Domain Renewal Group scam

You might (yearly) receive this Domain Name Renewal Service letter that looks like a bill for the renewal of your domain name registration.

Sender is the Domain Renewal Group from New York or London. The letter says your domain name is up for renewal and if you do not act quickly, you risk losing the domain. Subsequently, you are offered the choice between renewal for 1, 2 or 5 year terms and you are asked to fill out your credit card number, e-mail address and signature. There is even a return envelope included to make it all as easy as possible.

But…

… if you read more carefully, you will notice they are actually proposing to transfer the registration of your domain to them. And for a relatively steep price at that. If you decide to pay this service, you will soon receive a request from your current website hosting provider to confirm the transfer. And because hosting usually includes domain name registration, you will start paying double from that point on.

So do not reply to this bill. Or send the return envelope back empty without postage.

If you have already replied, I’m afraid you lost your money. Unless you can notify your credit card company in time. It would really surprise me if you would get a refund from the Domain Renewal Group. As far as I can tell, the company has been sued for malpractice before but apparently they cannot be forced to stop with these deceptive practices.