Name Thieves - Domain Name Scams In New Zealand - Our Advice

The latest threat to security on the web are these crazy emails that are being sent to website owners asking them to pay for their domain name! 

Why This Scares People
Imagine you purchased a domain name for your business and have suck a lot of time, money and effort into the site that bears that name. Then imagine if you get what seems to be a rather official email about that domain name and how it is getting ready to expire in some cases. In other cases the email states that the owner of the name never really paid for the name it was an oversight and it would be removed if they do not pay up. It can be very scary to think of all that work being lost if you do not pay up.

DO NOT PAY UP
First things first DO NOT PAY UP! Do not send money to anyone EVER that is claiming you are about to lose your domain name. Contact your webmaster or your web designer before you ever pay anything out of pocket to anyone that is claiming you have to pay up or lose your domain.

The Easiest Solution
If you do not recognize the person that is sending you the email simply delete it and than contact the webmaster. If you open it the right thing to do is to contact the webmaster and forward on the email. This is most commonly happening on .co.nz sites and it is simply a group of unsavory individuals that are doing their best to take advantage of people. They will offer you a 10 year contract, they will tell you that you are impinging upon a protected trademark and they will try their best to convince you that you are at fault. Ignore this nonsense!


Eventually they will go away and look for another victim.