I received the following email from our own .com/.net/.org Registrar based in the US this morning.  Interesting reading .........


Warning! Be Careful with Sneaky Domain Renewal Notices
 
A number of customers have reported to directNIC that their domains
disappeared from their directNIC account after they responded to renewal
notices by snail mail. It turns out that they actually transferred the
domain to another registrar who had sent them a renewal notice by mail and
urged them to renew the domain immediately. Without knowing that these
notices were not from directNIC, these unsuspecting users transferred their
domains away from directNIC, paid a much higher price, lost their virtual
domains, erased their email forwarding rules and POP3 accounts, and
consequently took their websites offline. 

To see several of these deceptive expiration notices, visit
http://notice.reference.directnic.com 
 
For the record, directNIC relies almost solely on email to contact
customers and does not solicit business through the U.S. mail. If you
receive notices in the mail regarding renewing your directNIC-registered
domain names, be sure to read them carefully and consult with directNIC
before you make any decisions.
 
Several registrars are mining WHOIS data and sending deceptive and
predatory expiration notices to owners of domains that are not registered
with them. They have one common purpose: To steal domains from their
competitors without lowering their price or improving their service and
products. A few that have participated in this practice include Domain
Registry of America, Network Solutions and Register.com, among others.
 
We believe competition should be fair, legal, and ethical. directNIC has
attracted many customers by constantly improving its website and user
interface, adding new services, launching new products, listening and
responding to customer feedback, and protecting customers against hackers
and unethical solicitors. In order to better protect your domains and our
business, we invite you to join our efforts. If you have received the
mentioned paper-based renewal notices from other registrars, please report
this activity to ICANN, the governing body of the domain registration
industry.  

The link to file a complaint is
http://www.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi

Sincerely, 

directNIC.com

For Your Information:

1. Advisory Concerning Deceptive Notices from "XChange Dispute Resolution"
ICANN has received reports of domain-name registrants receiving "Domain
Dispute Notification" mailings from an entity identifying itself as
"Xchange Dispute Resolution." The mailings falsely state that XChange is an
"ICANN authorized arbitrator" and that the registrant must mail in a
"security deposit fee" to defend "ownership of the domain name."

The link to the article is
http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-08apr02.htm 

2. Violation to the Federal Mail Guidelines:
 
The official USPS regulations for mail "that reasonably could be considered
a bill, invoice, or statement of account due, but is in fact a solicitation
for an order":
 
 http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm/c031.htm 
 
The requirement is that the following phrase must appear in at least thirty
point capital letters on the face of the notice: "THIS IS NOT A BILL. THIS
IS A SOLICITATION. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO PAY THE AMOUNT STATED
ABOVE UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS OFFER."
 
 Here is a helpful example picture of what it should look like: 
 http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm/c031.htm#Rar16021 
 
The VeriSign messages clearly violate this requirement, and come under the
mail fraud category.  You can complain to your local Postal Inspectors, or
file your complaint online at:
http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/fraud/MailFraudComplaint.htm

Regards,
Chas Cleland

Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily representative of Metropolis CBD Pty Ltd or its subsidiaries AUSCITY.COM and BusinessProfiles - Auscity.