I received an official looking email today with the subject line “Domain Notification: Wolff, Jurgen – This is Your Final Notice of Domain Listing” and the address of one of my sites. The message offered me the choice of selecting 1 year for $42 or the most recommended Lifetime offer for a mere $499.
It looked a lot like a domain renewal form, with a lot of urgency—you must act by six days from now!
In big bold underlined text:
"Failure to complete your Domain name search engine registration by the expiration date may result in cancellation of this offer making it difficult for your customers to locate you on the web."
If you are paying close attention you might be tipped off by the wording "search engine registration" instead of domain registration, but most people's attention probably is drawn to the "making it difficult for your customers to locate you on the web" part.
I know where my domain is registered and that its not due for renewal so I spotted this as a scam, but I wonder how many people are taken in.
What actually is being offered is “annual website search engine submission.” Which generally is done automatically, so you are paying for nothing.
At the bottom in VERY small print, it says: "This is not a bill. There is no pre-existing relationship between DS and the domain mentioned above. This notice is not in any part associated with a continuation of services for domain registration. Search engine submission is an optional service that you can use as a part of your website optimization and alone may not increase the traffic to your site."
This is a variation of another scam in which you get a notice in the mail--yes, the actual paper mail--from an organization with a name like "Domain Registry Institute." They send it a few weeks before your domain is due for renewal, so it seems plausible.
It tells you that you can renew your domain now and they charge the same fee as register.com.
What you don't know unless you read all the fine print is that if you sign their document and pay the money, you are actually authorizing them to change the registration of your domain from wherever you have it now to them.
It’s true, as I’ve learned to my cost a few times: always read the fine print!
