Does your domain name expire soon? Watch out for conmen!
By Stefan Dominik
- 2nd April 2009
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When you register/buy a domain name for your website, you do not own it for ever. There will be time in a few years when it expires and you will need to renew it. But with whom? Are you sure you are paying for the renewal to the right person?
When you are registering a new domain name for your website, you are also asked to fill in some personal info (name, address, email, telephone). Most of the time, this information is publicly accessible by doing a simple WHOIS lookup on a website such as
http://dnsstuff.com/. What you can also see, is when your domain expires!
And that is all that potential conmen or at least to say, dodgy domain name registrants need to know. When and who to trick into renewing the domain with them. Or in the worst case scenario, they simply want to get hold of your card details.
Unfortunately, it recently happened to one of our clients. They received a letter through the regular post from
an American company, who tricked them into paying for a renewal. You are right, it was not the company they bought the domain name with!
To make sure you are paying the renewal to the right person, and that you keep your card details safe, please:
- keep the details of your domain registrant safely stored, i.e. the name of the company, their URL (be careful the use the right URL), and your login details to the control panel for your domain management
- do not respond to and click on any links in emails - you never know who sent you the email
- steer away from reacting to regular post "special deals"
- if there is time to renew your domain, simply login to your control panel (make sure to type in the correct URL!!!) and you should be able to pay for the renewal from within there. When entering your card details, make sure that the information is encrypted (read Look for a padlock symbol, keep your personal details secure)
We provide in-depth advice on this and many other web related topics to all of our clients.