StopECG

In can be kind of tiresome when you own a domain name, domain ownership is the sort of thing where many people pay someone else to do the legwork of registration and maintenance.

Those who would seek to mislead know this, it is a perfect area for the scammer as domain owners often know very little about their virtual property, and even the simple things such as when it needs renewal and how to check the Whois data are often a mystery to the owner.

So when official looking letters arrive saying things like FINAL NOTICE a small percentage of us will probably reach for the pen and sign off a payment without actually checking what that payment is for.

I own some domains, stopecg.org and ecgsucks.org, from the Whois database it is possible for the junk mailers to get hold of contact details and send me just such misleading mail. Shame for them that they never bothered to check the content of the website before they set about their little game!

Last week it was in the post, INTERNET LISTING SERVICE, who have a very basic website at www.ilscorp.co.uk

They sent me a 2 sided advert that looks remarkably like an invoice; (I will publish this soon on the website) only at the very end does it note in bold letters that it is not actually a bill. Of course this beggars the question, if you have to print on your advert that it is not a bill, why make it look like a bill in the first place?!!

You can ask ilscorp this question info@ilscorp.co.uk, please post any response you get here.

Then this week it was by email, separate emails, one for each domain name from Domain Listing Center, 8171 Yonge St. Suite# 149, Richmond Hill, ON L3T 2C6, Canada

Man, this one is so blatant I have had to publish it for you to see

My FINAL NOTICE is actually an advert for submission to search engines, well if I was going to buy such a service I would want to see how well the vendor’s website performed…. Hold on… they don’t ACTUALLY APPEAR TO HAVE A WEBSITE! No problem, they have an email domainlistingcenter@hotmail.com, Again, please feel free to contact them and ask them about the layout of their emails.

If you receive misleading communications, please don’t bin them, contact your local trading standards and make sure that a complaint is lodged, while you may spot a scam there are others who will surely fall for it.

Jules Woodell