Domainrenewal scammers at it AGAIN.

[kerberos.livejournal.com]

So I come home and see I got a bill in the mail.

It says my domain is about to expire and I need to pay it.

Only problem being I'm the person incharge of all domains for my ISP and I know my registrar.

So once more the assholes behind Domain registry of Europe aka Domain registry of America  has found a new coverstory.

They are now calling themselves Domain renewal group. www.domainrenewalgroup.net.

They send out things that looks like bills but are in actually a "transfer your domain to us and pay for renewal".

Sigh. Every single year I have to deal with MY clients who got the bill , freaked out and payed it when they have their domains at my ISP under our own registrar.

I just hate all the extra work they give me cause they've built their businessmodel on "scam people into becoming clients". 

Call'em up and talked to their supervisor. well for all of 20 sec before he hung up. I guess being confronted isn't so much fun.

Just wish ICANN could go out and block registrars/sub registrars that pull this stupid shit. 


Anyone else come across these jokers?



 

Comments

[nem0.livejournal.com]

They send that shit to my mom all the time. She knows what to look out for, though, and it's gotten to the point where she just calls me to let me know she got another registrar scam and shredded it.

Still annoying, though, and I feel bad for anyone who's not savvy enough to spot it.

[spiker-uk.livejournal.com]

Are they still using an address in Gloucester Road, London to operate out of?

[kerberos.livejournal.com]

yes the return envelope was gloucester.

[spiker-uk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, same old mob.

In case anyone is wondering, said address ends up at a "Mailboxes Etc" store. No good for tracking anything down about them whatsoever.

[azurelunatic]

The ones that were the bane of my existence when I did tech support for a little local registrar (and hosting, email, bells, and whistles) was the PROTECT YOUR BRAND! SOMEONE IS TRYING TO REGISTER YOUR DOMAIN IN CHINA!!!!@!$#!@! ones, where I got to explain, very patiently in very small words, that their .com was still theirs, please to stop panicking and/or breathing fire, but someone was trying to entice them to buy a similar .cn or .hk (or both), and we Could Not Comment On The Legitimacy Of That Business Nor Their Business Practices.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I remember the times they used to do that with your long distance phone service.

[bothunter.livejournal.com]

Maybe we can start calling this practice "Domain Slamming"

[kingogre.livejournal.com]

I worked for godaddy.com for a awhile... I'd get those panicked calls almost 5 times a week by people who were getting scammed, and then attempt the move back of course. Not that godaddy doesn't have it's own crappy things to keep people there for a long time but it's still mostly legit.

I remember when everything went through Network Solutions way back when and having to deal with stolen domains.. now that was horribly painful if you didn't have the VIP business line to speak with someone directly. God the phone tree hell they had was intended to loose business..

[grrltechie.livejournal.com]

Yep. I only have the one domain (well, ok 2) and I got something a month or two ago. Thing is, I know that my domain isn't due for renewal until January. Assholes.

[emsporter.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been getting those for a couple years now. They usually show up in October; my domain goes up for renewal in February. My host is rather annoyed at the practice, but what can you do?

[winter-serenity.livejournal.com]

I've been getting mail from them for a while. I was so confused the first time it happened because NOWHERE did they mention my host.

[miertam.livejournal.com]

Well I think they have been spanked by the FTC before. You might want to file a complaint for misleading customers.

https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

[owl]

Can I deliver the intarwebz you have just won to that address? :D

[jimbojones.livejournal.com]

Heh. Once, I filled out some kind of request form necessary to get an auto insurance quote online with "Your Mother" as my name, and a fake address in my city. Then I discovered they were using something (Google maps?) to verify address before letting the quote process go through, so I left it as "Your Mother" for the name but ended up putting in my actual street address.

Now I get the occasional insurance-related postal spam actually addressed to "Your Mother". My roommate finds this hilarious. (I can only imagine what my infant daughter will think of it in a few years.)