It’s been said that nothing is more expensive than ignorance. Most Americans do not own even one domain, but some of those who do may be ignorant that they are domain name holders. This is where Domain Registry of America comes in [ <– note this link is to a Wikipedia page about domain name scams].
I do not accuse anybody of illegal or unethical business practices regarding domain registration, but Domain Registry of America is certainly making significant revenues from the ignorance of those of us who have forgotten, or never fully understood, domain registration. I just received a letter from them, offering to take care of this registration for me, involving my dot-com livepterosaur:
As a courtesy to domain name holders we are sending you this notification of the domain name registrations that are due to expire in the next few months. When you switch today to the Domain Registry of America, you can take advantage of our best savings . . .
Careful consideration of the second sentence seems to absolve this company from deceitful marketing, for it notifies us that they are asking us to switch domain registration to them; but how many people read past the first sentence of a letter that looks it is a business bill? How easy it is for us to assume that this involves simply paying our annual fee to renew our dot-com registration (or dot-net, etc)!
I marvel that I did not fall into this trap myself, a few years ago when I was mostly ignorant of what domain name ownership entails. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
By the way, it costs me only $10 a year to renew my registration with BlueHost, while the “savings” offered by Domain Registry of America would have cost me $35 for one year. (No, I have not been paid by BlueHost to promote their web hosting.)