If you own a domain name or someone has it registered on your behalf you will probably come across these devious spam letters in the mail.

They come from fraudulent domain registrars others who prey on people who don’t fully understand the domain registration service or directory listings in full.  So folks like this Domain Registry (from Jersey City, NJ) send letters in the mail to everyone that has a domain name stating their domain is about to expire and renew now.

And because they know businesses and nonprofits are busy, many simply send these in the mail to their accounting folks (I know actual clients who did) and they get their money, many times without even providing any service.

We continue to get asked about these from our clients or others, which tells me they have clearly deceived their letters pretty well to try to trick some domain owners into thinking a domain renewal invoice payment is needed.

So I first wrote about this other iDNS mail letter a couple of years ago, but my clients and I are still receiving these, and from other company’s. Which is a problem. Why? Because it means many of you are still falling for the scam and paying these fraudulent scammers 300-500% higher cost to own the registration to your domain. And worst, you lose access to your domain ownership if you do the transfer.

This is considered unsolicited aggressive spam. Why is this considered Spam? Because it is unsolicited (you didn’t ask for it) and is a fraudulently deceiving letter, making you think the world is going to end if you don’t transfer your domain name to them. In which afterwards, they (somebody you don’t know) owns your domain name registration. In which they can jack your price even higher or hold your domain hostage to force you to pay or sign up for other related services.

So we want to provide this information to protect you, whether you have registered your domain name with Northwoods Web Designs or some other provider. Here is the word for word mailing that you may receive. Hoping you are finding this from searching, ultimately protecting yourself from this spam company.

These companies who send these letters, such as this one from 924 Bergen Ave, Suite #289, Jersey City, NF (Domain Registry),  attempt to convince you into transferring or renewing your domain using their service. Which on average is 500% above the market rate for domain name services. 

The actual letter text:

Domain Registry (domainregistry.to) 
924 Bergen Ave, Suite #289
Jersey City, NJ 07306-3018

Annual Renewal Domain / Website Amount: $50.00 (ouch 300% higher then market)

Website: <they list your domain, which is easily retrievable from your website & other public records>

Description of services:

As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification of the domain name registration that is due to expire in the next few months. When you switch today to Domain Registry, you can take advantage of our best savings. Your registration for (your domain) expires on xxxxxx. Act today!

You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the Web, and now is the time to transfer and renew your name from your current Registrar to Domain Registry. Failure to renwe your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customers and friends to locate you on the Web.

Privatization of Domain Registrations and Renewals now allows the consumer the choice of Registrars, when initially registering and also when renewing a domain name. Domain name holders are not obligated to renew their domain name with their current Registrar or with Domain Registry. Review our prices (I did and they suck) and decide for yourself.  You are under no obligation to pay the amounts stated below, unless you accept this offer.  This notice is not a bill (cool legal disclaimer so you cant sue them), it is rather an easy means of payment should you decide to switch your domain name registration to Domain Registry.

Transfer and renew your domain name online at domain registry .to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

I did some discovery work and checked out their website and their public info on their domain (like they did yours). Their website is a basic scam site, where some yahoo created a website, started scraping the internet with already available listings and added it to their website, which is not seen from anywhere else.  Then they send scammy letters like these trying to collect money from unsuspected folks.

Even worst, this company domain is less than a year old (as of this writing 2019).  And they affiliated with the other scammy domain registrar (iDNS) where I called them out previously. They keep morphing into new domains after their original ones get flagged for spam/scam.

Domain:               domainregistry.to
Created on:           Tue Mar 05 06:02:55 2019

So to recap, you have no worries if you have your Domain registered with Northwoods Web Designs, [ or transfer yours today ] as we are well aware of its expiration dates and unless specified otherwise and have it set to auto-renew 30 days before payment is due. In addition, we align the annual domain renewal payment with your other services so you have a single bill for the year, not multiple that can just increase confusion and overhead on your behalf.

That is right, we already pay the fees and assure it’s renewed ahead of time even before you get an invoice.  Just one of many perks customers receive when they choose Northwoods Web Designs as their Web Services Partner.

If you have any questions or have received other deceptive letters, let us know by contacting us. We will be happy to post them to give a warning to consumers.

Let us know if you have been receiving these (or similar ones) in the comments below.