Domain Name Registration Scam
One of the things that has been going on for a while in the Domain Name arena is a company that sends out postal mailings to renew your domain names. The problem is, they aren’t the company you have currently registered your domain name with.
While I have called this a scam, I suppose it’s not a scam in the true sense of the word, assuming they actually provide the renewal services they offer, but the mailings are incredibly deceptive, and look like a bill to renew the owners domain name. If the owner of the domain doesn’t read the letter carefully, and just sends in the payment, they get switched to a new provider when they didn’t intentionally do so. In my opinion, they way these letters are presented are meant to do just that, deceive the owner of the domain in to switching to their service, at what is usually a much inflated cost over what the domain name owner is currently paying. A similar thing took place several years ago in the telephone industry, and was subsequently made illegal. This was known as slamming in the phone industry.
I have received a number of these mailing myself, being that I own quite a few domain names. They come with different company names in the top of the letter, but they all are strikingly similar in format, and they all have a similar or even exactly the same return address in New York State. Some common names they use are Domain Registry of America, Liberty Names of America, and Domain Renewal Group.
The finer print does say “THIS IS NOT A BILL”, but it’s buried in so much other text you could easily scan over it. In fact, it’s not even bolded or in capitol letters like I just put it. They are even “nice” enough to offer to register other extensions of your domain name for you, at 4 to 5 times the price you can register it yourself through most places.
I’ve included 3 examples of these mailings here (blocking out certain info for privacy reasons). If you receive any of these, my suggestion would be to throw them in the trash immediately. While you can certainly renew or transfer your domain names to any provider you wish, it should be your choice on your own initiation, not a scam mailing like this trying to ambush you in to switching for a higher price.
At Dryline Hosting, we will automatically renew your domain names for you (unless you set them to not auto-renew) and you can lock the domain name to prohibit unauthorized transfers. In addition, you can also protect yourself from these sorts of things by adding an Identity Protection feature to your domain. Most places you register your domain name now offer this extra service for a nominal fee. These places that send out these scam emails get your contact information by harvesting the info from the whois information on domain names. Identity protection features will prevent that.
We have actually had customers who received these scam mailings, thought they were from us, and paid them the money demanded. Have you ever received one of these? Comment and tell us your story!
EXAMPLES below Click on them to see a large version:
I’ve been receiving these scams since I got my first domain name. They prey on the unsuspecting, just like the “your vehicle’s warranty is expiring” letters sent to car owners, and the letters from outfits like “National Reimbursement Administration” styled to look like government checks.
Don’t you need a transfer code to transfer a domain? It seems like that would slow these guys down. The new system lets you request the code automatically — maybe that would be a good place to add a warning pointing to this blog entry.
Sounds interesting. Thanks for info .I like You Now! (sounds weird.. should say I follow you Now!.. )
good article , thanks for sharing the article!
i got one of these in the mail the other day. they want you to renew your domain for 29.99 which is to high. you can renew it for $8 at most sites. this is such a ripoff. they keep sending them out so people mush be buying.
The site I use to be regestered with has gone belly up it was ARIHOST and I have lost my web site that I have had for over 15 years It is an Amateur Raido site and the KC4RHW.com can not be used by any one else as it is a call issued by the FCC and Registered by the FCC so any one trying to use KC4RHW will be in vialation of goverment regulactions. and I am looking for a new web site hoist, A friend sent me you site and infromation will be greatly appreacated Thank you
Jim Whittlesey KC4RHW
Damn that is shady, but clever…domainer beware
This is a great article. I’m new to blogging but still learning. Thanks for the great resource.
Clever. People need to be wary of these things.
Several years ago I got scammed by LIBERTY NAMES OF AMERICA. For over a year, I have been working on getting my domain registered back with YAHOO DOMAINS, (where it first started)
I fell for the scam letter I had received, and now, for 2 years in a row, I have had to renew my domain through that scamming company.
I have been going through a back and forth run-a -round. Does anyone know how to undo this error, without losing the domain name I currently have?
Below is an example of what I have tried. Note that LNOA DOES NOT REPLY TO EMAILS!
Lloyd,
I’m sorry about the problem you are experiencing with lloydkuhnle.com. I
can assure you that Liberty Names is a reputable company and they do answer
their phone when you call. In this case you will need to call them in order
to manage your domain name. If you have any difficulty let me know.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Watkin
************ Customer Care
support@*************.com
Sirs
>
> Several years ago I was scammed into transferring my domain
> away from YAHOO web hosting to LIBERTY NAMES OF AMERICA.
>
> http://www.lloydkuhnle.com
>
> All I want to do, is get it back to YAHOO.
>
> I followed your instructions, see below, to no avail. They
> do not respond, and they do not fix anything.
>
> YAHOO Small Business is currently hosting my site. I WANT MY DOMAIN NAME
> REGISTERED THROUGH
> YAHOO. NOT THAT SCAMMING LIBERTY NAMES OF AMERICA!
>
> Their bad business practice is plastered all over the
> internet.
>
> YAHOO says I have to contact you, then you say I have to
> contact LNOA. Since LNOA ignores all contact, I have no options, other
> than asking YOU to fix it.
>
> Thank you
>
> Lloyd Kuhnle
>
> Your email to me:
>
> Hello Lloyd,
>
> Thank you for your e-mail inquiry regarding the domain “lloydkuhnle.com”.
> To update your domain’s nameservers to “yns1.yahoo.com” and
> “yns2.yahoo.com”, you will need to contact your registrar
> company of Liberty
> Names of America, or LNOA. Their e-mail address is “support@lnoa.com”,
and
> their phone number is (877) 696-5662. They
> will be able to update this
> information for you.
Hello Lloyd,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Domains.
I understand that you received an email from LIBERTY NAMES OF AMERICA
regarding your domain expiration and you paid money to them. Now, you
are being charged by them every year and you want to get your domain’
back to Yahoo! and want to pay to Yahoo! for service.
Lloyd, please note that this alert relates only to the domains that you
have registered with Yahoo!. It does not relate to domains that you have
registered with other companies.
It has been brought to our attention that companies other than Yahoo!
may have sent domain name (Web Address) holders such as yourself domain
name expiration notices and solicitations that specifically relate to
the domain that you have registered with Yahoo!. We are alerting you
that you are not required to respond to such notices from other
companies about your Yahoo! domain.
Lloyd, if you registered your domain name through Yahoo!, your domain
renewal fees are automatically paid by Yahoo! as a part of your
recurring monthly or yearly service fees, as long as your service is
active and not past due and as long as your domain hasn’t transferred
away from Yahoo!.
If you would like to keep your current domain and associated services
with Yahoo!, do not respond to renewal solicitations from other
companies which specifically relate to the domain you have registered
with Yahoo! Be sure your Yahoo! Wallet information is up to date.
If you renew your Yahoo! domain through any other company you will be
transferring your domain away from Yahoo!. We also want to remind you
that transferring your domain away from Yahoo! does not automatically
cancel your Yahoo! Domains service.
As per the public who is record current registrar for your domain is
DOMAINDISCOVER.
Domain Name: LLOYDKUHNLE.COM
Registrar: DOMAINDISCOVER
Currently, your domain’s registration has been transferred to
DOMAINDISCOVER and your domain is being hosted at Yahoo!. Please note
that at this time Yahoo! Domains does not offer the ability to accept a
registration transfer of your domain name.
Further, if you don’t want to keep your domain’s registration with them
and want to use this domain’s registration with Yahoo!, you need to
cancel your domain at DOMAINDISCOVER’s end and then request
DOMAINDISCOVER to release your domain to public pool so that you may
resign up the same domain with Yahoo!.
Please note that before signing up this domain with Yahoo! you need to
cancel the service with Yahoo! so that you may sign up a fresh domain or
its registration with Yahoo!.
To cancel:
1. Log into your account with your Yahoo! ID and Password.
2. Select Cancel Plan by clicking on the “Cancel Plan” link.
3. Click the Continue button to process your request.
When the cancellation is complete you will receive a cancellation
complete message.
If you face any problem in cancellation or have any billing concern, I
would suggest you to contact our billing help desk.
To better serve you, we now provide care for billing-related concerns
exclusively over the phone.
1-866-800-8092, option 3, option 2, then option 4, Monday through Friday
from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST, and a Yahoo! Customer Care representative
will be happy to assist you.
Lloyd, I have tried my best to address the issue in the best possible
way. I appreciate you for taking time out and being patient in reading
the entire content of this message.
I hope you will find this information helpful. If I can be of some more
help, I would be happy to assist you.
Thank you for your understanding.
Please do not hesitate to reply if you need further assistance.
Have a nice day!
Regards,
Jason
Subject: Using your domain with Yahoo!
Browser: Internet Explorer
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Email Tool: none
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Permit Test: yes
This is an important subject. And I am completely agree your point of view that all these kind of mailing is just shit and reach to headache.
Ditto on all the above.
I just got a very deceptive letter from “Domain Name Registry of America”
This is a form of slamming – a term used to describe how phone companies use tricks to get you to switch phone companies.
Here is their phone number – give them a call and call them out on their deception: 866-434-0212
and website is http://www.droa.com
These guys wasted a lot of my time this morning, at first I got caught in the scam, and then noticed it just in time – but a lot of time lost.
I disagree with Dryline – this IS a scam.
[...] phone carriers years ago, and now used my some of these dishonest domain companies. See our previous post on one of these domain registration scams. The company I am writing about today is called ISP [...]