Beware Domain Renewal Group letter in the mail or HK-NSC email

By Gavin Payne - More articles by this Author

Domain Renewal Group letter Scam

Many New Sprout Hosting customers have brought to our attention letters they have received in the post. The letter is from Domain Renewals Group in the US, but claiming to be based in Melbourne.

The letter will be addressed to you, the registrant, with either your existing domain or a similar domain they will try and trick you into registering. They obtain your details from a Whois search on your domain, which is actually illegal, but difficult to prove. The physical letter, you receive via postal mail, starts with "As a courtesy to domain holders we are sending you this notification of the domain name registration that is due to expire..."

They try and trick you into believing 2 things:

1. That they are your domain provider, and
2. If you don't register/renew your domain right away, you will lose it.

The Domain Renewal Group have actually tried to justify this behaviour, however the fact that they cannot do it for .au domains (because Australian law can then intervene) proves its lack of authenticity. You will only receive this for .com, .net, or other GTLDs.

The HK-NSC email scam

It reads as follows:

Both scams are very similar.

Action: We, as well as many legitimate providers, have tried taking action, however there is not much that can be done.

You can just ignore the letter and email.

If in any doubt please contact us and we will be more than willing to assist you in clarifying your domain status :-)