All domain registry renewal notices are scams through US postal
You are advised to shred, burn, bury, give to the dog or flush any domain name renewal notice that comes through the US mail. We’ve had several clients in the past who were held hostage for their domain names all because either an unsuspecting office manager or owner opened up one of these domain name mouse trap renewal notices and acted in good faith.
Companies like Brandon Gray (NameJuice.com), Domain Registry of America (DROA.com) iDNS (iDNS.com), and a host of other unethical, and deceptively clever slim balls solicit businesses through the US Postal Service. Not only does it waste time, for tech companies like WEBPRO but it places the client in harm's way. Guess who has to walk point for the client to ferret out and fix the issue?
The deception places us squarely and unfairly on the hook to help. The worst part of the dastardly deed can cost your client their business if their communications aren't back online quickly. No time to waste! You're in rescue mode for the client.
Imagine being in the middle of an email correspondence over a large time-sensitive contract and your email is down. You can survive a couple of hours if your website is down but email communication is the lifeblood of every business. Agreed? Right!
This is how we find out if a client fell for one of these deceptive scams. Since we have real relationships with our clients, we truly know who’s who in the zoo. Below is a real call between a client and myself, not 3 weeks prior to this post.
WEBPRO - Hey pal, how’s ya doing? What can I do for ya?
CLIENT - Well, on the lighter side Kevin broke the scale last week so we made a decision to send him to fat cat camp two weeks ago. He started taking water aerobics to knock the weight off. He hates it but he’s making progress. No more Temptations! All he wants is treats.
WEBPRO: Laughing
CLIENT: Say, all of our employees at the office are having a problem with email. Anything going on with the mail servers? We haven’t received mail since 8:44 PM Friday and I already did a cold modem restart.
WEBPRO: First order of the day is coffee while checking web and mail systems. All lights are green. In fact, I have a dedicated window up 24x7. Let me refresh. Let me send over quick howdy. Tell me if you got it ….. Like I said, if there was a problem, I’d know it before you would.
CLIENT: Really?
WEBPRO: Oh yeah ….. What’s this? Your email bounced like a rubber ball; servers are fine. Let me check your DNS and the MX records on your domain name really quick.
WEBPRO: Buddy, you have a problem, I see it. Did you futz with your domain or DNS settings recently?
CLIENT: No. You handle all that for us. I leave that stuff to you.
WEBPRO: Oh boy! MX (mail records) are wrong but the name servers are still the same. Web is up.
WEBPRO: Do me a favor and ask your office manager if they recently paid a domain name bill!
My client put me on hold for about six minutes. He came back and confirmed his AP (accounts payables) person made a payment over the phone to NameJuice AKA Brandon Gray two weeks prior. She called the number on the domain renewal notice because she didn’t want to fill in the credit card information on the bill they sent.
Whether are not Brandon Gray (NameJuice.com) is still an accredited domain name registrar or not, they did lose their ability to register domains for a while. They were slapped hard by ICANN for “Breech” ICANN stands for The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – Click here to read what Brandon Gray did to finally get ICANN’s attention.
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/serad-to-patel-18jul14-en.pdf
I’m willing to bet there are more than a handful of people that would enjoy having a face to face with companies like Brandon Gray, iDNS and others. Incidentally, Brandon Gray (NameJuice.com) charges 3x’s the amount for one year to secure a domain name. It’s just a guess but the reason his company is ripping people off is to offset all the postage he uses domain slamming unsuspecting businesses like my clients.
I’ve had to personally deal with NameJuice.com several times in the past. What I said can’t be repeated but if you have the displeasure of facing this syndicate, you are going to need help to get your domain released back into your custody.
Do not attempt to do this yourself.
If by some miracle you reach their rude support service, you’ll find more immediate bad news. The bad news is, once you authenticate through their dated website, you’ll likely have to reset the DNS, TXT, and MX records and settings yourself. They will not help nor do they know what those settings were. When they deceptively take your domain from point A to their point B, they typically don’t copy nor do they care to carry over your records which provides finite instructions which makes your website and your email work the way it did before you fell into their unethical POS renewal notice.
I don't often suggest you share articles we post but if you care about a friend who has a business, this would make for a damn good proactive oh BTW discussion. Domain slamming happens more than you think and we're willing to bet you've seen and trashed notices like Brandon Gray before.
Respectfully,
WEBPRO International Inc.