 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Beware The Postman Bearing Accounts... Gordon Woolf |
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The boom in small Australian businesses getting Web pages started a year or
two ago. If you have a small business, then chances are that you now have your own ".com.au" address - and
that you'll start receiving statements that it is due for renewal.
Australian domain registration is for two years, no more and no less. Many thousands of
renewals are coming up soon. With this scenario come the mail requests, and even phone calls, some more like
demands, for renewal fees.
The problem is that many of these renewal notices are not from the company you dealt with to get the domain
name, which is probably waiting until you are a few weeks from renewal before they approach you.
The very early renewal notices are often addressed to "accounts payable" and may look like an invoice, though
others carefully explain that it is not an invoice because you don't have to renew, but with dire warnings
that someone else may register your name if you don't.
One even warns you to be wary of other firms asking to renew your domain name.
Is it a scam?
Not quite, because the companies will almost certainly provide you with the renewal they offer, though
probably at a higher price than you paid originally or can get elsewhere.
What reveals that this is not the firm you originally dealt with is that they will ask you to fill in a form
to get the "registry key" for the domain.
Your original supplier has this key - which they need to make any changes to details on your behalf. This
"key", actually a password, allows Web hosts or service providers to change the person to contact about
technical matters, or the DNS, the set of four numbers separated by dots which indicates the actual computer
address of your domain.
Don't get the key, or authorise anyone else to get it, unless you are very sure that you want to change the
person or company who administers the technical side of your Web site.
Official Warning
.au Domain Administration Ltd, the organisation which administers the .au domain, has issued an
official warning: "auDA is aware that some companies are sending out unsolicited 'Renewal Advice' notices
implying that the registry key is now required to renew your domain name. This is NOT correct."
They add: "You are entitled to have your domain name renewed by any of the companies that offer the
service. However, you should be wary of providing your domain name registry key in response to an offer to
renew your domain name unless you are sure that you want this new company to renew your domain name for
you."
auDA also points out that domain names cannot be renewed more than 60 days in advance of expiry, and that
anyone who offers to do so will just hold the money, and that there is no guarantee the company will still be
in business.
If a firm offers to renew for longer than two years, they'll hold the balance, gambling on the trend for fees
to go down. If they make the first renewal then go out of business, you may not know anything is wrong until
at least two years later.
auDA adds: "Do not assume that because you receive what appears to be an invoice, that you must therefore
pay it. You should only pay the supplier you wish to renew through. Be aware that your current supplier may
also be providing you with other services such as Internet access and e-mail, and that the price of the
domain name registration may be bundled with these services. Under these circumstances, you may already be
paying for your licence renewal."
Trade Practices Act
Professor Allan Fels, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) warned suppliers
of domain name renewal services in January last year "not to mislead customers" and also warned domain name
licence holders that they should "carefully check the rates and terms and conditions of the renewal notice"
and "not assume that any renewal notice is from your original supplier."
In March this year, the ACCC obtained a Federal Court order against one registration renewal service for
breaching the Trade Practices Act. They are watching several others.
Contacts
auDA
http://www.auda.org.au
Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC):
http://www.accc.gov.au
Reprinted from the May 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group,
Australia
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