Warning! Be Careful with Sneaky Domain Renewal Notices
A number of customers have reported to directNIC that their domains
disappeared from their directNIC account after they responded to renewal
notices by snail mail. It turns out that they actually transferred the
domain to another registrar who had sent them a renewal notice by mail and
urged them to renew the domain immediately. Without knowing that these
notices were not from directNIC, these unsuspecting users transferred their
domains away from directNIC, paid a much higher price, lost their virtual
domains, erased their email forwarding rules and POP3 accounts, and
consequently took their websites offline.
To see several of these deceptive expiration notices, visit
http://notice.reference.directnic.com
For the record, directNIC relies almost solely on email to contact
customers and does not solicit business through the U.S. mail. If you
receive notices in the mail regarding renewing your directNIC-registered
domain names, be sure to read them carefully and consult with directNIC
before you make any decisions.
Several registrars are mining WHOIS data and sending deceptive and
predatory expiration notices to owners of domains that are not registered
with them. They have one common purpose: To steal domains from their
competitors without lowering their price or improving their service and
products. A few that have participated in this practice include Domain
Registry of America, Network Solutions and Register.com, among others.
We believe competition should be fair, legal, and ethical. directNIC has
attracted many customers by constantly improving its website and user
interface, adding new services, launching new products, listening and
responding to customer feedback, and protecting customers against hackers
and unethical solicitors. In order to better protect your domains and our
business, we invite you to join our efforts. If you have received the
mentioned paper-based renewal notices from other registrars, please report
this activity to ICANN, the governing body of the domain registration
industry.
The link to file a complaint is
http://www.internic.net/cgi/registra...lem-report.cgi
Sincerely,
directNIC.com