Misleading Domain 'Renewal' Notices

Important Information

It has been brought to our attention that some of our customers have received contact from a company that calls itself Domain Registry Of America.

This company sends either a letter or email allegedly notifying you of the expiry of your .com domain and warning you that you may lose your domain if you do not renew it. This includes an invoice type document or link to payment pages in an attempt to mislead the end user to believe that they are simply renewing their domain.

This is not the case. The misrepresentation is intended to illicit users to authorise a transfer of the domain from your existing provider to this company. After paying the fee, you will receive contact from them asking you to provide the details of your email accounts. This is so that they can gain access to the admin email account for your domain to effect a transfer. This is a technique known as 'slamming'

Slamming is a term that was first used in the long distance telephone industry. In the long-distance business, slamming is the practice of changing your long-distance carrier without your consent. Recently, more domain registration service providers are resorting to the practice of sending notices by postal mail that look confusingly like a renewal notice or invoice.

A company calling itself "Domain Registry of Canada" or "Domain Registry of America", as well as sometimes claiming to be  "Register.com" or "Network Solutions/Verisign", are targeting other companies customers to renew their domains. 'Register.com' and 'Network Solutions/Versign' are legitimate companies who are having their good name abused by the perpetrators. In fact 'Regster.com' have succesfully sued 'Domain Registry Of America' for copyright infringement using their name. This company obtain customers' contact information through the publicly accessible WHOIS database, and are sending renewal notices through regular mail in an envelope and on stationary intentionally designed to appear to be an official registration authority notice or invoice.

It has been brought to our attention that these letters have been causing a great deal of confusion among our customers. We hope to clear up any confusion with this notice.

You absolutely SHOULD NOT send any money to "Domain Registry of Canada"/"Domain Registry of America", "Register.com" or" Network Solutions/Verisign" in order to renew your domain, as we act as your domain name provider. (Unless you are CERTAIN that they are your registrar).

If you have already sent money, we suggest contacting your bank or credit card company regarding your options of having payment stopped or reversed.

This current slam involves "Versign" / "Domain Registry of Canada" / "Domain Registry of America" and "Register.com", however, there are reports of this technique being used by other companies as well. We regret that this notice is necessary, but feel it is important to notify our clients of this issue. If you have any questions about unsolicited email messages or US postal mail regarding your domain name, please do not hesitate to contact us.

You can file complaints about this slamming by notifying the following organisations

• United States Postal Inspection Service

• ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) Registrar Complaint Form (hosted at InterNIC)

• Internet Fraud Complaint Center

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