Yet another attempt to part fools from their money.
Today I got an email from Domain Services
It included a big fancy “notice” with one of my domain names and the information I provided when I registered it years ago. Here’s the meat of the message:
Attn: FLYING M PRODUCTIONS|MARIA LANGER
As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification for your business Domain name search engine registration. This letter is to inform you that it’s time to send in your registration and save.Failure to complete your Domain name search engine registration by the expiration date may result in cancellation of this offer making it difficult for your customers to locate you on the web.
Privatization allows the consumer a choice when registering. Search engine subscription includes domain name search engine submission. You are under no obligation to pay the amounts stated below unless you accept this offer. Do not discard, this notice is not an invoice it is a courtesy reminder to register your domain name search engine listing so your customers can locate you on the web.
This Notice for: WWW.ARIZONAPHOTOADVENTURES.COM will expire on January 18,2012 Act today!
So if I don’t “register” with these people by tomorrow, this offer may be canceled, making it difficult for my customers to locate me on the web? Yeah, right.
But here’s the punchline — the payment schedule:
Good thing they told me which was most recommended. I think I’ll write a check out to them right now!
Not.
Those of you who, like me, recognize a scam when you see one might be wondering why I’m blogging about such an obvious example of a ripoff. Well sadly not everyone recognizes email messages like this as scams. I’ve actually gotten calls from friends and family members asking me what they should do when they get crap like this in email.
And, believe it or not, the blog posts I write about scams are surprisingly popular. People get email like this, are not sure what to do, and Google it. What do they find? Among other things, they find me telling them not to get ripped off.
Don’t get ripped off. Don’t let scammers scare you into paying them money for no reason. Mark this email as junk and don’t give it a second glance.