Domain Expiration scam alert
My domain name registrar will occasionally send me a domain expiration notice if I have a domain name that’s about to expire. It’s important for domain name owners to be able to identify the difference between an actual domain and expiration and a domain expiration scam. Spammers attempt to steal your money (or worse) by designing similar looking emails as your domain name registrar might send. I get emails constantly warning me that my domain registration search engine optimization is about to expire. I know enough to know this is not a real thing, that this is indeed spam, but spammers are getting more and more clever every day. It’s certainly not as easy to identify a spam email as it once was. That is precisely why I decided to write this domain expiration scam alert – we all should have the tools to identify and protect ourselves from spam, fraud, and abuse. If you’re unsure what to do when you receive a potential domain expiration scam, follow the easy steps below.
Above are images of the actual emails I received; notice the email never says “domain name expiration” but sticks with the more ambiguous “domain registration search engine optimization” – which is just two different terms that are meaningless together. In fact, the email states their actually “selling traffic generator software tools”.
determine who the email is really from
The actual email address this comes from is info@shaxiagreat.icu – a whois lookup confirms this domain was just registered on July 26, 2019. The domain name of the Secure Online Payment link resolves to vtimablebuilding.top. MxToolbox confirms this domain is blacklisted by Spamhaus, and whois confirms this domain was just registered back in April 2019. The short answer is – don’t click any links on these emails, these are professionals, and chances are they will steal a lot more than $86.00 if they get your credit card number.
What you Should I Do If you Receive a Suspicious Email
If you receive domain expiration notices (or something similar) that are not from your registrar, you can safely ignore them. Better, you can notify your email provider that the message is spam. If you’re unsure, or think your domain may actually be expiring, reach out to your Domain Name Registrar directly.
Final Thoughts on email spam and scams
Spam emails intrigue me, some (like this one) are crafted fairly cleverly to mimic a real email. Notice at the bottom of the email there’s even a fake unsubscribe button – they call it “please unlike here” as opposed to “unsubscribe here”.
Instructions and Unlike Instructions from this Newsletter:
You have received this message because you elected to receive notification. If you no longer wish to receive our notifications, please unlike here. If you have multiple accounts with us, you must opt out for each one individually to unlike receiving notifications. We are a search engine optimization company. We do not directly register or renew domain names. This is not a bill. You are dont need to pay the amount unless you accept this notification. This message, which contains promotional material strictly along the guidelines of the Can-Spam act of 2003. We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this email, also clearly mentioned our subject lines and they are in no way misleading. Please do not reply to this email, as we are not able to respond to messages sent to this address.
Finally, remember to always error on the side of caution – domain name expiration notices will come from your actual domain registrar. Thank you for reading Domain Expiration Scam Alert!, and perhaps even learned something. Always remember, if you aren’t sure what to do, just don’t click on any links and don’t pay anyone. Contact your registrar, and ignore emails from senders you don’t recognize. For further reading you can view my 10 part series about the most popular DNS Records, If you’re looking to buy a domain, you can view 14 Things You Must Know Before You Buy A Domain Name. If you received some added value from my post, please like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or subscibe to jasonofflorida.com.
