Before the Internet, it was necessary for businesses to have an ad in the Yellow Pages so customers could find them. Some unscrupulous businesses found that if they sent an invoice to random businesses that looked like a Yellow Pages bill, a few businesses would pay the bill just to make sure they didn’t lose their Yellow Pages ad.
Fast forward to today, when everyone has to have a domain name. Unfortunately, these companies are still at it – you may have gotten a domain name renewal invoice from a number of companies including Domain Registry of America and Liberty Names. These companies send you an invoice for your domain name in the hopes that you’ll be concerned you are in danger of losing your name so you’ll go ahead and pay the invoice regardless.
Sometimes the invoice is actually for search engine promotion (which means they’ll post your web site on hundreds of ad-riddled pages if they do anything at all), but in the case of the Domain Registry of America, they will attempt to transfer the name to their registry, so you will be forced to renew your name through them in the future. Even worse is that if you decide to transfer (back) away from them, they will charge you an extra fee (sometimes up to $150) for the ability to transfer away from them.
D.R.O.A.’s bad business practices were even noted by Canadian courts as being Misleading
Bottom line – if you get anything in the mail for your domain name, feel free to contact It Won’t Byte and i’ll be happy to go over it with you and let you know if its the real deal or not. I’d rather get a phone call or email from you with a question then have you lose control of any part of your internet presence.