I have been connected to the Internet for a very long time and I am always the super skeptic about any online offer and I always have my guard up for Internet scams but this one nearly got me. I was perhaps 10 seconds away from clicking submit before I chose to do some checking. It would have cost me about fifty dollars in actual damages but it a lesson that needs to be shared.
Here is the content of the email:
It is time to renew your domain name www.topsiterank.com
Your domain name www.topsiterank.com will expire within 90 days.
You may renew your domain automatically with Domain Renewal. Click on the link in this e-mail to renew the domain for another year. You should renew your domain as soon as possible in order for it to continue to be registered in your name.
Click here if you wish to renew your domain
http://www.domainrenewalonline.com/for.php?d=topsiterank.com
As soon as we have received your payment, you will receive a confirmation that your domain has been renewed.
It was a clean, simple email with an easy to follow link. The landing page looked great, it had the domain name and the renewal cost right up front I can see how people fall for this.
What is the implication?
Honestly this scam just costs you money and there is a slim possibility that they steal your credit card information and use it to buy a 60 inch plasma. If they do what they promise, this is pretty much a victimless crime. You just overpay for a service. They don’t modify your information with your registrar; they just pay your bill.
Say what?
For those of you who have not had to deal with paying for your .com name or renewing it once it has expired. You typically get a notification from your Registrar or your ISP to tell you that your domain is about to expire. You go online in the same way that I did and you pay for it…Pretty easy. The problem is that you don’t need the account number or verification to pay for a domain. So if you use this service, they charge you the $79.00 and pay out the $12-20 to renew your domain. They take a healthy markup for sending spam. No harm no foul, you get your registration paid and they act like the middleman handling the transaction.
So what was made me stop?
In this case it was experience, everything looked right but something did not feel right. I did not remember seeing this screen in years past and it was a little “too” easy. So I went online to the “whois” database to check who I registered the domain with.
You can see the results here.
http://www.who.is/whois-com/ip-address/topsiterank.com/.
You can see by the response that I registered with Enom, Inc and that their URL is http://www.enom.com and not
http://www.domainrenewalonline.com.
Keeping up to date
To check your own domain information go to http://www.who.is/. Make sure that your information is up to date and accurate. Is the fax number right? Is it pointing to your new physical address and is the name of the person on the record still working for your company? Get this information up to date ASAP, if you need some free help taking care of this let me know, I would be glad to help. Rather be safe than sorry. I had a client that her IT person switched the domain registration out from under her and then just started his own separate business selling the same product using her good name. We were able to get the domain back in a few short days but not without the expense of having to get notarized letters and certified documents of Incorporate.
Wild Wild West
The Internet really is the wild west and there are robbers ready to take advantage of you at every corner. The lesson is that if you are in doubt or have been sent an unsolicited notification from a vendor that you don’t recognize – even if the service seems valid. Ask someone who can help you before you spend the money or even lose your domain name. Next week I am going to write about protecting yourself from identity theft.