I got an envelope from someplace called Domain Registry of America. I opened it, and it was a remittance form that said that my domain would be expiring soon and I needed to pay to renew it. Thankfully, my skeptical brain kicked in and said, "Read it again. This smells fishy."
Buried three paragraphs down on the front was the note, "This is not a bill. It is a way for you to switch your domain hosting to our service."
Of course, to most people, if it looks like a bill, contains a return envelope and a detachable remittance section, then it's a bill. I know from experience working in a call center that most people don't read the front of their bills with great scrutiny.
After shredding the thing, I went hunting and found this:
http://blog.forret.com/blog/2004/12/domain-registry-of-america-scam.html
I used to be pretty laissez-faire about businesses, figuring that companies who cheated or had lousy products would fail due to market forces. Nowadays, it's possible to do profitable fraudulent business for years by preying on the legions of gullible and careless people worldwide, without the need to ever earn a repeat customer. By the time the gulf coast is wise to your scam, you've moved on to Australia or wherever.
Buried three paragraphs down on the front was the note, "This is not a bill. It is a way for you to switch your domain hosting to our service."
Of course, to most people, if it looks like a bill, contains a return envelope and a detachable remittance section, then it's a bill. I know from experience working in a call center that most people don't read the front of their bills with great scrutiny.
After shredding the thing, I went hunting and found this:
http://blog.forret.com/blog/2004/12/domain-registry-of-america-scam.html
I used to be pretty laissez-faire about businesses, figuring that companies who cheated or had lousy products would fail due to market forces. Nowadays, it's possible to do profitable fraudulent business for years by preying on the legions of gullible and careless people worldwide, without the need to ever earn a repeat customer. By the time the gulf coast is wise to your scam, you've moved on to Australia or wherever.
