Domain Registrar Hijacking
Just today I received a letter in my mailbox from a company called Domain Listing Service claiming that one of my domains is set to expire and that I need to renew it before it is too late. Tell me something I don’t already know.
But what bothered me most about this piece of literature was that it included and order form that basically stated that to ensure listing by March that I needed to remit payment before the end of February. Interesting. I’ve never heard of this company, so why would I want to send them a check for $65 to renew one of my domain names when I know I purchased the domain name from the same place I usually purchase domains names from for only 11 dollars for the year.
I have been buying and selling domain names for over ten years and seeing a letter like this was quite suspect. I certainly know better than to drop everything, panic and pay some other company to host my domain listing. However there are many other people who will receive a letter such as this and feel that they have no choice! In fact, one of my client’s who actually purchased their domain name from Go Daddy received a letter like this one, but from another company…asking $120 to renew the domain name. What a total rip-off.
So to ensure that you are not getting ‘jacked, remember the following things:
- Keep all of your paperwork when purchasing domains
- Remember the duration of your domain registrations
- Discard any domain renewal offers that come to your regular snail-mail unless you registered a domain from a company that only has mail-in registries (chances are this won’t happen)
- You are under NO obligation to renew your domain name through any other company other than the place you purchased it from.
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