How to Avoid Domain Name Registration Hoaxes

Have you ever received an email from a company claiming that your domain name is due to expire and have not been sure if it is legitimate? Or maybe you've received an email from a company claiming that one of your competitors is trying to register a similar domain name to yours?

In some cases these are legitimate emails, but quite often they are hoax emails simply trying to trick you into paying excessive renewal fees or unnecessarily registering new domain names. Here are some simple steps to help determine if an email is a hoax and help you avoid being a victim of these scams.

Step 1
Hoax emails will quite often tell you that your domain name is due to expire, however the domain name they refer to is slightly different to the domain name you actually have registered. For example they might say your domain "yourbusinessname.net" is expiring when in fact it's actually "yourbusinessname.com" that you have registered. Check that the domain name listed exactly matches your domain name.

Step 2
If the domain name does exactly match, you then want to ensure that the company sending you the registration information is in fact the same company that your domain name is registered with. You can do this by performing what's called a 'whois' query on your domain. There are numerous ways this can be done and one of the simplest is to go to www.geektools.com/whois.php. There you simply enter your domain name (without the www), click the whois button, and information relating to your domain will be displayed.  The company your domain is currently registered with should be listed under 'Registrar Name'. If the company information matches up, the domain registration information you received is likely to be legitimate.

Step 3
If you don't recognise the registrar as a company you have dealt with before, you can look up the company name in Google and see if their website looks familiar to you. You may even like to give the company a call to see if they are happy to discuss the matter with you.

Step 4
If you still aren't sure and would like to be 100% certain that you aren't being scammed or registering a domain name unnecessarily, please feel free to contact us and we will be more than happy to assist you.