Hawk’s Babble-Log

Here is a company trying to rip you off by posing as your domain host. The site is domainrenewal-online.com, and I’m purposefully not linking to them, as they are _not_ your domain host.

I got an email from “Domain Renewal <no-reply@domainrenewal-online.com>”. The subject had one of my domains in it. This was my first clue; all proper emails from my domain host have the name of my domain host, not a generic “Domain Renewal”.

The email didn’t render properly. This was my second clue. The header and footer graphics were broken.

The email contained all generic info, including when my domain would expire (in 90 days) and contained a link to renew my domain. Their website looks like this:

Along the right side is standard public WHOIS info about my domain. This almost makes the site seem authoritative. All those logos along the bottom also probably make the site seem more authoritative.

The majority of the page is set up to receive my credit card info. There was no login screen, no authentication to prove who I was or that I owned the domain. The link I clicked on to reach this page contained my domain name within the link, meaning that it would be possible to insert _any_ domain name into the link and you would get the same page. They just want your money.

This is a scam, plain and simple. They’re charging over $50 to attempt to steal my domain and “renew” it for one year. My domains are locked and cannot be transferred anyway, but I would bet that they would still take my money!

If I were a lawyer, I might even consider getting a class-action lawsuit going against these guys. Don’t fall for their bullshit.