Domain Registry Of America: Don’t Be Scammed!
I just received an interesting notice in the mail from Domain Registry of America. It was real easy for me to identify these schmucks as scam artists, but the average consumer may not find it so easy.
In the top right corner of the mailing are the words “Domain Name Expiration Notice.” Then, below that, there is an 800 number and a web address (www.droa.com). It’s an official looking letter and arrives in an official looking envelope and a return envelope, addressed but not postage paid. The letter begins, “As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification of the domain name registrations that are due to expire in the next few months.”
Some people may not know when their domains expire, but I do. I also know who my domain registrars are and I have no interest in switching. The letter continues:
When you switch today to the Domain Registry of America, you can take advantage of our best savings.
Then the letter tells me when my domain names expire – several months away. But they want me to “Act today!”
First, if I did switch my domain registration to Domain Registry of America, I wouldn’t be saving any money. I’d be losing money; and that’s probably the case with anyone.
I currently pay $10 per year for domain name registration, the going rate. Some web hosts include this fee in their packages. Others offer registration for less than $10. In any case, I’d never pay more than $10. Domain Registry of America wants to charge me $30.00 for one year or $50.00 for two years. And in bright red letters next to the $50.00 price tag are the words “save $10.” Hmmm … by my calculations I’d be losing $15. Nice scam they have going there.
There are probably people who would fall for this. But I’d caution my readers to stay away from these people. After doing a little more research (like a Google search), I discovered that I was not the only person to have been solicited by these people.
Blog.Forret appears in Google as the No. 3 result for the company’s name. The No. 2 listing is the FTC (Federal Trade Commission). On the FTC website, I read:
The Federal Trade Commission has requested that a federal district court enjoin Domain Registry of America, Inc., an Internet domain name re-seller, from making misrepresentations in the marketing of its domain name registration services and require it to pay redress to consumers.
That was 2003. Evidently, these guys have been around a long time. There are 58,400 results on the Google SERP for this company’s name inside quotes. Most of them are negative reactions to DROAs aggressive marketing tactics and its penchant for misrepresentation. The company’s response? They threatened to sue a blogger whose blog posts ranked highly for their company name.
After browsing through five pages of Google’s SERP for the company’s name, I didn’t find one single result that had a positive thing to say about Domain Registry of America. Most of the results are angry bloggers accusing the company of running a scam. Others are other domain registrars upset about DROAs tactics as well. A result from December 2002 shows that Register.com filed a lawsuit against DROA and the judged ruled in its favor.
To add insult to injury, in its letter to me, DROA threatened:
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 names from your current Registrar to the Domain Registry of America. Failure to renew 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.
This is blatantly misleading and incorrect. There are other considerations that affect domain name registrations. These considerations can include trademarks, registrar transfer issues, and other types of dispute resolutions where gray areas in the law are concerned or when there have been clear violations of an existing law, that can not help with your Search Engine Optimization efforts. For more information about domain name dispute resolution, you can visit the ICANN website.
I strongly encourage anyone who gets a letter from the Domain Registry of America to report the company to your country’s consumer advocacy agency. Most Western and industrialized countries have an arm of the government dedicated to consumer advocacy. Report them and don’t do business with Domain Registry of America.
45 Responses to “Domain Registry Of America: Don’t Be Scammed!”
SEO Journal is Written by
Brick Marketing Founder,
Nick Stamoulis:
Nick Stamoulis - SEO Bio.
Tel. - 877-295-0620
nick@brickmarketing.com
Connect with Nick Stamoulis
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
I fell for this. I spent $50 dollars because I thought it was last chance to keep my domain. I had forgot who I’d registered the domain with in the first place but soon realized it wasn’t with them.
Any clues on what I should do to get my money back?
I got some similar mails a few years ago. That’s what shredders are for.
Their wording WILL catch the unwary (think “pre-emptive counterstrike”) but that’s what the unwary are for.
Bait.
I don’t want to seem unduly harsh, but I doubt if you will ever get your money back. Consider it a $50 lesson in paying attention and basic literacy. The same things they teach in public school for free.
With some effort, though, you should be able to get the name back so you aren’t stuck with them in perpetuity. Your ISP should be able to arrange this fairly quickly.
Then keep going. We’ve all got better things to do than spend endless hours trying to retrieve $50. Just be glad that they didn’t nick you for the new debarkation fee. That would have added $35 and a two week quarantine.
This company has been involved in numerous lawsuits. If you call them back, you should receive a refund. Or call your credit card company and have it reversed.
My sister fell for this back in 2003 before they were required to stop misrepresenting themselves. She ‘renewed’ for two years and I didn’t even realize that this company had her site until 2006. We tried to transfer it away from them at that time and then again in 2007. In 2008 we thought we finally had it taken care of, but our other hosting company and made a mistake, so we were back to square one.
I’ve spent hours trying to get one of their managers, Eric, to allow me to transfer. Turns out the hosting company and Brandon Gray International (aka Namejuice dot com) all lead back to the same people. I pointed out to Eric that he was violating ICANN policy, but he said his company policy required me to wait 120 days for my credit card to clear — what total BS!!!!. He didn’t care that he was violating ICANN policy.
He then offered to let me transfer it for $200 dollars. Since, he refused to allow me to transfer because of his ‘company policy,’ I asked him to show me where it stated he could charge me for the transfer. He had the audacity to put me on hold and go in and change his policy before getting back on the phone and telling me where to find it. Since I was already familiar with the company’s business practices, I had already opened all the policy pages in tabs in my browser, so of course my copy didn’t have the one liner saying he could charge me!!! I can not believe this guy could be so blatant and stupid. I’ve already submitted a complaint to ICANN. And after repeatedly seeing this company’s complete and utter lack of ethics, I will do whatever I can to help see them pay for their crimes.
If anyone has a copy of the letter they send out, please get it posted on the web where I can find it, or send it in here so it can be forwarded to me. I’m particularly looking for one of their earlier ones that only state in small print that this is a transfer.
My hope is to get my sister’s domain out of these crook’s hands and try to stop them from causing anyone else this pain.
The DROA scammer had been booted out by eNom and other registrars as their reseller. It appears that they are now taking refuge under namejuice.com. I suggest everyone submitted your complaint to namejuice.com and insist they terminate such deceptive reseller. While DROA may be able to get away with this, namejuice.com can’t. Because they are accredited registrar and they are bound by ICANN’s policies, unless they are stupid enough to give ICANN the reason to terminate their accreditation.
Although you may not be able to reverse the transfer if it’s completed already, you can insist that DROA or namejuice.com release your domain for transfer away from them after 60 days. They are NOT allowed to refuse such request, not for ANY reason despite of what B.S. DROA may give you.
If they refuse to release your domain, then they are in clear violation of ICANN’s domain transfer policy. That will a valid ground for ICANN to terminate their accreditation. ICANN has stepped up the enforcement of their policies lately so all complaints will be looked into by them. You can submit the complaint here: http://reports.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi
I also fell for this scam from Domain Registry of America. Numerous emails and phone calls and they have yet to refund my money. I now have a regulation E dispute being filed at my bank.
I have had so many clients ask me why they are getting this letter when I take care of all their registration. I explained to them what they do and the reaction is always the same. “How can they be allowed to do this?” My reply is basically, ‘it’s not technically fraud’ and remind them that they are in good hands with me and that if they receive any more, to disregard them.
I myself have written at least one article on this and it’s nice to see others trying to help unsuspecting and potential victims of their less than honorable ways.
I too got scammed by DROA. I am out $30 cuz I finally figured it out and wouldn’t let them transfer my domain name (which BTW only costs $15 per year).
The letter is even more deceptive now because it doesn’t say when the domain name expires, it says “reply requested by (date)”
I emailed them and they got very nasty. I am glad to have your info so I can report them.
Hi Linda,
Sorry, that this happened to you…I am glad I could help provide this information for you!
Well worth being retweeted. Thank you. You helped identify errors in my PC. It was slow as ever. Will be reffering this to a lot of my friends!
Hi Patricia,
Thanks for the comment and the tweet about this post!
If you go to their website at http://www.droa.com you will see that they offer free web hosting with any and all domain names. I noticed you wrote that you would never pay more than $15 for a domain name and that hosting companies sometimes include domains for free…but the real question is..how much do you pay every month for hosting????? Even GoDaddy who claims to be the cheapest in the industry; their hosting packages start at $4 per month or $48 per year plus $11 for the domain name…do the math, it works out to $59 per year…Domain Registry if $30 for everything included. If you want privacy, email packs, etc. GoDaddy charges for all that…Domain Registry includes them all at no charge. Obviously I am a customer of Domain Registry and I asked them about this negative information written about them..their response was when you are the cheapest in the industry and no one can compete, and your customer service is perfect…they say the only way competitors can compete is by slander. They claim they have over 1 million satisfied customers and for all that i have read i have yet to see 1 person actually complain about their price or service issues. Goes to their point that only their competitors who cannot compete with them are behind all the slanderous comments. For a smart person like you Nick, try their service out for yourself and then decide whether to write positive or negative, after all isn’t that what journalists should be doing instead of relying on others
I fell for the DROA scam (they said “renewal” in the original text) but realized my mistake a day later. I am being hosted by ENOM, who i like, and DROA couldn’t transfer the domain w/o my permission to ENOM. Of course I didn’t give it and emailed DROA telling them I didn’t appreciate their deceptive practices and demanded a refund. They agreed (rather quickly) and should refund my card July 2nd. If so, I’m not terribly upset. If they’ve lied again, I guess I’ll have to find another recourse – probably have my CC company deny the charge. The good news is I still have my domain at the original account. I also have to say that there is a good chance that they are a perfectly good host/provider once they solicit your account. I haven’t seen any posts that say they do a bad job of hosting. Good luck everyone!
Hi Ricky,
Glad to hear things worked out for you. Best of luck with your website and thanks for commenting!
I Just got a letter form them. It said my registration was due to expire Nov 15.2010. If you look up the domain on whois, it is set to expire on Nov 15, 2015.
Jerks
Hi Tom,
That is horrible! Yet another example of the Domain Registry Of America trying to scam people! Thanks for sharing!
Their letters are in direct violation of ICANN.org rules & policies for REGISTRARS from using the WHOIS database for solicitation purposes.
REPORT them to ICANN.org, I do.
If they receive anough complaints, they will shut their business down and they won’t be allowed to sell domain names.
Hi Tom,
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.
This is a great course of action the Domain Registry of America, hopefully over time this will help stop them!
I got this same letter when my domain was going to expire (my host and registrar was justhost.com at the time) and I truly appreciated their effort. What a great company to remind you of something SO important. A person could a.b.s.o.l.u.t.e.l.y lose their online identity if they do not act on it. Sure most people set their accounts to renew or are so wonderful enough to keep track as you arrogantly described… HOWEVER some people might let it slip through the cracks. The amount of those “some” people are sure to add up with 63 million billion domains out there. I think its genious marketing and big cry baby bloggers should whine about something that matters instead of this garbage. How outrageous and insensitive to your readers to call this a scam.. a scam takes peoples money and doesn’t provide a service in return. I personally will not buy with them simply because I don’t appreciate a Canadian company posing as an official American institution, but that’s just me. Good day.
Thanks for your comment and sharing your thoughts. You make some good points, but the bottom line is Domain Registry of America is a scam!
These scumbags stole one of my clients who does not speak English too well. I am the admin contact and own the domain eagletravelplaza.com which was used by one of my budget $399 year website clients.
DRA sent a renewal notice to my client who paid for 2 years of service with them. And he will not pay me the rightful owner of the domain for my service. I have since turned the site off and put the domain up for sale, but i keep getting these scammy emails from DRA to unlock the domain so they can have it.
Calls to them do no good, they just hang up on me!
Scammers!!
Thanks Doc for sharing your story and I am sorry to hear the Domain Registry of America scammed yet another person!
Thank you for sharing this with us.
I got a letter from them a few days ago and I was a litle bit suspicious, so I decided to google them.
Ive got one of these letters sitting in front of me right now. And the funny thing is I get these every other week since I own a handful of domains!
It is a total scam….the $60 charge for a .biz extension made me laugh…and cry at the same time. I can see tons of people, worried about their URL’s paying these butt holes.
This is a transcript of my emails back and forth with DROA last week. I cannot believe this company is still in business. Eric Voisard even went so far as to mess with my account so that I could not access it. I called tech support to get the EPP code so I could transfer it and was told that “something was wrong” with it. The notes said that I wanted to let my site lapse and not renew. Umm…no! The guy was super nice and read thru my emails and made copious notes in my acct stating that was not my intention at all. He unlocked my acct and sent the EPP code to me. He said he has nothing to do with Eric Voisard and couldn’t believe the guy is still around. Tech support has nothing to do with customer service just FYI. I told him I am peppering the internet with my emails back and forth. Until this morning I had no idea so many people had the same experiences with DROA. Anyway, read this from the bottom up…
—–Original Message—–
From: Eric Voisard
To: XXX
Sent: Thu, Dec 23, 2010 1:00 pm
Subject: Re: Shady business practice
If you want to remain ignorant of our prices and deals because it better suits your pre-determined notions about us, by all means, live in ignorance, I’m sure it is more comfortable for you there.
And your claim that you are giggling to your “friends” on your “social networking sites” has been quite entertaining for us, thank you.
Eric Voisard
Customer Relations Manager
1-866-434-0212 ex 248
evoisard@droa.com
On 23/12/2010 3:45 PM, XXX wrote:
I’m not interested in your attempt at justification although this has been quite entertaining for my friends and colleagues and I on our social networking sites. They are taking notes.
You send me a link to your own site? You think I care what your company says about your pricing and how you beat the competition? I can do my own research thank you. I pay less on Go Daddy and Pappashop FYI.
Bottom line, take me off of your mailing list.
Don’t respond to this, you are wasting my time now. I am putting you and droa in my spam folder.
P.S. You might want to spell check next time it only shows your lack of professionalism.
—–Original Message—–
From: Eric Voisard
To: XXX
Sent: Thu, Dec 23, 2010 12:35 pm
Subject: Re: Shady business practice
Unfortunately we will have to disagree as our letter quite clearly states in bold lettering that “This notice is not a bill”, it asked the potential customer if they are interested in transferring their domain name to us. It is everyone’s responsibility to read the information they are presented with, not reading it and claiming that you were deceived is not a vlaid response and is a way to deflect your own personal responsibility. So your assertion that it is not clear as to the purpose of the letter is wholly misguided.
As for our prices we offer the lowest domain registration and hosting services in the industry, feel free to compare our pricing to other similar services: http://www.droa.com/whinfo.asp
Eric Voisard
Customer Relations Manager
1-866-434-0212 ex 248
evoisard@droa.com
On 23/12/2010 3:22 PM, XXX wrote:
I wouldn’t say clearly. That is a stretch. That language is hidden within several paragraphs into the letter. This looks just like the renewal for a domain, not a solicitation. You can put whatever spin you want on this but DROA has designed this letter to deceive customers into thinking it is a renewal not a solicitation to transfer their domain. You and I both know that people rarely thoroughly read through their mail, particularly one that looks like a bill. You are counting on this in fact. I think it is shameful that DROA would stoop to this level and am looking into my options on transferring my domain from your company to another. I think it comical that you mention how low your prices are when it is a well known fact that you have some of the higher prices out there. I had few options when I first purchased my domain name, now there are many and I plan to take advantage of this competitive market and get out of business with a company who seeks to prey on its customers and in such a duplicitous manner.
If you truly want to offer a service and not seek to take advantage of people you would design a letter that looks like a solicitation and not one that looks identical to one of your actual bills. I know this will not happen because clearly your company is unscrupulous. Any company that would do this in the first place is lacking a moral compass.
Nonetheless, don’t send me this garbage again.
—-Original Message—–
From: Eric Voisard
To: XXX
Sent: Thu, Dec 23, 2010 12:06 pm
Subject: Re: Shady business practice
Dear Customer
The letter you received is a solicitation asking you to consider our firm for the renewal of your domain name. You have the choice of renewing your domain name with any registrar of your choice. The solicitation clearly states that you are transferring your domain name from one place to another if you decide to renew your domain name with our firm. The advertisement also goes as far as saying that you don’t have to renew your domain name with the current registrar or with the Domain Registry of America as the choice is yours.
Eric Voisard
Customer Relations Manager
1-866-434-0212 ex 248
evoisard@droa.com
On 23/12/2010 1:58 PM, XXX wrote:
Please take me off of your mailing list. I have one domain with you (papillonprincess.com) and that is it. I received what looks like a renewal notice for another website I have but you have nothing to do with that site. I maintain that domain through another company and I think it is really shady of you to send me a “bill” to renew something you don’t have. Why would I pay $35 a year through you when I pay only $11.99 with someone else?
Don’t ever send me something like this again. This is very sketchy business practice of yours and I will be sharing it with my business colleagues. The only bill I expect to see from you is the papillonprincess.com one and even that I hope to stop in the future.
XXX
All the guys on here defending these creeps work for DROA. They are so arrogant, they don’t see how obvious it is. This company is owned, staffed, and operated by a bunch of low-life scum.
Thank you for information, few weeks ago I received a letter from Domain Registry of America, it kind of got me worry I have to renew my website soon, but I was hesitant to re-register it specially because I thought it was kind of expensive.
Good thing I check your blog, before I went to theirs, I have heard of soo many scams, and I was reading their letter and got me courious when it saids “it is time to transfer and renew your name from your current Registrar to the Domain Registry of America”. I said WHAT?,
So that got me into check them out, Thanks again, I do have serveral domains I am working with and It is nice to know that you took time to expose these people.
To those people that say that DRoA has a lot of benefits, I have seen Hosting companies with a lot more benefits and cheaper than what have been mention by some of the people in favor of DRoA
Thanks again.
Hi, a company that I work for as a marketing consultant has just been scamed by the DROA but please be aware that they are now calling themselves the Domain Name Renewal Service and not the Domain Registry of America.
However on going to the website http://www.domainrenewalgroup.com and clicking the contact us email addresses – they all link to a droa.com email address!!
We sent a cheque which has now been stopped and are hoping that we have managed to stop the transfer and renewal in time plus not lost out on any money.
Hope this helps to stop this company scamming others especially as they have changed tactic!
We received a link to your blog from Fasthosts!
Thank you.
I got a letter from them today. It’s March 24th 2011. I’m really amazed that these dirtballs are getting away with this crap. they obviously are trying to get a knee jerk reaction out of people to try to get them to fill out the form and send a check assuming that the people won’t read the whole letter. Fortunately I renewed my domain two months ago so I knew something was wrong. My domain is through Yola and was paid for long before I got the scam letter.
I thought I would google the name to see what came up and found this site… Keep up the good work!
Thank You.
This site was up for several years and the domain with droa at $30 /yr. I also got the notice several months ahead and usually put it off till the due date. Last year was a stressful one and I missed the due date. It took me a few months to realize the domain name had been sold—creeps!
I recently was thinking of contacting them for any advice on handling the situation and possibilities of restoring my site and domain name. That’s when I ran across this site–I wish I had seen it sooner–good work!
So I ask the same question here and will appreciate and helpful comments.
Thank You
I agree with all of the other folks who’ve been scammed.
I I have a different problem: How do I get rid of the online website I was conned into? The outfit who got me into an online website is no longer available for contact. Should I just wait until it expires? It has had zero hits on it after almost 2 years. How do I get rid of the website? Thank you.
It is a violation of consumer protection and unfair business practice laws to issue misleading advertisements, such as solicitations disguised as “renewal” letters. http://www.masstortclassaction.com/renewal-scams/domain-registry-renewal-scams-unlawful/
The first thing that tipped me off is that the letter was not sent First Class. It was sent standard or bulk mail, which told me it was from someone who was just trying to sell me something. The place I registered with would have sent a statement via First Class mail. Of course the second red flag was that my domain doesn’t expire until October, but I received the letter in May. Yes, they are rip off artists!
Thank you everyone for your posts! I received this in the mail yesterday and thought something was fishy about it, so being the “Googler,” that I am, I came across this site.
I originally set up our website with Intuit but couldn’t remember who the domain name was set up with.
This will be going in the shredder! Thanks again!
I just received this in my mail. I was planning on sending the check and then I thought the name didn’t sound right. I contacted Inmotion my domain name provider and they told me it was a scam. I can’t believe I was going to fall for it and I am usually very very suspicious , but what caught me is the Expiration deadline. Thanks for the article.
The most important thing I would like to know now is: where do we complain about them? I mean it looks like they are still doing it getting away with it? How can we make a stop to it?
I received one of the DROA “Domain Name Expiration Notice” letters back in August of 2011. I ignored the notice because I know who my registrar is, figuring that this was some kind of scam. Recently a misinformed friend advised me to register with the DROA. So I looked up their website and ran a web search for sites like yours to see what others were saying about DROA. Boy, was I surprised at how many people have fallen for this nifty scam! BTW: DROA is still operating under their original name; they’ve included some legalistic mumbo-jumbo disclaimer statements on their form letter to cover their nasty little asses after being caught scamming. Don’t be fooled by ANY of their bullshit disclaimers: If you don’t keep your registration current with your legitimate registrar, these predators will buy up your domain name(s) and resell them!
Got one of these scam letters today. Only reason I guessed it might be a scam is that I don’t have a website or a domain. Out of curiosity, I tried to go to the website they say is about to expire. Surprise, suprise: there isn’t one. They just generated a random name and sent it to a random victim.
Makes you rethink the pros & cons of the Death penalty.
Just so you know, it’s Jan 4th 2012 and this scam is very much still in effect. They got me for $35, and I called and asked for a refund. They say it will be refunded in 72 hours. They consented to the refund so easily, it definitely made me wonder if they get refund requests all the time; in other words, they provide no value whatsoever. I thought I was going to have to send a letter, which I have NO problem doing. At the conclusion of the call, I asked for an email confirming the refund granted and the rep agreed. I called today to follow up on that, and now the rep says, they don’t send emails, just process the refund. Whatever. They don’t know me; I’m a take action kind of girl.
I just called their customer support & sales department 1-866-434-0212 and made them listen… 3.2.1… Never Gonna Give You Up, Never Gonna Put You Down, Never Gonna Run Around!!! Everyone should do the same! RickRoll them for their crimes!
I am glad I checked a little more into the renewal letter. I was surprized to see how many people were using my Domain Name and am sure glad I didn’t carry through with more money lost. Thanks Orville
I received this letter in the post today. I didn’t think it sounded right as I have my domain registered through another company and I know when I will have to renew. Thank you for this article confirming my suspicions; into the shredder this letter will go.
I have had the domain name of catavenger.net for years recently when it became available I got catavenger.com (I kept catavenger.net as a subdomain.) I got basically that same letter (yes it does say this is not a bill.) I called my current domain host and they were very nice and explained things to me. I then called the Domain Registry and told them that I thought their business practice was low. I am glad that you have this thread.
I almost fell for this myself as today supposedly was my last day to act although nowhere listed in the group I am with is there a listing about our domains being handled by someone else.
I thought it odd although I do thank you for the posting and I do hope that others do some sort of research before they fall for this scam which for me it was just a simple Google Search.
For those that were “suckered” in I do feel sorry for you.
To those DROA employees who try to calculate and compare – I currently keep all my 26 domains with 1 and 1 on a hosting plan, which I pay $10 a month for. One domain is included for free and others are like $10 per year. So, 25 * 10 = $250 / year for domains. Plus $120 / year for hosting. Equals to $370. With DROA I would pay 26 * $30 = $780 a year. More than twice of my current charges. As for their hosting – who cares about 5GB per domain. I need more like 500 GB (and for some a few TB) per domain. Funny people.
PS. Now imagine how many letters from them I am receiving every month. My shredder is getting tired.