They market via direct mail, and send what appears to be an invoice for domain renewals, often complete with a message indicating the client's website is going to be taken offline if they don't act fast. They're presented in a fashion that highlights the "scare tactics", but if you read the fine print, it shows that it's not actually an invoice.
These companies make their money from the people who don't know any better and end up sending a check for domain registration services, at a rate of typically 10x the normal rate you can register a domain with a reputable company like GoDaddy.com. If you receive one of these fake invoices, our advice is to throw it in the trash where it belongs. After all, if a company has to trick you into doing business with them, does it really matter what they're trying to sell you? Avoid these companies unless you want to spend unnecessary money and cause yourself a headache.
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| Domain Registry of America Sample |
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| DNS Services Sample |
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UPDATE 3/30/2015: It has been reported to us from someone who fell for this scam that once they successfully tricked them into transferring their domain name to the scammers, they not only required the ridiculously high registration fee (ten times the normal amount), but when it came time for renewal, they jacked up the renewal fees and held the domain hostage so the person either had to pay the fees (sounds like extortion to me), lose their domain, or spend the time/money to file a civil suit against the scammers. The message remains the same from this post: we recommend you run from these "companies" as fast as you can!
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