I created another website for a sporting organisation, and registered their domain with a .com.au domain.
So I get the renewal notices for renewing the domain name, hosting, etc.
I was shocked to hear the other day when their treasurer said they've received a bill from someone for a ".com" version of their URL!
I told her not to pay it, and to send me the bill.. I figured it must be a scam, and it was!
Well, not a scam, but very devious. DomainName.com.au has sent them a letter with an "Invitation to Register" the .com address, for a whopping ripoff price of AU$225, about 5 times the going rate for a .com address! Oh but you get a "free MP3 player".. no details about it, capacity of it, etc. It's probably a $20 256Meg version or something.
The real devious thing is, they didn't send it to the webmaster - they actually got their postal address off the website and sent it directly to the organisation. Not very nice at all.
I can imagine some unsuspecting treasurers or secretaries just paying it, thinking it's for their website.
Unfortunately only one of many "scams" related to domains. The other big one in recent times has been other domain registrars sending you "renewal" notices for your domain, even thoiugh you registered through somebody else. The information is all public domain, so unless you are on the ball, it is easy to consider the invoice legit. In the past I have received multiple invoices from multiple sources for the same domain!
It's easy to look up the owner / admin contact details for any domain. Since no checks are done on the validity of these after registration it's easy to change them to something "anonymous" - and hence avoid spam / scam. Personally I don't like any of my personal details availble in the public domain on the net.
Just don't forget to renew / transfer within 90 days of expiry.
Domain name scam!
outrageous
