Lately, a few of my customers have been misled by the (now) infamous Domain Registry of Canada, and I thought it would be helpful to post a little primer on what to look out for and a list of the few of the more well-known companies who behave in this underhanded manner.

What should I watch out for?

The scam basically works like this: These companies will send you a sales letter via email or regular mail that is designed to look like a sales invoice for services rendered. It's not actually an invoice for services rendered and if you read the fine print - you'll see that it's actually a "domain transfer request form" to transfer your domain registration to their services (usually at a higher price than you should pay). This practice is called "Domain Slamming", taking its name from Telephone Slamming, which is the practice of misleading consumers into switching their service provider without their consent.

Here are a few examples of what these transfer requests look like:

Domain Registry of Canada

Domain Registry of America

What should I do if I've already responded?

Typically, a good rule of thumb is: If you receive an invoice from an unfamiliar company, you should contact the company you are familiar with and ask them about it. In written word, this seems like common sense, but often when it comes to Internet-related things (especially when the fake invoice you've received warns you that you may lose your domain name) we sometimes act first and think the situation through later. If you've already sent payment in, don't worry as your money is not necessarily lost - the first step for any disputed purchase should be to contact the vendor and request a refund. If they refuse to refund any payments you made by credit card, you can inform them that you will be placing a charge-back against them if they don't issue the refund. If the merchant still refuses to refund your payment, the next step is to contact your credit card company, and let them know that you have been mislead into a purchase and the vendor is refusing to refund the money. They will initiate a reversal of the charge from their end, and while it will take a month or so, you will get the money back. If you've paid by cheque, then unfortunately other than requesting a refund from the vendor, there is not much else you can do to get your money back.

In Summary

Any documentation you receive that is related to your domain name or web page needs to be reviewed thoroughly before any action is taken. If upon review you are still unsure of the legitimacy of the document, you can contact us or a trusted web provider that you deal with and ask for their advice.