ForumGarden

The first one of these I got actually worded their scam to sound like they were irrevocably linked to one's ability to renew a domain. They've obviously encountered legal problems as the email I just got now reads:



Attn koan

This letter is to inform you that it's time to send in your search engine registration for **********.COM.

Failure to complete your search engine registration by Apr 19, 2011 may result in the cancellation of this offer (making it difficult for your customers to locate you using search engines on the web).



Your registration includes search engine submission for **********.COM for 1 year. You are under no obligation to pay the amount stated above unless you accept this offer by Apr 19, 2011. This notice is not an invoice. It is a courtesy reminder to register **********.COM for search engine listing so that your customers can locate you on the web

What do they want for this service? $75/yr to do something I can do for free. What'll happen if I don't act? They'll cease to ask me for my money.

I'm quaking in my slippers. What should I do??

They are, what's more, Canadian. And they send those all over the world. They're dogs.

It's not your registration fee they want, it's that once they've registered you the small print says you have to pay a penalty of some lunatic amount like $1000 to switch out to another registrar (quite likely your old one), and they perform so ineffectively with your domain name service that you've little choice but to pay it to get your domain functioning again. They rely on secretary/office-managers opening the "bill" and automatically paying it thinking it's a trivial amount and they're authorized.

That firm is the reason genuine registrars introduced domain locking, to prevent office staff from wrecking their company despite their lack of knowledge. And each time they get scolded by a court they change their wording a bit. It started out saying it was an invoice. Then it didn't say it wasn't an invoice. Personally I think every profiteering stockholder of that company should be flayed and turned into bookbindings.

eta: okay, I re-read what you wrote. I bet they're the same people though. The domain locks might be starting to bite into their old scam.