SCAMMING AND SLAMMING YOUR DOMAIN NAME...
Some registrars use every trick in the book to capture your business - and then leave you feeling foolish. Here are some common tricks to watch out for.
Domain Name Scam Alert
Caution, if you receive a domain name renewal notice by U.S. mail or E-mail and it isn't from HitNet, Inc or HitNet.com, be careful! The notice is probably a fraudulent mailing.
Some of our members have received 'official-looking' domain renewal invoices from a variety of different companies. There are many companies registering domain names and some have engaged in questionable business practices aimed at getting you to renew your domain through them, which transfers your domain away from HitNet.
How the scam works:
 You receive a domain expiry notice in the mail. This bogus invoice lists your domain name(s) with an amount to be paid and a date to reply by.
You or someone in your organization responds to the notice and sends a payment by check or credit card.
No confirmation request E-mail is sent to you to authorize the transfer.
A transfer request is submitted to the registry and the transfer process begins.
When you choose to transfer your domain name from HitNet to another registrar, it is that registrar's responsibility to get your authorization before processing the transfer.
Once you've sent a payment for one of these phony invoices, they accept this as your authorization, and they could complete the transfer of your domain without further confirmation or knowledge from you.
Once this happens, the only way to get your domain back with HitNet is to transfer it back, and pay for an additional year's renewal.
What these 'Renewal Scams' could mean to you:
If you renew your domain(s) by responding to one of these phony renewal notices, the following could happen:
Loss of domain name services with HitNet.
Cost you more money (renewal and transfer fees).
Make it difficult to modify domain registration information.
Loss of domain name rights and/or activity of web site hosting and E-mail.
Bait-and-switch transfers:
Some companies offer extremely low-cost or even free transfers. But when it comes time to renew, they sock you with prices that are two, three, or four times the amount that HitNet.com charges. HitNet.com guarantees that you’ll never renew for more than you originally registered. (The only exceptions would be if the price the registry charges us increased, or if you took advantage of a limited-time, special price. And if the registry increases our cost, yours will go up only by the amount ours did, never more.)
Unbelievably low prices:
All registrars have to pay the registry for the domains they sell, and that price is fixed. So if you see domains priced at less than $6, the seller is actually losing money. How do they make it up? That’s right – they sock you at annual renewal; provide inadequate or no service; and/or charge unreasonably high prices for the other services you need.
Vanishing companies:
One technique the “big guys” use is to launch small companies that offer incredibly low prices. They advertise all over the Internet for a while; capture all the customers they can and then – they disappear. Those unfortunate enough to have registered or transferred a domain to them will be rolled back into the parent company – at the parent company’s much higher rates.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
|
630-717-7100
