April Blog 12 of 12: For the final installment of the TriMark Solutions April Blog Event, I thought it would be fitting to discuss ways to protect your SEO investment against online scammers, conmen, and Black Hatters.
If you have a website, odds are that sometime within the past few years you may have received a letter from the Domain Name Registry of America (DNRA) claiming you needed to renew your domain. Letters usually come via email or postal mail, and almost always resemble a bill or invoice (see image below), which is where the shady aspect comes into play. This method of mass communication, where the company is looking for unknowing people, is referred to as “domain slamming”, and is a very unethical (and illegal) way to do business.
The problem with the Domain Name Registry of America is that this company is not the company you currently have your domain name registered with. The DNRA preys on the business and company owners who don’t understand much about domain name hosting and registration.
The DNRA “scam” essentially works something like this:
1) Mrs. Smith has a website where she sells cookies and cakes, and her domain name is happily registered through Company X.
2) Mrs. Smith receives a letter (which looks like an invoice) from the DNRA, stating her “domain name registration with the DNRA is incomplete” or “your domain registration will be expiring soon, renew now”.
3) Thinking she owes money, or that her website will soon be down, she sends in a check for $30-$40.
4) Because the send in the money, the DNRA is then able to transfer her domain name, and register it with them.
5) Mrs. Smith unknowingly transferred her domain name from a company she was happy with, to this new company. She also feels like she got scammed, and must now figure out how to reverse the process.
Certainly there are more details to the process, but for simplicity’s sake, this is how it works. Unfortunately the entire process can’t truly be called a scam, because the letters do say in very small print “This is not a bill”, but this text is always hidden amongst various other legal jargon, terms, and conditions. So while the Domain Name Registry of America does not “scam” by the true definition, they certainly mislead. Heavily.
Performing a quick Google search for “Domain Name Registry of America” will show results of people receiving these letters from as early as 2004 (I have spoken with clients who claim to have seen letters from as early as 2002). The Domain Name Registry of America also sends similar letters from companies called “Domain Registry of America”, “Liberty Names of America”, and “The Domain Renewal Group”.
TriMark Solutions receives something 2-3 phone calls per month from concerned clients who receive emails and letters from the DNRA. They call us thinking that there is a problem with their website or domain name, and that they may owe money. We then have to explain to them all about the shady domain name registry scams out there, and what to watch out for.
So if you or a client receive a letter or email from any company who you are not registered with, throw it away. They are only trying to trick people who are unfamiliar with the domain name registration process. Hopefully companies like the Domain Name Registry of America will not last too much longer, but for now they still exist, so watch out for their misleading, unethical, and often illegal schemes.
There you have it, that’s one important way to protect your online investment. I’d like to personally thank everyone for taking part in our TriMark Solutions Internet Marketing & SEO April Blog Event! But just because April is ending doesn’t mean our great tips are! Keep checking in with us for more fantastic SEO & Internet Marketing Tips!
And don’t forget to leave your stories and comments about the Domain Name Registry of America here! Let’s chat about it!
