Don’t Be Fooled. Domain Registry of America is Scamming You

I don’t know any other way to put this. Domain Registry of America is scamming people into transferring their domains to them.

It works like this. You open your mailbox one day to discover an official looking envelope that looks like this:

When you open the envelope you find an even more official letter that looks something like this:

The contents of the letter make you believe that a domain you own (in my case something like NOOBIE.COM) is about to expire and that you should settle up with Domain Registry of America immediately or risk losing the domain.

Only one problem. You didn’t register your domain with Domain Registry of America. In fact, you probably registered it with some bulk domain seller like GoDaddy, which has you own auto-renew so you never have to worry about losing your domain.

Worse yet, Domain Registry of America wants you to pay upwards of $30/year for the same domain you paid less than $10 for with GoDaddy.

Jelly-of-the-month

And by paying the $30 you are essentially agreeing to transfer your domain from your current registrar to Domain Registry of America. This is the domain equivalent of those checks you get for $50 that, when deposited, automatically sign you up for a jelly-of-the-month club.

So if you own a domain and get this type of letter from Domain Registry of America, stop and think where you originally registered your domain. If it isn’t from these scammers, then throw it away.