Die in a fire, frauds

I hate frauds.  And I really hate the frauds who send notices to you that kind of look like expiration notices for your domains, but are actually solicitations for search engine submissions.  And more especially I hate the ones that come from fake email addresses with Reply-To: set blank and ask you to respond by fax to a non-toll-free number.

If you own a domain (or multiple domains), and you receive an email from someone with a subject line that goes something like

Subject: Domain Notification: DNS SERVICES This is your Final Notice of Domain Listing

I’d strongly suggest looking very closely at it before doing what it tells you.  Usually you are not told that it’s a search engine listing solicitation until far down in the message body or all the way at the end in the “fine print”.  The idea is to make you think your domain is expiring so you’ll send these people money.  And it is truly money for nothing; at least, nothing you can’t do yourself.

In my case, all my domains are set to renew automatically, and most of them are for multi-year terms.  Plus, I’ve been around the block a few times and have seen these for years (they used to come in the regular mail, all official-looking, and might still do, for all I know).

Bottom line is that if you receive something that looks like a domain renewal request, make sure it comes from your actual domain registrar before you do anything else.