A look at common domain name scams

At Look Matters we manage hundreds of domains for our customers. There are many advantages to having a professional manage your domain name, as we have systems and processes in place to ensure your domain name is renewed regularly and to help protect you from unwanted sales tactics and online scams.

Here are three different sales pitches that in my opinion are borderline online scams.

This first email is a very common email that our customers receive from companies in Asia. Its intent it to scare you into thinking that someone else is trying to register your company name in Asia and that they can help you. When my customers ask me about what they should do, I ask them if they are ever planning to do business in Asia. If so, I recommend that they register their Asian domain name through a legitimate domain name provider.

Next is what I like to call the “Search Engine Submission Scam” letter. In this letter, a company offers to submit your domain to search engines. Arguably it could be beneficial to submit a domain to search engines, but you can do that for free here. Once you’ve submitted it, there are no renewals like the nameless company from Long Island would like to sell you for $999. But hurry up – this is limited time offer! Lastly, I love their email address – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. – a very trustworthy name for a company that specializes in domain name services. My advice: ignore and do not reply.

Finally, the letter that prompted me to write about this is the one I received from a very worried customer. They told me that this company was contacting them daily and harassing them for payment. They were even threatened with collections. To top it off, this was all for services my client had not even received. Here is the fax my customer received. From the fax you will see that this scam is very similar to the “Search Engine Submission Scam,” but these guys are going a step further by sending an invoice and harassing people for payments.

This kind of fraud really makes me angry. It is difficult enough to run a small business and we don’t need hard working entrepreneurs going through something like this on top of it. Therefore my advice to my customer was to contact the RCMP. The Government of Canada’s has a website dedicated to fighting this kind of fraud.

If you ever receive a letter, email, or fax that doesn't seem right, there is a very good chance that it is a scam. It is important not to reply to it, as replying will let them know that they got a valid email address and add you to more lists. Next, contact someone who is knowledgeable in this area, usually your domain name provider or your marketing services company and consult with them first before acting.