Beware of DROA Domain Name Expiration Notice Postal Mailings
This is a heads-up warning to my fellow Domain owners to watch out if you get a letter in the mail from Domain Registry Of America, or some other Domain Registrar with whom you are not already affiliated as a customer.
Today I got a letter from Domain Registry Of America, addressed to my master account name used in the Whois Directory. The letter proclaims in large bold text:
Domain Name Expiration Notice
It then displays one of my Domain names that is due for renewal in 6 months and "As a courtesy to Domain name holders, we are sending you this notification ....."
Upon carefully reading the details they do make it clear that they are not your current Registrar, and want you to switch from you Registrar to DROA. They brag about only charging $30 for a one year renewal fee, and a bargain rate of only $50 for two years. There are checkboxes to place your order and a place to input your credit card numbers, which you would then mail in. There is a huge amount of information and disclaimers on the back of the letter that are in such a small font I had to get a magnifying glass to read it. I wouldn't transfer to these people if they were the last Registrar on earth.
If I was paying $35.00 a year for a Domain that would sound like a bargain, but I am a Dotster customer (see below), and only pay $14.95 per year for TLD Domains (or less if there is a special deal or Happy Hour Sale). If I was fooled into transferring to those people it would double the cost of renewing my Domains. Luckily I wasn't born yesterday.
Many Domains are owned by companies that have different people who know different details about the business, but not everything. These people are probably hoping that this letter will end up at Accounts Payable, where the secretary will call somebody to ask if they have a Domain that might need to be renewed, to which that person may say I think so. The Accounts Payable will pay the invoice by credit card and the company will have their Domain name transferred away from their current chosen Registrar by trickery, probably at increased expense.
I have seen other letters from other Registrars that never mentioned that they are not my current Registrar, asking for x amount of dollars to renew my expiring Domains. This is pure fraud, trying to get me to pay an invoice to a company with whom I have absolutely no relationship. If you do make the mistake of transferring your Domain to such a company you will probably never be able to get them to let you change back. Once a company like that gets your Domain name they make it almost impossible to transfer away from them. Legitimate Registrars have a simple method of locking and unlocking Domain transfers, with no fees (see below about Dotster).
As a Domain owner make it your business to know with whom your Domains are registered and what the renewal dates are for each Domain. Most Registrars with whom you are a customer will attempt to contact you by email first, to let you know 60 days in advance of a renewal date. Always check carefully when you receive a Domain renewal notcie to be sure it is from the Registrar who holds that Domain for you.
My Recommended Registrar:
If you are paying more than $14.95 a year for your Domains take my recommendation and check out Dotster.com. Dotster is an ICAAN Accredited Registrar and is above board all the way. They will not try to scam or trick you into unwittingly transferring a Domain to them. In fact, if you do transfer an existing Domain to Dotster they only charge $8.95 for the transfer and first year Registration, plus they extend your expiration date by an additional year. I have a lot more info about this on my Dotster web page. I have been a Dotster customer since the year 2000 and have never had a complaint about their services or methods of communications.
The consequences of transferring your Domain's Registrar
The consequences of knowingly or unknowingly changing your Domain Registrar are dire. Your Domain Registrar holds the Name Server (NS) routing information that sends requests for your website to the location in cyberspace where it is hosted and "served up," which is probably with a website hosting company. When you change Registrars the new Registrar usually does not import any of your Name Server settings from the previous Registrar. Therefore, say you were a Dotster customer, like me, and were fooled into renewing your Domain with a different Registrar, like DROA, via one of their clever Postal solicitations.
Here's what would occur:
First of all, DROA would file a transfer request with Dotster. If I had not locked transfers Dotster would acknowledge the request and allow the Domain to be transferred to DROA and remove it from their Name Server records. Within 2 to 24 hours Dotster would flush it's Name Servers cache to update it and your Domain's routing would not be present anymore, since you allowed your Domain to be transferred to another Registrar. Sometime within a week of signing up with the new Registrar you would receive an email containing the login instructions. You would have to go to that website and create a new account, with login name and password. Once there you could access your account information where your Domain would be listed as parked on the new Registrar.
I say parked because the only Name Servers listed for a new Domain are those belonging to the Registrar itself. They do not host your website; it is still hosted elsewhere, where you left it a week ago. All requests for your website will go to a Parked Domain notice on the new Registrar, not to your Domain where it is hosted, because the routing information has been deleted from the old Registrar and has not yet been updated in the new one. Your actual website will be unreachable from a browser.
In order to update the Name Servers at the new Registrar you'll need the details from your web hosting company. If you're really organized you printed this out when you first signed up with that hosting company. If not, and if you can't find the original hosting agreement confirmation email, you will have to contact the web host and ask them for the Name Server details.
Now, you have to log into the new Registrar and go to your account, find the Change Name Servers page and copy/paste in the two main Name Servers used by your web host. After applying the changes you will have to sit and wait for the new routing information to filter down through the Master Name Servers until they have updated your Domain through your new Registrar. It is conceivable that your website can be offline for up to a week or more while all of these steps are undertaken. That is assuming the new Registrar processes your application quickly and contacts you with your new account details in a hurry, and that you go there quickly and update the Name Servers. If there is a delay in their processing after they obtain the transfer authorization from your old Registrar, and how long you wait to update the NS details, your Domain could be offline even longer.
How can you protect your Domain against unplanned transfers?
Login to your account with your Domain Registrar and Lock the Domain against Transfers. Each Registrar has a different link or icon to do this and all offer the service, usually for free. Once locked nobody can transfer your Domain unless you login to your account there and unlock transfers.
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