What deceptive domain practices can hurt me?

ICANN (the international regulatory agency for domain names), is warning that there are a number of *scams* circulating right now. These often arrive via postal mail, but can also be emailed to you.

First, are notices from registrars telling you that it is time to renew.. if you do, you will later notice that the notice did not come from YOUR registrar, and you have renewed your domain at some other registrar... often without realizing it. Since the new registrar often does not transfer the hosting info, you may first notice when your email and website suddenly disappear. Examine any such notice closely, and check your online account with the registrar you KNOW you are using. Most registrars use email, not postal mail. A few that have participated in this practice include Domain Registry of America, Network Solutions and Register.com, among others. Gryphyn Media has itself received renewal notices from Network Solutions/Verisign on domains we transferred two years ago.

The second kind of scam is a *Domain Dispute Notification* mailing from an entity identifying itself as *XChange Dispute Resolution.* The mailings falsely state that XChange is an *ICANN authorized arbitrator* and that the registrant must mail in a *security deposit fee* to defend *ownership of the domain name.* This is a plain old con game... do NOT respsond to these. Details from ICANN:
http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-08apr02.htm

A third kind of scam is the registrar that renews your domain using your credit card... without asking you and long before it is time to renew. There are recent reports of Register.com using this method to try to keep you from switching to a less expensive registrar. Things are fiercely competitive between registrars right now... domain clients are being stolen back and forth. This is different than domain hijacking, where your domain *ownership* changes... these are deceptive practices aimed at getting you to switch your domains to another regisration service. Be careful when responding to notices!

And then there is *plain old* domain hijacking. This occurs when someone convinces a registrar that you have sold or transferred a domain to them, or that they are the *real* owner of the domain. You suddenly find you are not the owner of your domain anymore. KEEP the records proving that you paid to register your domain. If a web designer or other consultant bought your domain for you, make sure it is registered in YOUR name, with your contact info, and that YOU have the username and password to the registrar account. This is what allows you to renew, transfer, switch registrars, and set your hosting preferences by accessing the DNS controls.

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