Spurious Domain Registration Invoices & Emails

If you are the registered holder (registrant) of a domain name (say, “smith.com.au”), you may receive emails and/or hardcopy letters about registering alternate domains similar to yours. These are scams. Generally there are two varieties:

• You receive an invoice for a similar but not identical domain such as “smith.net.au”, for an inflated price. They are hoping you will pay the invoice without paying much attention to it.

• The sender is a domain registrar in another country and they claim to have received an application to obtain a similar domain name (say, “smith.cn”) from a third-party. The email suggests you should register the name first, to prevent the other party from doing so. For example:
  

  Generally a number of follow-up emails may be received.

  You can be assured that the supposed third-party attempting to copy your domain name is ficticious. In any case, there is no requirement for domain registrars to check the existence of similar domain names on foreign registries.

These emails and letters may be ignored and do not require a reply or any other action.

If you were to accept the suggestion in the email/letter, follow the process through and send money, you may or may not become the genuine registrant of the domain name being offered.

If you desire a domain on a foreign registry (whether it be .cn, .co.uk or anything else), use a trusted Australian domain registrar or use the country's official domain registrars.

If in doubt, please contact us to check any communications you receive about domains.

References

• auDA Consumer Alert