I’m regularly contacted by concerned clients who have received website domain renewals, many of which are bogus and pray on businesses’ internet naivety.

So far these have stemmed from outside Australia, but I was very disappointed indeed to see an Australian business running what appears to be domain scam recently.

My client received an official looking letter that offers to register a domain similar to their website domain. The renewal fee of $ 245 inc GST even offers a free iPod Shuffle.

This sounds like a great deal! But is it?

They don’t need it
The domain is superfluous to my client’s business needs so there is no point in them buying it at all.

Wow! Check the price!
You can self-register an Australian domain at around $ 60 for 2 year registration
Even the premium domain registrars only charge $140 per two years
You can currently buy a iPod Shuffle 1 Gig in Australia for $65

Not such a bargain after all is it ?

So if you receive a domain offer you check it carefully

Assuming an Australia domain is involved (ie .com.au etc) check the Australian Domain name Administrator to confirm if this business is indeed an accredited registrar www.auda.org.au/registrars/accredited-registrars/

The Code of Practice explicitly forbids solicitations for business so you wont receive these types of offers from a legitimate, certified domain registrar.