Domain Registry of America Scam

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Jun 30, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

If you own any domain names you undoubtedly have, or will at some point in the future receive a very official looking Domain Name Expiration Notice from a company called Domain Registry of America informing you that your domain name is due to expire. Shred this document. It is a huge scam and unfortunately too many people view it as an invoice and pay it without further thought.

This company gets its information from publicly available WHOIS records. Unfortunately any legitimate website trying to remain in compliance with ICANN policies on WHOIS accuracy is forced to keep their data publicly accurate, pay for a domain privacy service, or risk losing their domain if the inaccurate data is reported to InterNIC.

If for any reason you are unsure if your domain names are expiring, or even where your domain names are registered (this is not uncommon!) simply go to WHOIS and type in the domain name that you are concerned about. You will instantly find out all you need to know about your domain name.

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Domain Registry of America

The Domain Registry of America is an Internet domain registrar and Web hosting service originally based in the Canadian province of Ontario and now reportedly based in Buffalo, New York, London, England, and Melbourne, Australia. It is best known for sending solicitations for business that resemble legitimate invoices.

In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with the company for practices such as transferring domain registrations to their service under the guise of domain renewal, a practice known as domain slamming, and having hidden fees. Despite this action, the company still sends mass direct mail to consumers resembling invoices with “domain name expiration notice” in bold print. Targets for the company’s mass mailings are known to be in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States with information obtained in violation of their ICANN registrar agreement.

As of March 2010, McAfee Labs reports the domain slamming solicitations continue.

As I said earlier, SHRED these solicitations!