Domain Name Scams

Scams
1

There are many scams out there, and this one has been reported a couple of times on the internet and has been used by suspect unethical domain registration companies trying to bully or scaremonger businesses into registering additional domains with them at an inflated price (it is possible to easily register domains with prices less than $15).

If you have a domain registered, it is worth keeping an eye out for as the emails can seem convincing and persuading. Ignore and delete them.

This is the sort of wording of the emailā€¦

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have received a request for the registration of the website www.yourdomainname.net Our system shows that you are the owner of www.yourdomainname.net. This can have far-reaching consequences for you in the future. We are therefore under the statutory obligation to contact you, in order to offer you the first right of registration. This means that we will reject the application of the third party and the website:

www.yourdomainname.net

After agreement we will link this website to:

www.yourdomainname.com

This means that you will have the first option on the domain name, in order to avoid possible future problems.

We are usually under the obligation to register the domain name and to protect it for a period of 10 years. The annual price for the .NET extension is AU$39.95 per year. This means a one-off payment of AU$399.50. When the link has been completed, all the Internet traffic that goes to the .NET extension, will be automatically linked to your current extension and website. This process will take a maximum of 24 hours. This domain name will then have a worldwide reach. The third party will be rejected and can no longer use your domain name.

Important information:

- You will receive a one-off invoice of AU$399.50, exclusive of GST, for a term of 10 years.

- This contract can be cancelled at all times after the first term of one year. The paid amount for the remaining number of years will be refunded to your account.

If you agree to our offer, please send an agreement by email within 48 hours after receipt of this email, stating your name, address and ABN number in a reply to this e-mail address.

The third party will subsequently be rejected by us, and we will then complete the link. You will receive a confirmation and all the information you need by email on the same day.

With kind regards,

Dave Lee

dave@dnsaustralia.org

www.dnsaustralia.org

8 Likes
2

Thanks @phb. Thereā€™s lots of traps for the unwary.

Another one is they send you urgent notifications that your registration is coming due and if you donā€™t pay them you may lose your domain registration. Of course you wonā€™t lose it. It is just an attempt to con you into paying them instead of renewing with your current registrant.

5 Likes
3

Hmmm. I havenā€™t received domain name scam emails for a couple of years. So either the scammers have mostly moved on to other scams or anti-spam is getting much better at wiping out those particular scam emails.

5 Likes
4

Same. Iā€™ve got a couple dozen domains in under various TLDā€™s and I donā€™t recall the last scam about any of them - must be many years ago now ā€¦ my place of work however, well that is a different matter :wink:

4 Likes
5

I havenā€™t seen one in a while either. Some years ago I got a physical mail one for one of my domains. Two simple ways to avoid if they come up again.

  1. As mentioned above the price depending on the domain should probably only be around $10-$15 per year unless you have a somewhat special domain name. Higher than that should ring alarm bells and warrant investigation
  2. Keep a note of who the domain provider for your domain is and ignore anything coming from anyone else.
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6
  1. Opt for longer registration periods e.g. 5 years rather than 2 years. (Scammers tend to take note of the actual expiry date. If they donā€™t take note then it is more obviously a scam, and you can ignore it. If they do take note then at least you will receive fewer scam emails, averaged over the long term.)
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7

A new one just came inā€¦threatening in nature but a scam to such monies/credit card information from domain holdersā€¦tell-tails are not our domain register nor is our domain registered in Gabon (.ga)ā€¦

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: YOURDOMAIN.COM.AU Registration Termination Notice

Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2020 04:41:14 +0000
From: Your Domain Certificate info@certificatelisting.com
Reply-To: Your Domain Certificate info@certificatelisting.com
To: Your email@your domain <Your email@your domain>

This confirmation is to communicate to you that your outstanding invoice number XYZ due on 2020-07-23 is SUSPENDED. Please be sure that you make payment AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to avoid any TERMINATION of service to YOURDOMAIN.COM.AU.

Do take note that if no payment is received in the next 2 business days, your data may be purged and deleted.

https://registrycertificates.ga/?xid=______(NOTE: REMOVED ACTIVE HYPERLINK AND ITS TRACER)

Disclaimer statement: We canā€™t be held legally accountable for any claims, damage or losses which you may incur due to the cancellation of YOURDOMAIN.COM.AU. Any such losses may include but are not solely restricted to: monetary losses, deleted data without prior backups, loss in search engine positions, lost communications, undeliverable email or any other service, technical or business damages that you may incur. to learn more please refer section 5. a10 of our Terms of Service.

This is the final renewal notification which we are legally required to communicate in regards to the expiration of YOURDOMAIN.COM.AU certificate.

registrycertificates.ga/?xid=_____ (NOTE: REMOVED ACTIVE HYPERLINK AND ITS TRACER)

All online services will be restored automatically on YOURDOMAIN.COM.AU upon verification of payment. We thank you for your attention and continued business.

4 Likes
8

Gee, I thought everyone these days registered in Gabon. :wink:

4 Likes
9

Donā€™t I wish. Only one domain I have allows for anything other than an annual renewal.

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10

Well I wouldnā€™t be too worried as they suspended the invoice not the account so you didnā€™t have to pay as they didnā€™t have a current invoice for you to pay :rofl:

Yeah itā€™s a scam as you said and not a well thought out one at that, just trying to suck the less knowledgeable into funding the scammers lifestyles.

2 Likes
11

?

.com.au domains now allow 5 year renewals.

.com domains have allowed 5 year renewals for a long time.

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12

They are only available if the providerā€™s systems offers them. I have one provider who offers anything from 1 year to 10 years. Another two who offer no renewal options at all. It is a one year renewal or donā€™t renew.

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13

Need to find a better provider?

14

Another one received today. This scam has been around for a number of years and is still doing the rounds:

Dear CEO,

(Itā€™s very urgent, please transfer this email to your CEO. If this email affects you, we are very sorry, please ignore this email. Thanks)

We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in China.
We received an application from Hai Tong Ltd on January 17, 2022. They want to register " YOURDOMAINNAME " as their Internet Keyword and " YOURDOMAINNAME .cn ā€œć€ā€ YOURDOMAINNAME .com.cn " 态" YOURDOMAINNAME .net.cn ā€œć€ā€ YOURDOMAINNAME .org.cn " domain names, they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " YOURDOMAINNAME " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?

Best Regards

Mike Zhang | Service Manager

China Domain Registry (Head Office)

No. 300, Xuanhua Road, Changning District, Shanghai200050, China

Tel: +86-2161918696 | Fax: +86-2161918697 | Mob: +86-1582177 1823

Web: www(dot)china-registry(dot)net