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.
If you have been ripped of by DOMAIN RENEWAL GROUP contact the New York Attorney General at, 1 800 771 7755 make your verbal complaint and follow instructions.
I also got one, but replied to thank them!! Thanks to you I have found out about the scam – here is the letter from them –
Dear CEO/Manager,
We are a domain name registration center in Hong Kong, mainly dealing with domain name registration and internet intellectual property rights protection. On Nov 24, 2009 we received a formal application from a local company of your country who is applying to register some domain names with the keyword ” shaster” and register it as their keyword. After investigation, we find that you are the original user of the keyword. As this refers to your company name or trade mark, and in order to avoid the confusion and dispute on the internet, we inform you and would like to know your ideas, if you agree about this issue, we will finish the third company’s registration. If you don’t agree the third company to register, please inform me. Look forward to your reply. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation.
Regards.
Julie.Yang
Audit Manager
Tel: +852-31757930 (8021)
Fax: +852-31757932
E-mail: julie.yang@hk-net.hk
Address: 19/F., First Block, New World Bldg,
No.18 Queen Middle Road, Zhonghuan, Hong Kong.
Dianne – I’m glad it helped, and was happy to help expose this scam. Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Beware! what you mentioned is so true. A friend of mine is a victim. Thnaks Shari for sharing. This will help a lot of people, I’m sure.
I personally feel that this is a very good business for the scammers where they have to search for the DNS owners and send owners “very well” ready made emails daily…if they send 10000 emails daily, and if 5-6% gets in their scam, then they have a lot of money daily….isn’t it great??
there are hundreds if not thousands of scam running on the internet, be always wary about it.~’:
There must be some way to stop these thieves. And they must be operating under the radar – this is the first time I’ve heard of this.
I received a similar mail with the names “Megatel” and “BKS Group” on it for my .ch web site.
Just got a letter from these people, my first thought was why transfer to someone I don’t know and pay £25 per year, when its only £7.18 for 2 years with my current company. Thought a scam going on somewhere, found this website. And to answer one earlier person here, no mention of hosting anywhere I can see.
Hi Shari,
I got several of these letters over the last year. They went straight into the shredder! It’s good that you are spreading the word about them as newbies could be taken in by the scam.
[...] Renewal Group. They have been around for a while, as evidenced by blog posts by David Risley and Shari Voigt from a few years back, and they are still going. Their scam? Presenting a lookalike bill for [...]
I have gotten these letters numerous times, it’s great advice to send them to the shredder.
Domains can be purchased online at reputable websites for under $10 a year. My favorite place to buy domains is dynonames.com, as a matter of fact, that’s where I get all of my domains. Their interface allows you to view all of your domains, change DNS settings easily and the best part is the auto-renewal feature which assures me that none of my domains will expire accidentally.
And, they don’t send scam letters.
Good post. I’ve never gotten one of these scam offers but this is good information. Thanks, Shari!
I have had several of these letters and they all say the same thing- hurry and transfer before it gets taken by someone else! This is a total scam and i do feel sorry for people that don’t know enough to know it.
$30 for a transfer?!? Really. I can’t believe this is still going on. Kudos to you for creating the awareness for people.
Read carefully any similar letters with warnings, reminders and offers. When the service looks overpriced, this is the first sign that this offer is a scam. If you have made the mistake to pay to one of those sites, there is still a chance to get a refund of your money (if the transaction was made via PayPal).
Thanks,
Karen
Similar emails to this often come into my inbox, says that I have to renew my domain immediately. But in fact I don’t own that domain. It’s a bit funny.
This is the first time I heard of such scams. I own a few domains and this really scares me. Will I be safe just using Go Daddy? I will take a closer look at my inbox as well.
Yes, GoDaddy is a safe bet for domain names. Just make certain that you renew with the same company that you purchased your domain name from – and ignore all the rest. This is an old post, but the scams are still going strong! Thanks for your comment.