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Web Scam at Your Door
05/08/2008
The most pervasive web scams are the ones most people
don’t know about. In fact, those who are taken in by it often aren’t aware of it until they’ve been repeatedly used over a period of years. You won’t hear about it in the media. There are no chain mail messages circulating about it, warning people of the dangers. It doesn’t even show up in Snopes.com In fact, although it’s dishonest and takes advantage thousands of hapless victims for millions of dollars, there are currently no laws preventing it.
So what’s the big scam?
Have you ever received a bill in the mail (that’s snail mail, for those web heads out there) for services on the Internet? It might describe your web site or domain or Internet access. Maybe you didn’t understand what it was all about, but you assumed it had something to do with your current service and you paid it anyway.
The most common perpetrator of this scam is
Domain Registry of America. This company gets
your mailing address from your web site’s domain
record and then mails you an invoice for domain
renewal, even though you’ve never actually used
their services. The kicker is that if you pay it, you
don’t just lose your money, but you could potentially
lose your domain as well.
So how can that be legal?!?
It’s legal because they are actually offering a real
service (if not a very good one) in exchange for
a fee. You just have to read the small print very
carefully before signing and sending in the check.
Problem is few people, even legal ones, understand
the techno-babble. All you see is the scary language
to the effect that your domain is going to expire and
that you could lose your web site.
You might not believe it, but Domain Registry
of America was taken to court by the FTC for
illegal practices and lost back in 2003. Maybe it has
something to do with the fact that they’re based in
Canada, but since that time they’ve only increased
their operations.
How can you tell?
Nothing could be simpler. If it comes in the mail,
and it’s for Internet services, just shred it. The
simple truth is legitimate Internet companies won’t
do business by mail unless you ask them to. They
prefer e-mail and credit cards. So Internet companies
do business only over the Internet! Go figure.
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