Beware Of Scam Domain Renewal Emails

We were contacted by a customer recently who queried why he was receiving a domain renewal email for his .ie domain from a company he had never heard of, the email contained an invoice and payment details.  Luckily he had the foresight to drop us a call and we put his mind at rest.

This type of scam has been around for quite a long time, the scammers will target domain owners in short bursts and then disappear again. The email itself looks professional and convincing with the intent of taking your hard earned cash!

Why am I being targeted?

You are not being targeted specifically.  A lot of domain and business contact details are publicly available online,for example:

• Your website may contain your email address either on the contact page or in the website footer.
• You social media pages e.g Facebook and Instagram
• Online directories or listings

Scammers can “scrape” these public pages to gather email addresses and domain names, then send messages designed to look official. Your contact email is there so customers can reach you… but it can also be found by people trying to reach you for the wrong reasons.

What to look out for

These emails are usually asking you to pay for a “renewal” or claiming your domain is about to expire.

There are a few steps you can take if you are unsure;

Check who your domain is registered with: If your domain is with MyHost, you don’t need to pay anyone else to renew it. Renewal should always happen through the registrar you actually use.

Look at the price: A common red flag is an inflated renewal fee.

Our customer who recently received this type of scam was being charged €95 for a 1-year .ie renewal, which is far higher than what most customers would normally expect.

Check the renewal/expiry date with your domain registrar: In many cases, the domain in the email isn’t even due for renewal. Scammers rely on panic, not accuracy. They are hoping you are just too busy to check and just pay their fee.

In short, like any email that looks suspicious, don’t click links, dont send money, don’t respond.  Pick up the phone and contact your domain registrar and check your domain’s status with them.