Today, a client received what looks like an invoice from Domain Name Corp. They immediately sent me an email asking if I knew anything about it.
Only a month ago did another client receive the same document. That incident resulted in some angry emails to various domain registrants, none of which had anything to do with the document.
On first glance, everything looks completely legitimate. It looks like a real invoice, looks very professional and has various contact information. Even their website looks really good. For all I know they could be a legitimate company, but this practice definitely is not.
With everything looking so “right”, there must be a lot of businesses that fall for this trick.
The first thing that gave it away was the “.com” rather than my clients “.com.au” address. From there, I noticed the “Domain Name Available” and “This is an invitation to register” section further down.
And there it is.
They must have seen that this client owned a .com.au but not the corresponding .com, scraped their address from the ABN registry and sent out this letter.
There’s also the fact that 2 years domain rego should be about $40, yet this is for $249.
They can probably get away with it because even though it looks like one, there is no mention of the word invoice anywhere on the document. Anyone with a business receives invoices for domains and web hosting from time to time. And in my experience, many of them do not know who their hosting company is.
This DNC group must operate on the assumption that some business owners would be so used to this and just pay what they think is a regular invoice.
Super dodgy.
If you get one, there is only one thing you need to do with it – chuck it right in the bin.
[thrive_leads id=’4116′]
UPDATE 27/05/16: I’ve sent off an email to the serviced offices which these guys are using as their registered address. We’ll see what comes back…
UPDATE 30/05/16: As suggested by don in the comments, please report this to ScamWatch.
These are the settings I would use:
What type of scam: False billing
How were you contacted: Mail
When were you first contacted: Date the mail arrived
What losses did you suffer: Not applicable (unless you have already paid, select Financial)
Company Details: Copied from invoice
Briefly describe the scam: Domain Name Corp sent a document that is clearly intended to look like a traditional bill or invoice. On closer inspection the bill is to register a new domain. I have never dealt with them before, and this mail was completely unsolicited. The price shown is $249 for two years, 10 times the normal domain registration cost. This document looks very much like a typical invoice, likely aimed at deceiving people who don’t understand domain names.
Optional: Link them to this post so they can see that lots of people are receiving this.
And finally, attach an image of your fake invoice
Hello. I also received this letter. Very dodgy and I think if my husband opened it he would have paid it unwittingly. On their website they say they will protect you from spam and fraudsters. Ha. It takes one to know one. Glad I wasn’t the only one who had to think twice.
Yep they are sneaky buggers!
Hope there are least a few people who read this and don’t pay it
I had one, again for a .com instead of my .com.au. Unfortunately my wife paid it thinking it was a renewal. Their T&C say if they don’t produce an invoice I can get a refund, so I’ve requested a cancellation via their site. Don’t hold out much hope though. I’ll be visiting their office next time I’m in Sydney. Wonder if there is anyone there?
Oh no, that sucks to hear. I’ve thought that too. The Sydney office address makes them seem legitimate which they can’t be
Yes also got one with one of our domain names but missing the .au so only a .com. $249.00 for a $12.00 domain can see how some would be easily fooled.
It seems like the trick they use – .com instead of .com.au so on first glance it looks totally fine.
Just got 3 of these in the mail also. $249.00 for a $40 product.
Annoying…
Yep, super dodgy!
I got one today and was immediately suspicious – having received a similar one a few years ago, for a similar amount of money, from a Melbourne address. I checked at the time and found the address to be a serviced office. Well, the Sydney address on the current pseudo invoice/invitation to register is also a serviced office: http://www.executivecentre.com.au/location/sydney_australia_square
Nice find on the serviced offices. Explains it perfectly
So the guys that lease out the offices sleep fine knowing they have dodgy going on’s
Bloody hell!
Yeah it looks that way. Seems like it is time to contact the office. Everyone seems to be getting them
Like Harald I have received an “invoice” from Domain Name Corp, in fact I receive several as my firm has several URLs registered. I also receive requests from a mob in Melbourne (can’t remember the damn name!) I contacted my web hosting provider a few years ago who took this up with the authorities on by behalf. No action taken as I understand that it wasn’t illegal as such. That said they are more than irritating. As a few others have said just bin it in the recycle bin.
I’m no lawyer, but I can’t see it being illegal either. On closer inspection the word invoice is not even mentioned on the document – they just rely on it kind of looking like one. The bin is definitely the place for it
Hey mate. Good article. My client also received this scammy letter. She would have paid it too, if she didn’t run it by me first.
Is this something we can raise to the ACCC. I am fairly sure this falls under misleading advertising…
I don’t know enough about the ACCC to be honest. It does sound like it would fall under something misleading. The website only seems to have consumer complaints – one of our clients might need to make the claim?
I received one of these today as well, I am very aware of all my bills and service providers so I knew immediately it was dodgy. My Google search just confirms it!
I wonder how many people get one and just pay it 🙁
Hopefully this post stops a few – lots of people seem to find it!
I found another article on netregistry showing the exact same looking ‘invoice’ but from a company called Domain Register. Probably have a bunch of dodgy business names they send them from.
Wow – just received one today! Thanks for this post!!! At a glance it sure looks like an invoice – and when I looked at the price I had a bit of a shock. The company logo + title looks different and when you only receive an invoice/email once every two years you’re not so sure – and this letter looks very professional! So after researching other web domain sites for a better price – I decided to Google in “Domain Name Corp”, and found your post – thank you! In my mind I was thinking perhaps the domain company changed hands, new name, website, logos and look. So I can’t thank you enough!!! Thank you!
Really glad to help out. Judging from the influx of comments today, they must have ramped up their dodgy efforts!
Good article James. Just received one myself.
Would love to find a way to discover who the people are behind it. Must be some way.
jd
It seems they have ramped up their eforts because quite a few comments came in today. I think it’s time to contact the shared office
James your page has been a great help.
I received my own copy of this dodgy invoice today.
I was almost “sucked in” until I saw your site and advice.
May the culprits have a severe lice infestation in their balls, then they can burn in hell.
Cheers mate
GB
So glad you found this before paying.
Hahahah I agree. That is probably a good way for them to go.
Hi James et al,
I received the same letter from the same crowd today.
Like most of the others here they’d scraped my details from a .com.au registration and offered me the .com version.
So as an IT Pro and Business Owner, I jumped at the opportunity!!!
Only difference was that I registered it through my normal registrar not DNC!!! $31.80 instead of DNCs $249.
DNC did me a favour as I’ve been waiting for the .com to come available.
Haha, nicely done. At least there is one positive out of all this
And they continue I received one yesterday for my newly registered business, but I didnt buy it and threw it in the bin. 🙂
Good call.
Everyone please report this to https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam
Agree. If anyone would like to do this, these are the settings I would use:
What type of scam: False billing
How were you contacted: Mail
When were you first contacted: Date the mail arrived
What losses did you suffer: Not applicable (unless you have already paid, select Financial)
Details: Copied from invoice
Briefly describe the scam: Domain Name Corp sent a document that is clearly intended to look like a traditional bill or invoice. On closer inspection the bill is to register a new domain. I have never dealt with them before, and this mail was completely unsolicited. The price shown is $249 for two years, 10 times the normal domain registration cost. This document looks very much like a typical invoice, likely aimed at deceiving people who don’t understand domain names.
Optional: Link them to this post so they can see that lots of people are receiving this.
And finally, attach an image of your fake invoice
thanks for the sharing on this scam and especially the photo to confirm I have the same.
I was alerted to this possibly being a scam by the lack of date for when it had to be paid. So have come looking.
thanks
I have just received one of these letters and was immediately suspicious as it was missing the words Tax Invoice and did not have a payment due date. I did a check of the ACN through ASIC and there is no such ACN just as I suspected Thanks James Rose for sharing the details of how to report this scam.
Great to hear you picked it up. It worries me how many people wouldn’t pick that up 🙁
The ACN in the invoice above is real:
https://connectonline.asic.gov.au/RegistrySearch/faces/landing/panelSearch.jspx?searchType=OrgAndBusNm&searchText=608862255
If someone has the resources to do a company extract, we may find the usual suspects behind it.
Hardly a scam, you don’t get anything in return from a scam. It’s just an expensive way to buy a website and is more like scalping than scamming. At least the registration fee is waived with the purchase of one of their modestly priced hosting services…
Almost fell for it, get plenty of bills to pay as treasurer of a local sporting club. Thanks for putting this info up, on closer inspection I can see the .au has been dropped off our domain name.
Glad that you didn’t Mike. Sad to hear these guys are still up to it…
Sad to say that we received this same “Invoice” today and it was paid before closer inspection, we have contacted our bank in the hope that they could stop the payment & they will do there best but informed us that this “scam” is getting worse & gaining momentum daily.
We have followed the steps above & reported them to scam watch…… now all we can do is wait and see if we get our money back.
Sad to say but we got scammed by this today
Payment was made before we realised it was a scam, we have contacted our bank to try to stop the payment but once its done electronically all the bank can do is contact the receiving bank to try to put a hold on it.
We were informant that this is a growing scam & is gaining momentum daily……
this has been reported to scam watch as detailing in the above posts
I received a bill a few days ago and have had it sitting in front of my computer. My hackles were definitely up . I was wondering who to contact as I felt it was a scam when I saw a link that led me to this site. Many thanks to all contributors.
Received this same letter today for our domain minus the au.
It must be working for them, being that this was reported on this Page back in Jan.
It would also seem to indicate that their operation is not being shut down either, despite the people here reporting them.
I too received this so called ‘invoice’ from Domain Name Corp, and unfortunately paid it but luckily I had the incorrect bank details for some reason & it got credited back to our bank account.
What a relief!
Wow lucky!