UK Internet Register scam
computers, scams, work May 21st. 2007, 1:36pmOne of the 8723875234 jobs I’m responsible for at work is the running and upkeep of the website. So, it came as no surprise to get a letter today about the renewal of the domain name. After all, it’s up for renewal soon.
However, I was confused to get the letter from a company called UK Internet Register rather than 1&1 (the host), or Nominet. And here it is:
Even more surprising, was the money they wanted for this renewal – ¬¨¬£639. That’s a markup of some 1000% from last year. Then, I realised that they’re actually selling “search keys”, which seem to be some sort of advertising. For ¬¨¬£639!
That sounds like an amazing bargain, yes?
Anyway, so I looked up the company name on Google, and found this helpful blog post. Look familar? Basically, it’s a scam.
May 21st, 2007 at 15:02
Terrible isn’t it.
We simliar thing sent to us. Problem was the person that opened the letter didn’t pass it onto me. They just decided “we MUST renew our domain!” so signed the form and sent it back
It was a few days later when i was told “i renewed that domain for you”
When i said “which domain? i none of them are up for renewal?” we found out a bit more. Fortunately we managed to put the brakes on the whole thing before it got any worse
May 21st, 2007 at 15:03
I really should proof read my comments more throughly..what terrible grammer!!
May 21st, 2007 at 15:11
“Grammar”
I’ve not got one of these yet, thankfully.
May 21st, 2007 at 16:04
I seem to get about one of these per year per domain. I was almost taken in a first because the company name was very close to my domain registrar.
Now they just go straight into the shredder.
May 22nd, 2007 at 09:50
I can’t see anywhere on this document where it says it’s a domain name renewal. In fact the first paragraph refers to it being a “payable advertisement”. I got one this morning as well and it’s so obviously a scam. Why would a German company be handling anything to do with a “UK Internet Register”?
June 1st, 2007 at 11:17
I think they have hurridely amended their letters to target another audience.
I had one last year trying to con me into re-registering a domain i owned and now one trying to sell me an inflated priced directory listing!
June 5th, 2007 at 14:53
yeah get these here at work every year or so.
September 11th, 2007 at 17:24
Well, I received a bill for a website I had long ago cancelled. Why? Because the provider liked the name when I cancelled it, so they kept and paid for it, then sold it to the company that took them over. Our website remained (sort of) active, just paid by some other company … until they decided they did not want it. Then they just passed on the problem to us. Try to cancel a website you already cancelled years ago! Especially if you started it as a private person, but it is now noted as a company website. Not easy.