What is the “Domain Registry of Canada Scam?”
A company called Domain Registry of Canada sends out old school snail mail letters designed to appear as an official government organization. The letter will appear as an invoice urging the domain to renew their domain immediately with the warning “failure to comply will mean losing your domain”.
THIS IS NOT A REAL INVOICE! IT IS A SCAM!
As you can see by this image below they strive to make this document look as real as possible.
If you receive a notice for domain renewal through the mail always be safe and contact the company you purchased your domain from directly.
Domain Registry of Canada has used many company names such as “Internet Registry of Canada”, “Domain Renewal Group” and “DROC”. They always use the same technique to try to fool you into transferring your domain away.
When you purchase a domain your information is put into a domain name registration and can be viewed publicly though a whois database. They are able to view the owner name and address associated with the domain registration. Once they have this information they simply send a fake invoice and wait for people who do not fully understand how domain registration works; falling pray to their scam. These fake invoices look very real and without the proper knowledge it is easy to fall for this trick.
Using a the threat of losing your domain in there invoice is just a ploy. You do not want to do anything other than throw this fake invoice into the garbage. These fake invoices say that they are to renew your domain when in fact they are trying to get you to transfer your domain to them.
They are actually a legitimate domain registrar using unethical business practices to trick people. Once the domain is transferred you will no longer be doing business with your original registrar whether it was GoDaddy, Network Solutions, OpenSRS or any other registrar company.
Once you have transferred your domain over to Domain Registry of Canada you will then be privy to their renewal costs which are substantially more than most other companies.
If you have any negative experience with the DROC scam, pleas report the Domain Registry of Canada Scam to the BBB.