They go by several names … Domain Renewal Group, Domain Registry of America, Liberty Names of America and probably a few others that I’m not yet aware of. Regardless of the name, they operate in the same manner – by sending out what looks remarkably like a time-sensitive invoice for a domain renewal.
In reality, paying that invoice begins an overpriced domain transfer – and undoing that mistake will be a major hassle. Often the transfer fails, but the fine print says that the fee is non-refundable.
If you receive an invoice from anyone other than your Web host or domain registrar, you’ll save yourself a headache if you simply send it through the shredder.
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Thank you for the information. I just received a letter from Domain Renewal Group saying my domain was going to expire soon and I just purchased it 2 months ago. I definetely will send this letter to the shredder.
Thank you very much
Glad I could help, Lilian. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks for this. Just got one of this and my first reaction is that its a scam. Thanks for confirming this.
I just write “Return to Sender” and send this kind of trash back “unopened” to these fraudsters.
thanks for this just got one and it confirmed it was a scam
Thanks for your warning on the domain name renewal scam as I received a letter as well, through the post. I am like a lot of other people who are not real conversant with web site hosting and domain names etc.
I will stick with my original domain name arranger, Westnet.
Unfortunately, these companies know that many domain owners are a little fuzzy about the whole domain registration/web hosting technology side of things. Like scam artists everywhere, they try to take advantage of a vulnerability.
Thank you all for your comments. I’m happy to have been of service!
namejuice.com is another. My father I’m guessing xfered one of my domains to these ppl & it basically went offline. I originally registered it in 1998 and moved & the mail came here & he just sent a check. So I went to xfer the domain to a new company when I asked them to email me the Authoinfo or EPP. They replied with
“Hello,
The Authorization Code also called the EPP key is asked for when you are
transferring the registration of the domain from one registrar to
another. This is not a switch in your hosting they are asking you to
transfer the registration of the domain away from us.
As an alternative you do have free web hosting with us. It was included
in your last registration payment to us.”
[...] according to this blog post, this company also goes by the name of Domain Registry of America and Liberty Names of America. [...]
These guys suck. Isn’t there a way to shut down companies that falsely represent themselves like this. My letter wasn’t trying to transfer the domains. It was trying to get me to subscribe to similar domains to what I already have, like abcdef.info instead of abcdef.com, but it represented it like it was an emergency renewal.
the thing you fail to mention , if you did i didnt see it, is that not only do you get your domain for 30.00 you also get 1 year web hosting included. try to beat that price anywhere.
martin, I’m looking at a new domain name expiration notice right now from Domain Renewal Group. Their prices are $30 for one year for a dot com or $50/year for dot net or dot org. The notice specifically states that hosting is NOT included. This is no bargain!
New domains (many times including “free” ad-supported hosting) can be purchased for less than $10/year through a legitimate domain & hosting provider. Budget hosting with email can be as low as $45/year.
I just got an email like this about a week ago but fortuanatly recognized it as spam
As soon as I looked for a review of the “Domain Renewal Group” your post came up. I had the feeling this supposedly excellent deal was a bit suspect You know what its like when something just doesn’t smell right. Thanks for taking the time to confirm what I already suspected.