Who sent me this bill? Is it real? Beware of Domain Name Renewal Scams!

A few times a year, I get calls and emails about Domain Name Scams from my clients.

For example, the most recent message I got was: “I just got an invoice from Domain Registry in Jersey City, NJ. Did you send me this bill for my domain name?”

And my answer is always “No. I didn’t send you that bill. Have you ever heard of Domain Name Scams? They’re trying to steal your domain name. Just throw it away.”

Domain Name Scams

As a domain name owner, I get these fake invoices from Domain Registry in New Jersey and other domain name scammers often. Pictured above is one that I received this week. This month, a few concerned clients asked me about these letters as well. So, I decided to explain how this is a scam.

My hope is to educate domain name owners who may receive these letters ahead of time, so that they don’t accidentally become victims. Signing your domain name over to a complete stranger can potentially harm your online business.

So, What’s the Deal with Domain Name Scams?

No matter where you register your domain name, you’re just renting it. The REAL owner of every single domain name in the entire world is Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN for short.

Every time a domain name is registered, renewed, updated, or deleted, it is processed through ICANN. It ends up on a list of daily changes that is published various places on the web. Anyone can find these lists of domain names and use them for whatever purpose they have in mind. Unfortunately, that reason is often to spam the domain name owners.

Avoiding Domain Name Scams & Spam

Purchase Domain Privacy Services

When you register a domain name using Privacy services, it costs more, but it hides your name, address, phone number, email, and other personally identifiable information from these lists.

Typically, a Privacy service like Domains By Proxy replaces all of your contact information at the registrar level with their own info. They intercept all scams and other inquiries. If a request is legitimate, they will forward it on to you. They simply discard notices like this when they receive them.

Hire a Professional Website Developer

Likewise, if you hire a professional website developer like me, I will register your domain name using Green Web Design’s name, PO BOX, toll free phone number, business email, etc. and screen those inquiries for you myself. This protects my clients from spammers and scammers who try to scrape personal data from the domain registry. When I receive these scam letters and emails, they go in the trash.

By Contrast, a large number of people register their own domain names each year and do not opt for any Privacy Protection. This leaves the domain name owner’s personal information exposed when someone runs a “WHOIS” on their domain name. Next thing you know, you’re getting letters like this in the mail:

If you are targeted by Domain Name Scams, it is best to simply ignore them. But for those who are curious, allow me to describe what happens if, instead, I fill it out and hand my domain name over to them.

I typically charge $20 per year to register a .com domain name. Sometimes I will even bundle the domain with a hosting plan or website package for free the first year as a courtesy. By contrast, Domain Registry in Jersey City, NJ is charging a $50 per year for a .com domain transfer. And for what?

Why Do They Want My Domain?

Scenario 1: If someone controls a domain name, they can also control the nameservers. Nameservers point to the address of the server where your website’s files are hosted. They could point your domain’s nameservers at a completely different web server address, or just forward your domain to a different website.

Scenario 2: They could sell your domain name to someone else in the same industry, because they own it now.

Scenario 3: The most likely scenario is that they could raise your domain name renewal price. It could be $1000 a year or more if they wanted it to be. They could charge you anything, because you gave it to them and now they own it.

Now, if this is a domain name you don’t care about too much, you could just cut your losses and say oh well, and let it go. But more likely, it’s a business website that you care about. You probably spent time and money building up the website, the SEO, and getting links and traffic to it, and built your social media around it. It would be painful to start over.

Scenario 4: How much worse would it be if they stole your domain and sold it to a competitor in a foreign country where you have no legal recourse? And then they could clone your website and products and start selling your products. It would be utterly devastating for most businesses.

Just for example, if a Chinese company counterfeits your products and steals your domain name and web traffic, you have zero legal recourse if you are not a citizen of China.

It’s much better to just not accidentally give ownership of your domain name to a complete stranger.