Return of the Domain Registry renewal notice sales pitch
September 3, 2020
A few days ago I got a letter in the mail, addressed to "Domain Owner," from an outfit calling themselves Domain Registry, with a return address of 924 Bergen Ave, Suite #289, Jersey City, NJ 07306-3018. The address also contained one of my registered domain names.
The envelope boldly proclaimed the following, in bold blue and red type: "Renewal Information Enclosed - OPEN IMMEDIATELY." Inside I found a letter with large bold type warning me that "Domain Name Expiration Notice." The letter told me that the named domain was due to expire in a couple months and that I needed to renew it to maintain my exclusive rights to it and my "online identity." The letter informed me that I could conveniently transfer the expiring domain to Domain Registry to save money with their "best savings" prices. Those prices were $50 for 1 year, $90 for 2 years and $190 for 5 years registration. It went on to offer the two optional domain name extensions: .net and .org, both listed for $90 for 2 years.
Domain owners who have had domains for a long time will remember getting these same scams from Domain Registry Of America. This is the same outfit just using a truncated business name. Further, their website url has changed to giv.com, which is short for Global Internet Ventures.
The letters they send are well crafted and are sent out about 2 months before a domain name is due for renewal. This may be done to beat your real registrar's renewal notice and tricking you into switching registrars before you get your renewal notice. What they are counting on is that busy companies and domain owners may not know with whom their domains are registered. That information may be locked away in a filing cabinet that contains hundreds of old invoices. In the case of private individual domain owners, their registration details may be long gone with old tax returns, or long ago deleted emails.
So, you might ask, "what's the big deal? $50 to register a website's name isn't a lot of money, is it?" The fact of the matter is that $50 is a lot of money compared to what most of the respectable domain registrars are actually charging for renewals. For example, my current registrar† only charges me $11.86 to renew a .com domain for 1 year (and only $9.99 for 1 year for new .com domains). That's a far cry from $50.00! And what about the 5 year price breaks? With my registrar the 5 year registration renewal costs just $59.30. Compare that to Domain Registry's exorbitant "best value" price of $190.00!
The important thing to takeaway from this article is that it is important for domain owners to know with whom their various domain names are registered and to only renew when notified by your actual registrar of record. They will send email notices when your expiration is between 45 and 60 days away, with follow-up warnings as the date grows closer. However, those notices are sent to the email account that is listed in the official account holder's personal details. If you, or they change email addresses, or somebody new takes over the function of paying bills related to domains and web hosting, unless the account details are updated to include the new email and mailing address, the renewal notices may never be delivered and the domain could expire and cease to resolve as a website. Take a few minutes to review and update your account details with your domain registrar!
† I am an affiliate for domain.com, with whom my own domains are registered. I may be compensated for leads and sales generated through my affiliate links to them.
