This is not a problem most people will have, since most people don’t run websites. But if you do run a website…
Computers talk to each other using great gobs of numbers. Most of the time, the numbers are numbers, but frequently the numbers represent letters. The letter A, for example, is represented by the number 65, while a lowercase a is 97, a space is represented by 32, etc. This scheme was developed back in 1963 and is based on an even older coding system originally developed for telegraph and teletype systems.
Sometimes, numbers are addresses, such as the address of a website. The address of the White House website, www.whitehouse.gov, is [right this moment] 23.6.163.210. As people have trouble remembering odd strings of numbers, humans prefer to deal with www.whitehouse.gov. In order to translate the computer-friendly numbers to letters and letters to computer addresses, the domain name system was developed.
When you set up your website, one of your first decisions is to come up with a domain name. This site’s domain name is kljcharters.com, with kljcharters being the specific site and the .com suffix meaning it is lumped in with “commercial” domain names. After you decide on a domain name, your hosting provider will charge you a fee for using that name, usually year by year but you can also pay for two or three year periods at once. If you allow your domain to lapse (i.e., fail to pay the registration fee at the end of the period), the domain can be sold to whoever wants to pay the fee.
This brings us to an interesting scam: companies have sprung up that do nothing but troll through domain listings, looking for domains that are due to expire soon. They then mail out official-looking letters that offer to renew your domain, and even sell you companion-named domains, for a fee. But the fee is usually several times what you would normally pay.
Such as this official-looking letter, complete with a flag-themed icon, that mentions when the domain will expire, offers to renew the domain for 1, 2, or 5 years, and offers to sell you companion domain names for $135 each for two years.
The only problem is that most hosting providers will renew domains for $20 a year or less, and some domain registrars offer domains for as low as $5 per year.
Then there is this letter from 2021. Initially, it looked like another scheme to register a domain at a very high price. But no, the letter doesn’t even offer that service. Disclaimers say you aren’t obligated to pay them, but still: if you pay their fee, “This website listing offer is provided to leading websites throughout the United States to enhance their Website exposure and expose them to new customers through our directory.” Um, yeah, Google and Bing do that, too, but without spending $228. The next sentence: “We are not a Domain Registrar and we do not Register or Renew Domain Names.” Um, so you don’t really do anything at all.
Compared to Social Security scams, and services to “assist” you in collecting Medicare, and constant demands to renew your extended auto warranty, these letters aren’t remotely comparable. For one thing, they aren’t illegal.
But they aren’t at all useful, either.
