BoerGoats.com Article domain-name-scams

The following is excerpted from the BulkRegister News page and presented as a service to boergoats.com hosting clients.

Latest Domain Name Scams
Several recent domain name scams have been brought to our attention.

1. Low Ball Pricing to transfer your names from your existing registrar.
If you receive a solicitation from a registrar or reseller for very low prices please make sure to READ THE FINE PRINT! What you'll find are schemes that lock you into higher prices if you attempt to transfer, renew or change the domain information in anyway. Sometimes they'll offer free email and web-hosting complete with lots of annoying pop-up advertising that they don't tell you about. You might think you're saving money until you experience poor service, costly hidden fees and unwanted advertising. Be sure to make informed decisions for security, quality and support before transferring your names.

2. Deceptive Renewal Notices
Emails or US postal mailers are being used to mislead domain name holders about the expiration of their domain names. They are usually in the form of a warning about your domain names expiring. They may even look like a bill. Typically, your domain names and expiration dates are included in the message.

The scam messages appear to be generated from large competitive registrars such as VeriSign (Network Solutions) and Register.com or their resellers. If you receive any notices (either email or postal) from ANY other registrar or reseller, please bring them to our attention.

If you receive email or US Postal mail concerning the renewal of your names that you are unsure about, please contact boergoats.com immediately. To avoid being deceived by any renewal scam, we use an auto-renew feature.

One of the smaller registrars (BoerGoats will be used as a substitute registrar name) complained that Registrar.com sent the following email to deceive its customers:

Don't let your domain name(s) expire; renew today! We have not heard back from you. As a valued BoerGoats customer, we don't want you to miss out on renewing the following domain name(s), which are due to expire on Sat, Apr 20, 2002. Click on the link(s) below or copy/paste the appropriate link (which may be broken into two lines) into the Address or Location field of your Web browser for each domain name you would like to renew

Expiration Date: Sat, Apr 22, 2002 https://secure.register.com/renewals/?_crypt_=XXXXXXX

Note: Please keep in mind that you must renew each domain name individually. If you choose not to renew your domain name(s) by Sat, Apr 20, 2002, the domain name will become available to the public for registration. If you need any assistance, please contact a Customer Support representative online by visiting:http://gpn-enduser.BoerGoats.com If you have difficulty connecting to the Internet and using the URL above. All domain name registrations and renewals are subject to the terms and conditions of the Register.com Services Agreement, the domain name registrar selected to provide these services. The Services Agreement can be found at:http://www.BoerGoats.com/tpp-service-agreement.cgi. Thank you for using BoerGoats and Register.com. Notification ID: 9037684

IF YOU DO NOT RENEW THE DOMAIN NAME(S) LISTED BELOW THEY WILL BE RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC! We have not heard back from you and we don't want you to miss out on renewing the following domain name(s), which are due to expire on Wed, Apr 10, 2002. You will not receive any further notifications to renew the domain name(s) below. Click on the link(s) below or copy/paste the appropriate link (which may be broken into two lines) into the Address or Location field of your Web browser for each domain name you would like to renew