Domain Name Scams – Help Center

Did you receive an email or letter that your domain name is expiring soon and you should send the company money to make sure you don't lose it?

It's (likely) a scam.

At the very least, it's an unethical solicitation. Basically, they try to trick you into sending them money to renew your domain name at excessive rates.

If you are a 37SOLUTIONS customer we only use Namecheap and GoDaddy for domain names. However, we do monitor and maintain domain names for clients that have purchased domain names from other legitimate companies like BlueHost, Hostgator, eNom, TuCows, Register.com, and Network Solutions.

But in general, an unsolicited email from any of these companies is a scam and can be ignored.

Your current domain name company will email you (or sometimes call you) when your domain name is nearing renewal. They will also contact you if your credit card is about to expire which would put you at risk of losing your domain name.

iDNS Scam

The iDNS domain name scam is one of the more prevalent solicitations because they snail-mail you an actual invoice and ask you to pay $80 or more for what you can easily get for $20.

We wrote a popular blog post about it here: https://www.37solutions.com/idns-domain-name-scam/

Example Domain Name Scam Email

Here's an example email from one of these unsolicited domain name email scams.

Attention: Important Notice , DOMAIN SERVICE NOTICE
Domain Name: {your domain name}

ATT: Gregory Duffie
{your domain name}
Response Requested By
29 - Nov. - 2018

PART I: REVIEW NOTICE

Attn: Gregory Duffie
As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification for your
business Domain name search engine registration.

This letter is to inform you that it's time to send in your registration.

Failure to complete your Domain name search engine registration by the expiration
date may result in cancellation of this offer making it difficult for your customers
to locate you on the web.

Privatization allows the consumer a choice when registering. Search engine
registration includes domain name search engine submission.

Do not discard, this notice is not an invoice it is a courtesy reminder to register
your domain name search engine listing so your customers can locate you on the web.

This Notice for: {your domain name} will expire at 11:59PM EST, 29 - Nov. - 2018
Act now!

Select Package:
http://argorafilms.com/domain/?domain={your domain name}

Did you notice the URL that they want you to click to complete your transaction? The URL goes to a website that has nothing to do with domain names. In this case it used to be a media production company.

What If We Already Paid Them?

If you've already paid these people please contact us immediately by submitting a ticket in the top right corner of this page.

If you're not sure if it's real or fake just submit a new ticket and include the content of the email.

When Does My Domain Name Expire?

You can also check your domain name expiration here: https://whois.domaintools.com