July 17, 2007 at 4:08 pm
I received a letter in the US mail from "Domain Registry of America" offering to renew the domain registration for my Office Live web site. I wrote to MS and here is their response:
"Thank you for contacting Microsoft Office Live Support.
Based on the information I received, I understand that you received letter offering about the renewal of your domain name. I understand why this would concern you. Let me help you out.
William, I checked your account information on our end and I was able to pull up your Microsoft Office Live Basics subscription. With regards to your concern, I want you to know that Domain Registry of America is not affiliated with Microsoft Office Live. It is probably a scam activity.
Microsoft Office Live will be renewing your domain name annually as long as it is with us as stated on the Domain Name Service agreement in
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officelive/FX102101701033.aspx#DomainNameService
I tried to search for some information with regards to this issue and I found out that it is really is.
You can go through this links to more information.
http://www.ucan.org/blog/blog/scam_alert/domain_registry_of_america_scam
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/12/domainreg.shtm
http://support.tigertech.net/droa
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum25/2985.htm
I advise you to ignore the letter."
July 18, 2007 at 7:12 am
We received one of these emails last year, for one of our main websites. So it's not limited to any one type of website! Best advice is to delete the email, just like any other spam/scam/junk mail.
Steph Brown
July 19, 2007 at 5:08 am
There are hundreds of domain registry companies in existance, most of them legit. They compete for business, sending out emails and snailmail about their services. The name and address information for domain name owners is publically available to all of these people. So, a few months after you first purchase your domain, you start getting the letters. Most offer long term deals, such as discounts for 3 year and 5 year registrations. Or free website hosting if you pay a slightly higher price. Stuff like that.
I doubt your letter is necessarily a scam, though MS would definitely say so for several reasons. 1) They want to keep your money for your Office Live website. 2) It's bad business for them to admit there are other domain registrars out there, you might take your business someplace cheaper. 3) There is a remote possibility it's a scam and they don't want to get in trouble by telling you it's not.
Don't worry about it. It's capitalism in action. You're going to see a lot more advertising coming your way because you do actually hold a domain name. I don't know there's a way to get off the list short of cancelling your ownership of any and all domain names, which I'm sure you don't want to do.
I get this stuff all the time since I bought my brother a domain name for his birthday a while back. Since it expires this year, I've gotten no less than 20 different registrars telling me "Your domain name is expiring. You have to send us money to renew it. Here are our deals!" and few of them from the company I actually paid to register the name through.
July 19, 2007 at 5:26 am
Actually, I've had wvmitchell.com registered with Network Solutions for 10 years, and I had never received any kind of letter like this before. Maybe I'm just lucky.
But my Office Live subscription is for the Basics version which is totally free, including the domain name williamvmitchell.com so when I saw the letter it made me wonder if MS was only giving the first year's registration free, after which it would become a paid thing. So I initially suspected an MS scam, but was wrong about that.
If you check out the articles in those links, the Domain Registry of America really is a scam, and government agencies are taking legal action against them.
July 19, 2007 at 5:46 am
I can see your point, but I still quibble with the word "scam". The way I understand a scam to be is that you pay money, get nothing in return and in fact lose something you had. The DROA is actually registering your domain name, no one has accused them of not doing that. The problem is their misrepresentation of the facts.
Which is still a bad thing. Qwest (the phone company) did the same thing in the U.S. several years back. They'd send out little checks to people that, if cashed, would indicate the person's willingness to have their long distance phone service switched from their current provider to Qwest. But they never put that information on the fine print. There was a word for it other than "scam", but I can't remember what it was.
July 19, 2007 at 5:51 am
Are you thinking of the word "fraud" 🙂
July 19, 2007 at 5:58 am
No. There was actually a term for it that was uniquely different from fraud and scam. It was like 4 syllables long and it had never been applied to anyone or any fraud-like behavior before this particular instance.
July 19, 2007 at 6:47 am
Okay, I found the word. I had the # of syllables wrong, though.
What Qwest was doing was called "slamming". You can find a detailed entry for it at Wikipedia.
July 19, 2007 at 7:09 am
Ah yes, slamming. But the way I remember it, it was the other way around - some loser telco would grab your long distance service without your permission. And your local telco would charge you $10 for making the switch, adding insult to injury. You'd have to contact the local telco & place a lock on the service, which would require them to contact you directly to authorize the change. That happened to my mom a long time ago, she had AT&T but all of a sudden she was getting bills from MCI for long distance. But a quick call to Illinois Bell switched her back without any charge, and locked the account from any further changes.
July 19, 2007 at 7:13 am
That's just it. Qwest would "get your permission" when you cashed the little checks they sent out. Or if you competed in a contest they were sponsering or even if you filled out a survey for them.
It was as sneaky as what DROA is doing. And just as illegal.
July 19, 2007 at 7:24 am
You know the old saying,
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away"
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