Over the last couple of years we have had several clients contact us to check if a domain renewal notice they have received is legitimate.

There are 3 different types of “renewal” notices that we are aware they have received:

1. Notice that appears to be an invoice but offers a renewal for a domain name that is not quite the one you currently have eg your actual domain name is abc.com.au but the renewal notice is for abc.com or abc.net.au
2. Notice that appears to be an invoice but when you read the fine print it states “when you switch over to us” or “you are under no obligation… This notice is not a bill”
3. An email advising “We are a domain name registration service company in another country. We have received a request to register your domain with the suffix such as .cn /.com.cn /.net.cn/.hk/ .asia/ domain names”

Make sure you read any domain renewal notice very carefully – especially the fine print. We are all busy and seeing a letter come in, that on the surface looks like an invoice, makes it very easy to pay for something that is not actually a bill.