WARNING: Domain Registry Scam

How to avoid being scammed

This is the letter sent to me by Domain Registry.

Being the owner of a domain name it is very likely that you at some point will encounter a scam letter, looking to trick you into paying them for your domain name(s). They are hoping that you either don’t fully understand the domain registration service you have paid for, or that you will be, like I almost was, too busy to pay attention to the details and pay them anyway.

Recently, I received a letter in the mail from a company called Domain Registry (from Jersey City, NJ), with the headline “Domain Name Expiration Notice.” The letter starts by saying “As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification of the domain name registration that is due to expire in the next few months.” At first glance it looked legit. I knew I hadn’t paid my renewal yet this year and the expiry date in the letter was correct.

There were a couple of things that made me take a closer look at the letter. The first thing that tipped me off that this was a scam was that I never receive these bills by mail. All my domain names are auto-renewed and I receive a receipt by email. The second was that I pay an annual fee of $17.99 per domain name, and not $50 which these scammers were asking for. In the letter they say that “[…] you can take advantage of our best savings” but in effect, if I were to switch it would mean an increase of 277.93%. The third was that as soon as I started reading closely I saw that the wording was purposely vague. It could easily be misinterpreted into making me think that I needed to act on this as soon as possible.

When I googled “Domain Registry” I found complaints about their scams dating back to at 2012, and by some name variations back to 2002. Companies like Domain Registry can continue to exist because people are falling for these scam letters and are paying a lot more than they should. Whether or not they would provide you the service you paid for is anyone’s guess, but I wouldn’t take the chance. Worst case you could lose access to your domain name(s).

If you have a lot of bills coming in this way you might accidentally pay this one thinking it’s a simple renewal, so be careful.

How to avoid being scammed by Domain Registry and its like

• Make sure you read the letter thoroughly and know what you are paying for.
• Compare the price to previous payments.
• Contact your domain registrar before clearing unfamiliar payments.
• Most registrars offer Domain Privacy so that others can’t obtain your address. I used to pay for Domain Privacy but I cancelled that subscription before the annual renewal this year, and this is how Domain Registry was able to obtain my information.