Dear All
Please let us bring to your attention a scam that has been going on for many years, but one that customers are still falling for over and over again run by “Registration Services Incoporated”
Other names they have used include: “Domain Registry Services”, “Registration Services Incorporated” and “Domain Registry of Europe” and “Domain Registry of America“, “Yellowbusiness.ca”, “Internet Registry of Canada”, “Domain Registry of Canada”, “Domain Registry of Australia“.
This ‘company’ first started sending out fake domain renewal letters to domain holders, using information illegally harvested from various WHOIS databases (mainly the Tucows OpenSRS database) in 2002.
These letters were initially worded in a manner which tricked domain owners into thinking that they were the registrar of the domain and included various phrases and logos that appeared to look official. In addition, highly inflated prices were charged to those who did transfer their domain. A number of corporate domain holders were ripped-off and had their domains transferred to these crooks. And many greenhorn domain owners have been caught out by these mailings.
Letters have been sent on and off for months, to various domain holders. But it’s not just UK these letters have been limited to - Australia, Canada, America, Europe and more have been on the receiving end of these trashy adverts.
Websites used by Domain Registry scam:
droa.com, droa.net, droa.org, droa.biz, droc.ca, droe.com, droe.info, droe.biz
LINKS
Here are just some of the links to their activities:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/08/06/legal_action_threatened_against_domain/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/07/17/domain_registry_of_europe_defends/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/08/16/ad_watchdog_critical_of_domain/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/10/23/asa_slams_intimidating_domain_registry/
ASA Rulings:
http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/adjudications/Adjudication+Details.htm?adjudication_id=34767
FTC (Federal Trade Commission):
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/12/domainreg.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/12/031219stipdomainreg.pdf
So, to sumarize, if you receive any letters from anybody about your domain name, throw them away, because we and all legitimate domain name registrar’s only ever contact customers by email if there domain name is registered through us.
If your not sure, pick up the phone and call to ask us anything about this.
