Today I received in the mail a notice that one of my domain names is up for renewal in a couple months. I wanted to share with you a bit about that renewal notice, because there is something important for all of us to be aware of.
Here it is:
The mail was not from my registrar - it was from a different company altogether.The mail was designed to look like a bill - in fact, it even had a place to print my credit card information, and check off how many years I was registering for. But midway down the page there was a notice in the middle of a paragraph:
This is not a bill, it is rather an easy means of payment should you decide to renew your domain name with...In other words, these people are hoping I won't notice that they aren't my registrar, and I'll fill out the form without realizing that I'm actually requesting that my domain name be transferred to a different registrar.
Here's what scares me. I know absolutely
nothing about these people, and yet if I fell for their sales pitch, I'd end up giving them my credit card information. This could just as easily be a form of identity theft as it could be a legitimate domain registrar.
Certainly, since the setup of their mailing is designed to fool us, we know that their level of trustworthiness is very low. Would I give them my credit card information?
Absolutely not.
All that aside, they were charging more than twice the price for a domain renewal as I'm paying through YourChurchWeb.
My point in this cautionary tale is this:
know who you are doing business with. When you receive mail and email notices regarding your domains and/or hosting plans, pay close attention to make sure you know that they are from the people you are doing business with, and not a scam artist trying to steal your identity, your domain name, or your money.
Labels: domains, privacy, renewal
