Domain Renewal Group - A Warning...

cloudwalker_3

I thought I'd just flag this up to warn other people on this forum, (although people here are pretty smart, so I can't see lots of people falling for this scam).

Today I got a letter, (fairly professional looking, and designed to look official) telling me, "As a courtesy to domain name holders..." that my domain name will expire and that I need to start thinking about renewing my rights to it.

The letter is from a company called the Domain Renewal Group. They're nothing to do with my current registrar who is 123-reg.co.uk, (well recommended and very good value for money at £2.99pa for a .com domain). They're clearly based in the United States, (all the telephone contact numbers are in a US format) but the letter came with an envelope bearing a UK address, (however this is, I think, just a mail box address). I'm guessing they simply looked up my domain on whois.net saw that the domain rights expire in June and thought they'd seize the opportunity to try and make a quick buck

However, when I say a quick buck, (as in the singular) I'm being a bit understated, to say the least!

In the letter they offer me several different costs for different time periods for keeping my .com domain.

1 year at £20.00
2 years at £35.00
5 years at £65.00

The five year deal is what they describe as their 'best value package'.

Hmmm.

I'm not sure what constitutes 'best value' here, but trust me this isn't anywhere near it! Based on the costs that I pay to my current registrar their charge of £65.00 is equivalent to 21.7 years! What a total and utter con. This is simply a thinly disguised, (and not too thinly at that) attempt to swindle people out of money.

When I Googled them it looks like they have a track record as well because several posts on different forums popped up pointing out their less than honest business approach. I'm a member of the Federation of Small Business, but another website that's probably worth bookmarking is domainscams.co.uk where they are listed along with a whole bunch of other organisations who are trying to run the same scam.

Needless to say I won't be taking up their generous offer. :laugh:
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chrisaj

We had one of these letters a while back. As you say, it's a very businesslike letter. At a quick glance through I did panic, but read it through more thoroughly, and realised it was a scam. The letter was filed through the shredder:rotfl: Like you we're also with reg123, very reasonable and reliable, easy to use.:T

Jemma-T

If these are real letters through the post I'd pass them (and envelopes) to you Trading Standards office as they keep tabs on stuff like this along with other people.

https://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk

Scan it and post it here too.

cloudwalker_3

It was a real letter, and I wish I'd thought of sending it off to trading standards but I've now shredded it now. Flip!


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david29dpo

Binned mine but it did me a a shock!

paulofessex

I was wondering if all the people above are customers of Reg123. Could it be a case of Reg123 selling on details or are they just getting the details via Whois?

david29dpo

1&1 here........

cloudwalker_3

paulofessex wrote: »

Could it be a case of Reg123 selling on details or are they just getting the details via Whois?

I don't think Reg123 sell the details on, it's fairly simple to look up details on WHOIS and then send junk mail based on this.


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kitschkitty

Jemma-T wrote: »

If these are real letters through the post I'd pass them (and envelopes) to you Trading Standards office as they keep tabs on stuff like this along with other people.

www.tradingstandards.gov.uk

Scan it and post it here too.

What they're doing isn't illegal or anything though (unless they aren't renewing your domain name for you) so what action could trading standards take?

I do agree that it is a rather naughty marketing ploy to get people to switch to them and charge them through the nose for the privilege though.

Jemma-T

kitschkitty wrote:

...so what action could trading standards take?

I'd hope you could answer that for yourself.

I'd imagine, TS might want to know where they got the info from, pharming, theft, abuse etc. They may also be interested in the company because they are linked to other potentially interesting 'schemes'.

The people behind these scams (not necessarily illegal of course) are like a rash all over the place and TS keep files on scum like this. Let's add to those files.

Snakeeyes21

I see no scam, its just like insurance companies who search the database for policies that are due to expire then write to them offering their services and an 'unbeatable quote'

And where they got their information, from public records, its not illegal to use information in the public domain for drumming up business.

They are offering a service at an inflated price, nothing more nothing less.

If having inflated prices means their a bunch of scammers then half the businesses in the UK should be classed as scammers.