Scam Alert – Domain Scam
I had a client scammed by a spam email notice. This email was forwarded to them by a trusted source and they paid it. I have advised them to contest the charges on their credit card because this is definitely a scam designed only to steal honest people’s money.
It’s worded to look like a domain renewal notification but it’s not. It’s a scam that purports to register your domain in search engines and it’s not cheap – $47 – $297!
Your web pages are indexed in search engines at no cost to you. These scammers do nothing except steal money.
This scam is headquartered in Budapest, Hungary and it is NOT LEGITIMATE!
Real domain registration will cost you between $10 and $20 per year. If you do receive a notice you should verify that your domain is really expiring and that you are contacting the real domain name registrar. If in doubt, you can call most legitimate registrars or you can give me a call and I’ll look up your registrar and give you their contact information.
Legitimate email registrars I use are:
Below is the email I received – with the scam site deleted.
PART I: REVIEW NOTICE
Attn: (redacted)
As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification for your business Domain name search engine registration. This letter is to inform you that it’s time to send in your registration.
Failure to complete your Domain name search engine registration by the expiration date may result in cancellation of this offer making it difficult for your customers to locate you on the web. Privatization allows the consumer a choice when registering. Search engine registration includes domain name search engine submission. Do not discard, this notice is not an invoice it is a courtesy reminder to register your domain name search engine listing so your customers can locate you on the web. This Notice for: thisdomain.com will expire at 11:59PM EST, 19 – Dec. – 2015
Act now!
Select Package http://www.xxxxxxx
