Your domain (URL) is like a telephone number in that your contact information may be exposed as part of the public record unless you have paid extra for proxy or anonymous registration. We use services like Whois Lookup all the time to identify salient details about URLs—and unfortunately, so do scammers.
Types of scams include:
- Domain registration scam: A registrar company tries to get you to switch to them, usually at a higher rate. See attached letter from Domain Registry of America.
- Domain listing scam: This is an attempt to soak you for a lot of money for the dubious privilege of being listed in a directory of some sort. See attached example from Domain Listings.
- There are others. See this excellent writeup.
I've Received One of the Letters in the Mail. What Do I Do?
- Read the letter carefully. It will often say in the fine print exactly what they're selling. Feel free to ignore the letter if it's similar to one of the scams discussed here.
- If you forgot who your domain is registered with or when it renews, put your URL into the form at Whois Lookup. It's probably not the company who mailed you the letter!
- Open a support ticket with us, and show us the letter. We'll confirm what it is.
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