Watch Out For These Domain Name Scams

If you have a registered political domain name, most registrars will email you instructions on how to renew your registration. If you get a letter in the mail, well, check it carefully. This information applies to both business and personal domains, not just political names.

If you have a domain name or two, it’s a good idea to check your registrar account occasionally and make sure your domain contact information is up to date. You can also check the status of any domain name through a WHOIS search service on your registrar’s site or through sites such as lookup.icann.org. Just type the domain name in the search box, and you will see when the name is set to expire, along with other information.

Letting a domain name expire means that your campaign website and domain e-mail accounts will stop working, as the domain name will no longer point to the server where your website resides. When a domain expires, there is generally a 30 day Redemption Period to renew. To renew during this time, the owner may be required to pay additional fees, depending on the registrar. After the Redemption Period ends, the name goes into a Pending Delete status. After a few days, the domain will be deleted from the registry. After the deletion, anyone can register the name and become the new legal owner.

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If you renew early, the additional renewal period simply pushes your expiration date further out from the initial expiration date.

Getting back to renewal notices by mail—if you get any, beware. If you receive a notice of renewal that is not from your original registrar company, ignore it. Some unscrupulous companies do the phone company equivalent of “slamming.” The scam is to have you renew your domain with the new company at a much higher price than you were spending with your original registrar.

Keep a record of your domain information, and to be safe, mark your calendar for renewal at least a month ahead of time.

For Online Candidate political campaign website orders, we register your domain name for you in your name, and we notify you when your domain name is about to expire. Even if you do not keep your site after your election, you can still renew your domain name registration.