There are companies online who have taken to domain registrations
frauds in a big way, misleading and cheating individuals and
companies along the way. Their mode of operation is simple and sadly
very effective: They have company names similar to those of the
domain registrars and send notices resembling notices to domain
holders who have registered their domains with other services.
Some unscrupulous companies are
running various domain name scams intended to mislead or frighten
you into transferring your domain name to them or to register an
alternative domain name with them.
This type of domain scam
often involves a company phoning you claiming that someone is trying
to register an alternative version of your domain name. They will
offer you the chance to register that domain name at a high price to
"prevent the other person from taking your domain name". They will
often give you a short time limit, maybe only a few minutes, to
decide whether you want to register that domain name and prevent
someone else from taking it.
The people allegedly about to
register the other name rarely, if ever, exist, although there have
been instances where the alternative domains have been registered by
"the other person". If this happens, it is most likely that the
domain scammers are "the other person" and have registered the
domain name themselves.
Part of the ploy can also be to get one to pay higher prices to
switch to their company under the guise of issuing stern reminders.
Out of fear of being deregistered several people pay up without
realizing that they are being taken for a ride. To be on the safe
side one must ignore these notices and check thoroughly if they are
genuine. Other examples of fraud are to use one’s credit card to
renew domain names automatically unless one opts out of it. It is
difficult to locate the opt-out option and one has to fill out
myriad forms to wriggle out of this registration system.
These scamster companies send false invoices hoping that someone
will pay the charges. Actually, they do provide a service, which
unethically switches one’s domain name registrar. So they are
guilty of not fraud but misleading gullible individuals.
However,
sometimes they lock the domain registration making it
impossible to get back one’s money or switch back to one’s original
registrar. The wise thing to do is to always check with one’s
existing registration agent on receipt of such a letter.
Many companies get hold of the domain registration database
of the ICANN/Nominet. They build an automated bot, which
hunts from the likes of WHOIS using scripts, and builds a database
of those domains that are expiring. This is not difficult
since domain registration details are legitimately made
available for public inspection. This is legal so they cannot be
persecuted for this activity.
There is no law to prevent this form of domain registration.
The onus rests solely on the purchaser or the receiver of the
notice. Always read the fine print in such mails. Such companies
like Domain Registry Services are not legal registrars, but
agents and can therefore be hauled up in court for misleading the
public. The damage caused by such scamsters badly affects the
business of the legitimate companies.
The only way to
harm the interests of such fraudulent companies is to make their
names public so that other people are warned against falling prey to
their ploys. Thus, the best punishment for such fake domain
registration companies is to close down their business
permanently so that they are unable to fool more gullible people.
