If you own a domain you have heard of this company. Domain Registry of America. The story for me started about 9 months ago. A client of mine was having issues with their .org of their domain name. We got it registered and transferred. Then I started looking for the history behind the .com address. Found out that an office worker had received the spam like letter from Domain Registry of America and they paid their exorbitant $35 renewal fee. So now Domain Registry of America was the registrar of record for their .com domain.
I thought it wasn’t much of a big deal and we’d just initiate a transfer to GoDaddy. Contacted Domain Registry of America only to find out they put a 120 day hold on any new domains. You can’t transfer them within that 120 period. Lets not forget that NO OTHER REPUTABLE company puts such a limit on domains. So after many frustrating emails on the subject, I figured I’d just wait them out.
Now it came time to initiate a transfer from them to GoDaddy. I went to GoDaddy and filled out the information to see that they had the technical contact email as privacy@droa.com. So I logged back into Domain Registry of America’s admin page to verify (again) my contact information, only to see a not so noticeable check box to make this happen. I turn that option off and reinitiate the transfer.
Comes down to where I need the “EPP Key” to transfer the domain. So I call up their customer service and give them my domain. The customer service rep then goes to ask me what my password is… IE THEY HAVE THE PASSWORDS NOT ONLY IN THE CLEAR BUT EASILY ACCESSED!!! So they then send me the code via email and their email was laughable:
The first issue here is that they don’t have a clue who my registrar is at this point, and it certainly isn’t Melbourne IT, LTD. D/B/A Internet Names Worldwide. So their email is just a continuing of the scam. I’m stunned that the government hasn’t stepped in to deal with this scam yet.
So the moral of the story? Send an email now, yes NOW, to all of your clients warning them that if they get any mailings from any company (but ESPECIALLY DROA) to contact you for clarification.