The domain name registration business is loaded with scammers and at best dishonest “legal” companies. Often at the office I get a letter on a domain name I have registered that is going to expire with 6 months or so asking me to renew the domain. Of course this company is not the one I currently have the domain registered with. The letter has 6 paragraphs of “fine print” on the back. The prices they are charging and several time higher than from my regular reliable registrars (I use www.godaddy.com and www.namecheap.com and I am very happy with both companies.) The most recent letter wanted $30 per year for the renewal. It would only cost me $10.33 from godaddy.
Worse yet is companies like traderdomains.com. I have registered www.frankbroughton.us for some time now. Of course I would like to have www.frankbroughton.com but it was taken by another person. Recently that person let it expire and it became available for registration. I received the following email from traderdomains.com:
Our company specializes in acquiring expired domain names to help individuals and businesses protect their brand online. The domain name FRANKBROUGHTON.COM expired recently and we were able to secure it. We noticed that you own FRANKBROUGHTON.US and felt that you may be interested in acquiring the .COM version of your existing domain name. It is available for a one-time fee of only $49.00 USD.
I went to godaddy and registered it myself for $10.33. A week before I received the same letter from another company that offered me frankbroughton.com for $97. Ya right!
If you have domain names registered be careful of these attempts to scam money out of you.