Avoiding Domain Name Desperados
Con artists have discovered domain names. Here's how to avoid getting ripped off.
by Bill Sweetman, September 2001
Even if your company owns only one domain name – in fact, especially if it owns only one – you have to be a lot more
careful these days to avoid being ripped off by domain name desperados.
Domain names are valuable assets, and they require the same level of protection as physical assets. For many
companies, losing their domain names would mean their Web sites would disappear, online marketing
campaigns would fail and inbound e-mail would be incapacitated, not to mention the impact on the
company's brand.
Here's a brief overview of some of the more common domain name scams, along with some tips on how to protect
your company.
Renewal Snatchers: You'll usually get hit up by these folks just prior to the expiration date of your domain name. They
know that your domain name will be expiring shortly, and they offer all sorts of deals on renewing it through them.
They will often try to pass themselves off as your current registrar, when in fact they are really trying to steal the
business away. While, in some cases, they are legitimate registrars, their "deals" are often anything but.
Extension Exaggerators: These folks are less guilty of a scam, but often exaggerate the value of their offerings. They
will contact you "as a courtesy" to let you know that it's "essential" to register other TLD (top-level domain)
extensions of your existing domain name, such as yourname.BIZ or yourname.CC. In most cases, it's only "essential"
for their commissioned sales team; these lesser-known extensions are far less important than their .com or .net
cousins.
Alert Anglers: This is a clever variation of the Extension Exaggerators. Someone may contact you to "alert" you to an
"identical domain name application by a third party." They claim they have discovered that someone else wants to
register another TLD extension of your domain name, but they will let you pre-emptively register it – for a hefty fee. Of
course there really is no third-party application, they're just trolling for registrations.
Lapsed Lurkers: These shady folks use automated software tools to register your domain name the instant you fail to
renew it. They prey on companies that forget to renew their domain names promptly, and that often have little
recourse other than to pay a hefty sum to get their domain name back. A rather creative variation on this scam is to
point the freshly acquired domain name (and all its traffic) at a porn Web site, which embarrasses the previous owner
of the domain name into purchasing it back.
Truth be told, the majority of domain name nightmares are the owner's fault, usually as a result of naiveté or sloppy
record keeping.
My favourite example of this is a little-known software company named Microsoft, which had its popular Hotmail
e-mail service incapacitated for several days when it forgot to pay a US$35 (C$54) domain name renewal fee.
Hey, if it can happen to Microsoft, it could happen to you. So how do you protect yourself from making a similar
mistake?
Start by verifying who really owns your domain name by doing a WHOIS search at www.swhois.com. It's not
uncommon for a company to discover that its domain name is actually owned by an employee, a Web site design firm
or (my favourite) a disgruntled ex-employee.
Assuming you do own your domain name, is all your domain name ownership contact info correct? If not, you won't
be able to receive invoices and other critical information that affect your use and ownership of the domain name.
Appoint one person as your company's domain name watchdog. That person's role should be to proactively maintain
your domain name assets and ensure that proper domain name procedures are followed.
Have them maintain a domain name tracking file that compiles all of your important domain info, such as: name of
registrar, administrator name and e-mail address, administration passwords and domain renewal date. For extra
security, make sure you keep both print and electronic copies of this important document.
Use (or switch to) a domain name registrar that offers a Web-based management tool. Some domain name registrars
have unwieldy administration processes that make it very difficult, if not impossible, for domain name owners to make
even simple changes to their ownership records like updating an e-mail address. Registrars like easyDNS
(www.easydns.com), on the other hand, allow owners to change things instantly.
Domain names may be intangible, but they are still critical. As momma used to say, "Beware of geeks bearing gifts,
and cover your assets!"
Bill Sweetman is MultiMediator's Founder.
(A version of this article originally appeared in Digital Marketing.)
