Several of our clients have reported receiving postal mail from a company called “Domain Registry of America” or “Domain Renewal Group” and it is indicating to them that there is an urgent need to renew their domain name. If you receive any of these in your mail, do not pay this company. This is a scam.
For these scams, the company receives your postal address, domain name, and registration information from the publicly available WHOIS database. They then send you a misleading letter indicating that your domain is expiring. Well, all domains are “expiring”, just as all “humans are dying”.
If paid and signed, this document allows this phony registration company to transfer your domain name to their registration company and charge you whatever they want for future registration fees. Unless you read the very fine print of this document, you may be unaware of the impact and intentions of signing this document and sending in a fee to this company.
Since the company appears to be based overseas, there is little recourse available for this type of misleading scam. Please note that for most Skyhound Internet clients, we personally handle your domain registration and renewals ourselves and you won’t be receiving a bill for them except from Skyhound.
If you ever receive an email or postal mail with any questionable request for money for any domain name or website, feel free to call our office or email us and ask if it is a legitimate correspondence. If you are unsure of how your domain name(s) may be registered, you call always check with us and we can let you know if renewal is your responsibility, or ours. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to keep your place on the web. Stay safe out there!