Seeing as I've been dealing with this for most of the morning with a few clients I thought I might as well share it here too as it's bound to catch someone out..

Ok... basically there's a rather suspect (read: downright scummy) practice engaged in by companies who send you scarey letters about your domain name and how it's due for renewal and hadn't you better avoid losing it by sending them payment now...


Somewhere deep in all the long jargon and scarey stuff it's actually hidden that these companies have absolutely sweet FA to do with your domain name and thus a little extrapolation of common sense shows that what they're actually trying to do is get your domain into their clutches and then charge you a fortune for it...

It's a known practice and the companies keep getting silly fines for it but because they're just so slippery they just change a few minor things and continue...


So, beware... if you own a domain name or use a service, make sure you only renew with your registration service and not some of these dubious companies... You'll only regret it later if you don't..

I know the feeling we have had a few customers with the same letters.

It really scares them and we get the calls.

Steven

One of these 'companies' tried this scam on Great Ormond Street Hospital, and forced them to pay over the odds for their Domain names too.

This has been around for well over a year, I think.

I've had a couple about my own domains.

Forward the letters to the Trading Standards people - I think they've been interested in these people in the past.

Joe

Originally posted by JoePritchard
This has been around for well over a year, I think.

I've had a couple about my own domains.
Oh yeah.. I've known about this for a while but it seems that people haven't listened when I've told them about this in the past so with a whole new batch of these and a lot more subtle approach involved I thought I'd just spread the word to watch out all over again..

Forward the letters to the Trading Standards people - I think they've been interested in these people in the past.

Yep.. they stopped them last time with their invoices... they've just changed the format marginally and gone ahead to do the whole thing again...

:rolleyes: :mad:

We own the .co.uk and .com forms of our domain names. We occasionally get calls from companies saying that someone has asked to register another form of the domain name (e.g. .org, .net). I ask how someone can register a domain name using our company name, and they plead ignorance. We have decided to let these other people register the name (if they actually exist) - good luck to them. We always get top listings on Google anyway!

Well nothing would stop them from registering for example MrHelicopter.org even if you have MrHelicopter.com and .co.uk. As long as they are using the domain for a purpose it will stand in court. If they squat on it you could take them to court over it but that's probably not worth it.

The only thing to stop them using your company name would be to trademark it.

However, the example you mention is a scam as who 'asks' to register a name? and then the company is so kind as to notify you? BS. They're only trying to scare you into buying every TLD variant from them.

How do you trademark a company name and how much does it cost?

http://www.patent.gov.uk/tm/forms/forms.htm

Thanks for that Tony.
Excellent link.

:thumbsup: