Over the past year a new online scam has popped up regarding Domain Renewals. Recently, we have had two clients fall victim to this scam and we wanted to make the public aware.
When you register your domain with a domain registrar, you are responsible for paying a fee to reserve and maintain ownership of this domain. Paying this fee (typically annually) keeps your domain in good standing and only the company you have registered the domain with can renew this domain for you (unless you transfer it).
The scam consists of receiving a fake renewal email (or in some cases, a letter in the mail) from a company separate from your original domain registration company. A text excerpt of the spam letter is included below:
This important expiration notification notifies you about the expiration notice of your domain registration for search engine optimization submission. The information in this expiration notification may contain legally privileged information from the notification processing department of the Domain Seo Service Registration to our search engine traffic generator. We do not register or renew domain names. We are selling traffic generator software tools. This information is intended for the use of the individual(s) named above.
Included on this letter is a link to make payment to the third party company. It’s important to note the following text usually located at the bottom of the email.
We are a search engine optimization company. We do not directly register or renew domain names. This is not a bill.
Always check with your domain company and pay for any services through the website. Reputable companies will advise you of renewals months before the renewal date and advise you to login to an existing account that you created to renew. As always, please reach out to us if you have any questions.