Have you received an email or letter regarding an expiring domain name?
Read on to find out how you can find if this is from a genuine source.
The communication i’m referring to mentions a domain name currently owned by yourself which may or may not, be due to expire. They normally look like this and can be quite difficult to distinguish from the real thing.
The aim is to scare you in to thinking your domain is expiring very soon and prompt you to renew with an existing service when in fact, you are signing up to a new domain registrar at a higher cost! The emails are cleverly worded to look like they have come from your current provider.
Here are some tips to help determine if what you have received is legitimate or not…
- Always remember the name of your domain registar (Fasthosts, 123 Reg etc) – if this is not mentioned on the letter or email, you can be highly certain, it has been sent from a different source.
- Check out the ‘from’ email address to find out if you recognise the address. Warning signs include free email addresses such as hotmail or yahoo accounts.
- Look out for sentences such as ‘Failure to complete your seo domain name registration may make it difficult for customers to find you on the web.’ They are worded as such to prompt action.
- Keep an eye on the price, if it seems unusually high or much higher than last year then be suspicious. The price does vary but normally you would pay around £15 & VAT for a .co.uk and £25 for a .com domain name.
These types of communication prey on the misinformed so you will be unlikely to fall for this scam if you keep the information you have on your third party domain and hosting providers.
Finally, I just want to mention that if you do receive one of these types of communication from an organisation you are unfamiliar with, do not reply to them. Instead you should look at the guidance provided on website of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website, contact your internet service provider or please contact me if you would like me to check something you have received.
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