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10-21-2003, 05:17 PM #1WHT Addict
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- May 2002
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- Chicago,IL
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Domain Registry of America Scam, what to do?
Hi,
For some time our clients have been hit with Domain Registry of America Scam. If you are not familiar with it, clients recieve a deceptive email or snail mail from Domain Registry of America when the clients domian is about to renew. They send the letter which looks like an invoice and very deceptive. Even though we have warned about this by sending email to our clients taht DROA is scam, some fall for it. They think the invoice is from us and pay up. Now it is almost 10 clients did tranfer the domain accidently.
Is there any recourse against such business practices? I dont want to ask the clients to charge back as the domain is already tranferred to DROA.
Any sugestion would be apreciated.SupportPRO.com Quality outsourced hosting support and server administration @ affordable rates. Leaders in 24/7 tech support for web hosting industry since 2005.
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10-21-2003, 05:32 PM #2Newbie
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- Feb 2003
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- USA
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- 13
Report them to the FTC. They've already been sued by Register.com for deceptive tactics.
http://www.whois.sc/news/2002-12/registry-america.html
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10-21-2003, 06:30 PM #3
Unfortunately, they are no longer being exactly deceptive. Misleading, yes, but nothing they are doing is illegal, since they spell out clearly it's a transfer.
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10-21-2003, 11:46 PM #4Web Hosting Master
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- Feb 2003
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- United States
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- 1,435
I've received a letter for every single domain I've registered. It is quite a misleading letter, and can be confusing. I politely gave their offices a ring and told them that, in so many words, if I receive another letter from them they will be facing legal prosecution. Haven't received a letter since, and that was months ago and I've had domains registered and expire in the mean time.
Regards,
Mark
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10-22-2003, 12:49 AM #5Designer
- Join Date
- Apr 2002
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- 2,195
Well I must say that the best word of advice is to PRE notify your clients of the issue rather than wait for them to accidentally transfer their domains, and then worry about what to do,
All of our clients are aware of this issue, and have been notified numerous times throughout the year, with every security update.
The best advice is, when you hear about a scam, regardless of how remote the chance of one of your customer getting nailed with it, make sure they know. Believe me they'll thank you, should anyone try to pull the particular scam on them.
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10-22-2003, 01:33 AM #6Web Hosting Master
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- Jun 2002
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- Sydney, Australia
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- 1,745
We've just received our latest batch of them. Even though they are misleading, it does mention that you will be transferring your domain from your "current Registrar" to the "Domain Registry of America".
Misleading? Yes. Deceptive? Possibly. Illegal? No.
What could be illegal though is the latest one I have received has offered me other "available" domain names to register - despite the fact that I already own them.
We've notified our clients about this and advised them to ignore. We placed a scanned copy of one of the letters online so that our clients could know what they look like.
For those who haven't seen them:
http://www.largenets.com.au/en/Misc/...582493,00.html
-ShaunShaun Ewing
shaun.net
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10-22-2003, 01:46 AM #7WHT Addict
- Join Date
- Feb 2003
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- Australia
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- 114
We have their counterpart here in Australia called funnily enough Domain Registry of Australia. Their invoice looking letter in the smaller print section states "this is a solicitation for new business".
I believe that they have had some clever lawyers, help them say just the right thing to avoid prosecution. I know at least one organisation that has been duped out of $200 for a domain worth only about $20. And several of our customers have rung to ask if it is legitimate.
I would say world-wide they are catching a lot of people and making a lot of money. I sure wish there was a way to stop these scum.Kerry Slavin
Reliable Solution Internet Services
http://www.reliablesolution.com
kerry@reliablesolution.com
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10-22-2003, 03:41 PM #8Web Hosting Master
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- Dec 2002
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I got one from the "Domain Registry of Canada"
Dan Sheppard ~ Freelance whatever
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10-22-2003, 05:50 PM #9Taking a break from hosting
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- Mar 2003
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- Charlotte, NC
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- 2,761
Enom is their registration partner, maybe you can file complaints with them. Isn't mining the whois database for commercial purposes illegal? If so, that may be a point to use against them.
-Josh
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10-22-2003, 05:57 PM #10Originally posted by MainAreaJosh
Enom is their registration partner, maybe you can file complaints with them. Isn't mining the whois database for commercial purposes illegal?
I doubt it.
They are making tons of money with this campaign, and Enom is profiting from it as well. What would be their motivation for pursuing to shut it down?
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10-22-2003, 11:04 PM #11Web Hosting Master
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- Dec 2002
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Actually, I beleive in the registrar agreement, it does spell out that it is against the terms for a registrar to use the whois database like that...
I dunno though, and I don't feel like reading the agreement again(once was enough for me... I did it just out of my own curiousity then, and boy was I stupid... )Dan Sheppard ~ Freelance whatever
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10-23-2003, 01:42 AM #12Junior Guru
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- Aug 2003
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- 175
< post removed because I didn't take the time to read the other suggestions. It's late, give me a break...>
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10-23-2003, 06:11 AM #13Originally posted by Sheps
Actually, I beleive in the registrar agreement, it does spell out that it is against the terms for a registrar to use the whois database like that...
But again, both parties are making money from it, and are highly motivated to continue.
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10-23-2003, 07:36 AM #14Web Hosting Master
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- Jan 2002
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- Scotland, UK
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Yeah, I have a massive pile of these sitting on my desk. I seems to receive a few each month
As to what we can do, I am not sure. I believe there was/is a similar scam to the ‘Domain Registry of America’ running here in the UK, I am unsure of the name though. I think Nominet (the governing body for .uk domains) took action in the end.
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11-17-2003, 09:10 PM #15Junior Guru Wannabe
- Join Date
- Nov 2003
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- 56
Maybe one of those TV shows that focuses on tracking down bad guys and protecting consumers could take this up?
I can just imagine the CEO of DROA being harassed by reporters as he takes out his garbage, thrusting his hands at the camera yelling: "No comment! No comment!"
I mean, maybe media attention is what it will take, because it seems really incredible that they have been allowed to get away with it for so long.
But then I guess "domain name registration" is not exactly a topic close to the heart of the masses.
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11-18-2003, 02:35 AM #16WHT Addict
- Join Date
- May 2002
- Posts
- 111
The best way to teach these guys a lesson is to Domain-Lock all our domains and then ask our affected clients to chargeback. This way not only do our clients get their money back but also these Domain Registry of Whatevers get taught a lesson also.
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04-12-2004, 04:43 PM #17Aspiring Evangelist
- Join Date
- Oct 2002
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- 447
Heh this is one reason why i do a domain-lock on all domains i register. I would like to see this scum get wiped off the planet. I seem to get a few every month!
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04-12-2004, 05:32 PM #18WHT Addict
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- Mar 2004
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- Vancouver Island, BC
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- 173
We domain lock new registrations by default also, the client can manually disable the lock via the management tools.
We recently had a client get caught by these fools too (DROC is the original, the rest are offshoots from it) and it was a battle to convince the client to refuse the transfer to them. They were local so we convinced them that we were the better service, plus we were almost half the price of the DROC renewal/transfer rate.
I used to work for a guy who attempted a similar method of getting domain business, when the .ca TLD changed a few years back he mined the whois data and actually snail mailed a lot of offices. Needless to say the returns were much less than the time taken labour wise to get the mailings out. In that case though it really required the client to re-register entirely for the domain names rather than just a transfer.
The people who come up with these ideas are basically marketers and ad guys these types will sell their moms to get it sometimes, business ethics are not their strong points.
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04-13-2004, 12:00 PM #19WHT Addict
- Join Date
- Jul 2003
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- 148
I have been getting them too... The first one was definately deceptive saying I would lose domain and such if I don't pay them for it. The recent ones are more specific about it being a transfer I guess someone big confronted them about it. But they were definately out to fool alot of people who don't know better.
viveHosting
http://www.vivehosting.com
Affordable Hosting, Reliable Service
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04-13-2004, 02:39 PM #20Aspiring Evangelist
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- Apr 2002
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- UK
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- 429
I get stuff from DROA here in the UK, often a number of times for the same domain.
Still, it gives the dog something to chew.Regards, Gordon.
Rune Solutions: Fast, Efficient Remote Backup Service.