We have received several inquiries from our clients regarding a concerning paper invoice they have received in the mail. The invoice is sent from a company named Domain Name Services, and the invoice claims that the clients domain has expired and needs to be renewed for the disproportionately high fee of $249.
This kind of scam relies on the recipients of the letters not carefully reading the invoice. In the case of our client’s, the domain name printed on the invoice is a “.com” domain instead of our clients “.com.au“, but the scam may rely on some other subtlety being overlooked by the recipient, such as a changed letter in the domain name.
We suspect that this is the same group of scammers that previously went by names such as Domain Register Pty Ltd or Domain Name Group. In 2011, the auDA wrote this consumer alert regarding the group.
We would like to remind our clients that Net Solutions never sends out paper invoices, so please view any unsolicited paper mail regarding your web services with suspicion.
A copy of a paper invoice sent to one of our customers can be viewed below:
