I always know when one of my domain names is coming close to renewal time, because in addition to my own diary entry, and the legitimate emails from the company the domain is registered with, other entertaining emails seem to appear in my inbox (or, more often, my spam folder!)

So here’s the latest one:

Screenshot of email from domain scammer

  1. I assume this is supposed to mean search engine submission. Except you don’t submit a domain name to a search engine, you submit the website once it’s built (and this is free, and also not even strictly necessary in most cases.) Google only cares about your domain in relation to the actual content of your website, so submitting your domain name has no meaning.
  2. Excuse me? I think you maybe mean “search engine optimization” (which is irrelevant here anyway – see point 1). But thanks for the lousy English to help tip me off that you’re a scammer.
  3. See point 1.
  4. You want me to pay how much for one year’s registration? Bwahahahaha! (See below.)

I wouldn’t recommend clicking on the link in these emails, just delete them. I did, however, out of interest’s sake in writing this article, and found myself on the payment screen. The screenshot below shows the scammer’s domain name pricing compared to the pricing at my legitimate domain registrar, Netregistry.

Comparison of prices between domain scammer and NetRegistry

 

Don’t fall for these scams. Know who your domain name is registered with, and when it expires. And check out my previous blog post on Keeping Control of Your Domain Name for more information.