Don’t Pay Domain Listing
Earlier this week a client reached out to us, concerned about an invoice that was sent to them from a company called Domain Listing requesting payment for their domain. Since we manage both the domain and hosting for our client, we decided to dig further into this company. At first, we believed it may have been a separate bill for another domain. In many cases, it is usually a separate domain that a client usually forgot about or never had transferred. To our surprise, that was not the case with this invoice.
1st Hint of Scam: Price
Domain Listing requested $228.00 for a 1-year renewal. Anyone who has purchased a domain knows that renewal fees are typically between $10-$20 per year. So our next step was to try to figure out what service they were trying to solicit to our client.
2nd Hint of Scam: Payment Method
The bill sent to the client was a paper invoice requesting a check or to fill out a box with credit card info and mail it back to a P.O. box in Las Vegas. Domains should be renewed online through a secure payment gateway or with the help of your website’s company.
3rd Hint of Scam: Website & Contact Info
We went to their website and saw that the front-end page appeared to be broken and poorly laid out. Still giving the benefit of the doubt, we decided to try and reach out to the company. We located their phone number and within one ring, the call was redirected to what sounded like a homemade or unprofessional voicemail requesting information about the business.
Who is Domain Listings and Why Should I be Wary of Them?
Domain Listings is soliciting sales by appearing to be a domain service when in fact all they offer is a link on their website which they claim is a domain directory for $228.00/per year. While it is good to build up directory listings online, it needs to be done ethically and with quality online sources.
With a quick scan, we found that Domain Listings has a domain rating of 17/100 – this is a very poor score and a good indicator that this is not a quality directory resource you need your website on. Especially for $228/year. With some additional backlink research, we also discovered that their website is being linked to several out-of-country websites and articles claiming to have been scammed. This would not be an ideal website for your business to invest in a directory listing with.
Read about their company on the Better Business Bureau®.
How to Prevent Being Mislead
The best thing to do if you get an odd-looking invoice, email, or mail regarding your domain or hosting is to have your website or digital marketing company look into it. If you need a digital company to manage and maintain the online side of your business, Long Point Digital offers digital marketing, website, hosting, domain, and security for clients across the United States. Give us a call at 970-549-0777 or email with any questions you may have about your business.
