On Sunday, I got back from my vacation in Nova Scotia to a pile of mail. Amongst the bills and fliers was a “Domain Name Expiration Notice” advising me that “as a courtesy to domain holders, we are sending you this notification of the domain name registration that is due to expire in the next few months. When you switch today, you can take advantage of our best savings.” The letter goes on to list the domain name in question and request a reply by mid-September.

For the record, all of my domains are registered with our own Domain Direct service. The domain in question expires on January 26, 2009.

This is a ploy for transfers that plays on the naiveté of registrants. Reading the letter further, I see they’ve spelled it out, “This notice is not a bill, it is rather an easy means of payment should you decide to switch your domain name registration”.

I bet countless registrants are duped into transfers every day. And that means names are constantly moving away from our resellers to less-than-scrupulous registries.

James wrote about these schemes on our blog back in February.

As an OpenSRS reseller, please consider our suggestions and tips to protect your domain name registrants while countering the aggressive marketing efforts of these companies:

1. Deploy WHOIS Privacy. This is the absolute best protection. It stops the solicitation to transfer practice dead in its tracks as there is no way for to contact the Registrant directly. Encourage your customers to take advantage of WHOIS Privacy and the protection it offers. OpenSRS includes WHOIS Privacy for free with every domain name sold  as part of our reseller domains package.

2. Consider Domain locking. A locked domain can’t be transferred, again, preventing the domain slam. The transfer attempt may generate a support call by the Registrant to remove the lock, in which case you have the perfect opportunity to make sure the transfer is legitimate.

3. Get Proactive about Registrant Communication. Let your customers know about this practice and ensure that your customers know who you are and who their Registrar is. Clearly spell out your communication policies surrounding renewals (i.e. “We never send mail invoices reminding you to renew.”) before the scammers have a chance to spread their mis-information.