:
NANCYBANFIELDJOHNSON.COM
SAFELY PROCESS PAYMENT
I received a similar email but thought it was a genuine request and paid what I thought was $75. I just looked back at my May credit card statement and found they charged me $135. American Express said that too long a time had passed for any kind of investigation. Does any one know what recourse I have?
The email was from: Domain Expiration Soon