Imagine you’re a busy small businessperson or someone working at a nonprofit.  You’ve registered a domain and had web hosting setup, but the Internet is a small part of your myriad responsibilities.  You know what a domain is, but the details of registrars, renewals, owning a domain vs. hosting it, web services, etc. are things that you don’t have a lot of mental bandwidth for.  You get up in the morning, bust your chops until sundown trying to make a buck or spend one wisely, and anything that isn’t on fire usually doesn’t get a lot of attention.

So as you open your postal mail one evening, you see a letter like this:

Uh oh!  “As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification of the domain name registration that is due to expire…”

Your domain is about to expire!

Admittedly, you’re not reading closely, but you see a date and amount and it all looks official.  Must be legit – otherwise how would they know who you?  How would they get your address?

So you make out a check…

It’s a Scam

A lot of you immediately smelled a scam.  If you didn’t, read the letter closely:

Domain name holders are not obligated to renew their domain name with their current Registrar or with Domain Name Services. Review our prices and decide for yourself. You are under no obligation to pay the amounts stated below, unless you accept this offer. This notice is not a bill, it is rather an easy means of payment should you decide to switch your domain name registration to Domain Name Services.

They can’t send you a bill, but they can send you something that looks like a bill.

Over the years there have been various scams where fraudsters send invoices to people and companies and it’s surprising how many get paid.  A lot of people are disorganized and assume that if some computerized accounting system is sending them an invoice, the computer probably knows better.  And if you’re chronically late on payments or don’t budget, getting an unexpected notice for money probably is a regular occurrence in your life.

What dhb.net (and idnsinc.com) is doing here is not technically criminal, but it sure is slimy.  They’re farming public registration info, and then as domains near renewal, they send these “invoices”.

They don’t need to have a lot of them pay off to make a good return.  The prices they’re charging – $265 for five years – is outrageous.  Their one year price is $60 for a .com.  You can easily find the same for $11.08 (Porkbun).  dhb.net is putting on a nearly 500% markup!

If you pay, I have to think that’s only the beginning of your pain.  You now have renewed at another registrar, but that registrar can’t just suck over your domain.  You’re going to have to log into your current domain, unlock it, provide the EPP code, etc.  If you weren’t that familiar with host domain registrations work, this will probably be a massively frustrating time sink.  Perhaps dhb.net will be there to provide hand-holding assistance over the phone…and hawk additional services.

raindog308

Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.

Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.

His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.

You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.