Thanks for the fabulous folks at SouthwestCyberPort (my ISP) for alerting us to this new domain name:
To: SWCP Customers
From: SWCP Tech Support
Subject: [SWCP] Some important information about Domain Names
Greetings. We have a few domain name issues to tell you about. It’s a little
long, so here is an Executive Summary:
1. .xxx domains are launching. If you have a trademark you can block people
from registering your name as a .xxx domain. But only until Oct 7, 2011.
2. Beware fake “renewal invoices” trying to get you to transfer your domain
to another registrar, especially “DROA”.
3. If you have domains registered with other registrars, transfer them to SWCP
to get free renewal tracking and WHOIS privacy.
The longer version:
First, the new “.xxx” domain registry is being launched this fall. It’s
unique among domain registries, and we’ve received several questions about it.
The biggest difference from other domains is that a trademark holder may
purchase a “blocking” registration. That prevents anyone from registering
their trademark in the .xxx domain (without having to register the domain
yourself and pay yearly for a domain you don’t want to use).
The window for blocking registrations closes on October 7, 2011. If you have
a trademark and want to block it, we can help you do it. The cost is $240
one-time and is a “permanent” block. We have more details in a blog posting
on our web site:
http://www.swcp.com/2011/why-you-should-care-about-xxx-domains/
Second is, “beware domain scammers”. We see several different flavors of
unethical behavior around domain registrations. The most common involve
trying to get you to register domains you don’t want, or trying to get you to
transfer your domain to a different registrar, under the guise of an annual
renewal. To call out one company by name, “Domain Registry of America” sends
people transfer requests which are made up to look like a domain renewal
notice. They prey on people who are too busy to check the details. They
respond to the “invoice”, which triggers a transfer of the domain to DROA.
DROA does actually provide domain registration service, so it’s not a complete
scam. But they charge an inflated price and acquire their customers under
false pretenses, which adds up to a scam in our book.
Another common scam email we see is a notice that someone else is trying to
register a domain with your company name in another country. The other
country is almost always China. For example if you own company.com, they tell
you someone is registering company.com.cn and implore you to register it
before they get it first. We have also seen the same scam regarding the “.us”
domain.
And finally, a note about domain renewals with non-SWCP registrars. SWCP
partners with OpenSRS/Tucows for domain registrations. We have been using
OpenSRS for over 10 years. Our combined system includes robust renewal
tracking. When one of our customer domains comes up for renewal, we email
them about 6 weeks in advance to notify them, with weekly reminders. If we
don’t get any response, we will contact them by phone. We do everything in
our power to make sure they know their domain is in danger of lapsing.
Most other registrars rely only on email notifications. About once a month,
we encounter a customer whose domain has expired by mistake. Usually they
can recover the domain the same day, but in some cases it takes longer. If
the domain owner doesn’t notice for a long period of time, the domain can even
be lost altogether (there are “domain squatters” who troll the daily lists of
expiring domains to snap up domains they think might be valuable either as
domains, or to hold for ransom).
If you would like to transfer your domain from another registrar to SWCP, just
let us know (email help@swcp.com). The transfer costs $20, and extends the
current registration period by one year. If you aren’t sure where your
domain is registered, you can check at our domain tracking web page here:
https://members.swcp.com/domains/
Log in with your SWCP username and password. We list all of the domains we
provide any services for. If the Expiration Date of a domain is listed as
“UNKNOWN”, that means the domain is registered with another registrar. If the
Expiration Date is shown, that means the domain is already with SWCP/OpenSRS
and is in our renewal tracking system.
Or feel free to ask us by email and we will check the status of your domains
an report back. We can also tell you who the current registrar is for each
domain.
Oh, one more benefit to using SWCP/OpenSRS as your registrar: Free WHOIS
Privacy. If you would like us to enable “WHOIS Privacy” on your domain, just
let us know. This removes your personal information from the public WHOIS
records, which can reduce the amount of spam you receive.
If you have any questions about any of this, please contact us by phone or
email.
—
Mark Costlow
help@swcp.com
—
So why the concern? Imagine you are running for office, or running a business and someone bought yourname.xxx (fill in your name) and was able to post anything they wanted on it. Coming that with Photoshop and viola, you’ve got a bad combo for having your brand “hijacked”.
