If you own any Internet domain names, chances are very good that you have seen one of these letters show up in your mailbox (your ‘real’ mailbox, not e-mail). I have received these letters for many of my domains over the past year or so.
I would not go as far as calling this a scam, but in my opinion, there are some deceptive tactics being employed here. I have no reason to believe that they won’t do what they say they will do, and re-new a domain registration as they claim. They’re also probably quite capable and happy to register new domains as well.
The problem I have with their campaign is this: Their letters and the envelopes used to send them appear to be designed to make them easily mistaken for some type of official government agency communication.
As you can see from all the legal stuff on the back of the letter, they make it a priority to make it known that they are not affiliated with the U.S. Government. And you will become aware of that fact just as soon as you turn the letter over and fetch your reading glasses so you can read the tiny print that was used.
I recall the first time I received one of these letters. It was probably close to a year ago, and I recall being somewhat alarmed to see a notice like this show up in the mail. At first glance, it is quite easy to assume that this is some kind of ‘official’ notice from a government agency or Internet regulatory agency. My first reaction was along the lines of ‘What’s the problem with my domains’?
Upon closer inspection, I realized it was just a private domain registry company that was doing their best to convince me that I should re-new my domain registrations through them. Considering their prices, the chances of that happening are approximately zero.
That’s the other big problem I have with these people. As you can see from the most recent letter I received from them, they are charging $25.00 a year for a domain name. That may not sound too terribly bad unless you don’t already know that you can get a domain name for around $7 a year, and probably even a bit cheaper in some cases. Which means these guys are charging almost 4 times more for a domain name than many other well-known and reputable companies.
I was recently talking with another webmaster on the phone who had received one of these letters. He’s a very busy guy, and does not have a lot of time to be reading through his mail. He was completely taken in by one of these letters, and had set it aside with the rest of his bills, intending to pay it later.
When he told me about the letter, I told him what the letter was really all about. He was not a very happy camper when he heard what I had to tell him. Now this is not some dope I am talking about here. This other webmaster is a very intelligent guy. The kind of guy that has been known to read books about quantum physics and actually find the subject interesting. For the record, I’m the kind of guy that would not make it beyond page 1!
I can only imagine the tremendous volume of letters these people are sending out, and since this has been going on for a while now, I think I can safely assume they are making a nice profit charging people way too much for domain names.
Much like the recent ‘SPAMIS’ spammer, these people are trolling through the domain registration records and sending these letters out to domain owners whose domains are scheduled to expire within the next few months. Mine showed up addressed to a ‘pen name’ I happened to use to register one of my other domains.
If you receive one of these letters, just keep in mind that you can get a much better deal on your domain registration renewal in many other places. Despite their encouragment to take advantage of their “best savings,” which is apparently to renew your domain name with them for 5 years and pay $85.00!
Hmmm, pay them $85.00 for the exact same thing I can get somewhere else for around $35.00? Does not sound like much of a deal to me. I’d have to say that the best deal you can get for yourself after reading their letter is a brisk walk to the shredder to put it where it belongs.
If you are in need of domain renewal or registration services, just do a quick search on Google or Yahoo! for ‘domain registration,’ and you’ll find many cheaper alternatives.
P.S. What a coincidence! Going to the Yahoo! page, I see that they are currently offering a domain registration for $4.98 a year. Helps put the “Domain Registry of America” offer in perspective, doesn’t it?
Leave a Reply