Today many small and large businesses alike get notices in the mail for a Domain Name Registration SCAM. It is true that you must renew your domain from time to time, it is highly unlikely that your domain registrant company will send you any formal notice about doing so. Almost all of the legitimate ones, communicate strictly by email. So let’s talk about how this scam process or this mailing might come to your place of business.

   First of all when you went virtual (got a domain name for your company) either a company you hired a web, marketing or consulting company to obtained it for you OR one of your staff employees did the process on behalf of your company OR maybe you did it your self. In any case you or a representative of your company initiated the process to get your business name on the Internet in the form of a Domain name, such as http://www.YourCompanyName.com. Now when the representative did this, they HAD to give an email for point of contact and technical contact and most likely your business name, it’s phone number and address.

   All of this information is stored publically on the ICANN databases (http://www.icann.org/). This information can be easily retrieved, if you did not OPT IN for privacy of your Domain information. Opting in allows for placing the information of the hosting or registrant company instead of your own in most cases. Only the hosting or registrant keeps your information and does not pass it on to ICANN.

   This is both good and bad. Let’s take a look at the Good first. It’s good that privacy can be used for smaller companies because it helps to keep scams from coming to the company from those using the ICANN database to harvest potential victims business and personal names and numbers. Remember it is only a preventative measure, if you have an ‘about us’ or ‘contact us’ page on your site, your information can still be harvested for this type of SCAM and potential other SCAMs.

   The BAD. By using your real business address and contact information, it shows you are legitimate and have nothing to hide to a potential customer. But while it shows you are being up front and trust worthy of their business, your true info is being harvested for this SCAM.

   So what is the best thing to do? Well in the years of my security practice I can tell you what helps run a straight legit company. If you are operating from your home and using your home or cell number, get a PO Box or a Street Address Box from a place like Mail Boxes etc., get a second line at home or a second cell that is only for business. All the rest of your phone numbers should be on the nationwide do not call lists (https://www.donotcall.gov/), you should have a junk mailer exclusion filled out on your home address and lastly make your home numbers private without your address in the phone book. In doing this all your business mail and calls stay separate, not only a great idea for taxes, but a great idea to prevent you from being harassed personally about your business.

   Now if you have an office, use all your office information for your domain registration, including phone numbers. I personally would put my office phone on the Do Not Call list as the point of your website is to give people who are looking for your products or services your information.

   So let’s talk about what one of these Domain Registration SCAM letters looks like. I happen to have one from one of my clients. The owner was so concerned about paying it I was called immediately for a consultation. The first thing I did was to tell him not to pay it and I would be by the next day to look at the letter. This letter looked very official, with all the correct information on it and even a clever bar code, which when scanned did not match up to the customer number, the address or any other information on the sheet. BUT at least they were consistent in printing the same bar code on the invoice and on the return portion, I have seen others where the numbers didn’t match at all.

   This company gives a scare tactic about search engines. If you are like many small businesses you have a web site that you invested in to try to compete online where the playing field is more fair. You probably spent money on a web company, a consulting firm or your nephew to build your site, you may have even gone to the point of paying a company or SEO specialist to to Search Engine Optimization on your site. So the words "Failure to return your domain name search engine registration by the expiration date may result in a loss of your domain name search engine listing!" WAIT, NOW this letter is confusing, it talks about both Domain Name Registration and NOW Search Engine Listings. This is a scare tactic to get you to panic and pay. DON'T GIVE IN!

   One of my favorite aspects of the sheet is that it has a giant diagonal water mark stating that it is “URGENT’, yet the reply by date is set 1 month from the date the client received the letter…not exactly urgent. If it were it would be 10 days or 2 weeks and something more urgent and would be in red, but it was a completely black and white letter, big first clue.

   If you get one of these letters, it is best TO give them a call, find out who they are and how they got your information to bill you. Chances are, IF they answer the phone, they will state that they recently merged with your either hosting company or your domain registrant company and are now in charge of collecting Domain Name Registration fees. Which should be your second clue this is false, just thank them for the information and tell them you will send out the check asap.

   The next thing you should do is get on the UCAN.org and search for a complaint associated with the companies name, address or phone number, like I did with this one.

Here is the UCAN.org site address dealing with this particular Domain Registration SCAM
http://www.ucan.org/blog/money/financial_privacy_id_theft/domainusa_aka_domain_name_usa_website_registration_scam

   After you have done this, it is a good practice to contact your hosting or registrant company, which ever has your registration and do two things; 1) is to LOCK your Domain name, this way no one can transfer it without your knowledge and 2) give them all the information and offer to fax a copy of the Domain Name Registration SCAM letter to them. This will put them on alert and help to inform other customers that their customers are being targeted by a SCAM.

   I hope all this information has helped you become a bit clearer on the potential scams there are out there to take your hard earned money. If you have any questions or concerns on letters you have received you can contact us at info@socalcreations.net and send us a copy of your letter. We will review your potential scam letter quickly and report back to you in 24 hours with options on what to do with it. This is a FREE Services offered by SoCalCreations.net.