Domain Registration Scams

Have you ever received an email reminding you of a domain that's about to expire and you don't remember ever registering the domain? You may be a little disorganized — but it's also likely that you're being hit by a domain slammer.

Domain slamming picked up speed in 2000, with companies like Domain Registry of Canada (DROC) and Domain Registry of America (DROA) sending out misleading notices to domain holders. These notices listed domains the client actually owned, listed their actual expiration date, and gave a URL for the domain owners to renew their domains. If a domain owner followed the instructions, their domain was transferred from one registrar to another. In some cases, the domains ceased to function. In all cases, owners were unable to get refunds from the registrars. Some of the companies that have engaged in this practice include Domain Registry of America, Domain Registry of Canada, and Liberty Domains of America.

Domain slammers count on comsumer disorganization and lack of time: web consumers may not always keep strict track of what services they have registered, let alone those service providers' names, terms of service, cancellation policies, billing habits, and renewal dates. When someone receives a bill from a service they don't immediately recall or only vaguely remember, they may follow any instructions to make a payment without investigating the matter too closely, thinking that the memory will come back to them or that they'll research the matter when they have an opening in their schedule. Unfortunately, domain registration fees are rarely (if ever) refundable. Once a consumer has mistakenly registered a domain, they can't get that money back. Domain slammers hope to get two or more years' automatic domain renewals out of unwary consumers who input credit card information and may not keep close track of their monthly financial records.

You can avoid being trapped by domain slammers with just a few steps:

1. Know which domains you own, when they renew, and where you registered them
2. Keep a list of all bills you pay automatically, how frequently you're billed for them, and approximately how much the bills are per billing cycle (electric, phone, cable, internet, insurance, hosting, domain registration, et cetera)
3. When a bill or billing courtesy notice comes in, check with the company: what services are they billing you for? when did you first sign up?

Keep a short printed list in your wallet, by your computer, or wherever you regularly do your billing and financial reconciliations. Do not include account usernames or credit card numbers with this list: just list out the providing company, their primary site URL, and a short note describing the service(s).