Written by:
Leo Hoogma
In recent days, we have been called several times by entrepreneurs who were approached by telephone about registering domain names. They asked us if this was correct. One of the callers had even joined forces with such a party. Fortunately, we were able to help this entrepreneur to cancel this contract. This form of telephone acquisition falls under the heading of domain name fraud. Our advice : Be careful. Not enough can be warned against these types of practices as the financial consequences can be enormous.
After a huge boom in 2013 and 2015, there are now parties again working to sell (unnecessary) domain names to entrepreneurs through telephone acquisition. Unfortunately, these very bad practices seem unstoppable. However, you can avoid falling victim to it! Be wary if you receive a call from a representative of a company claiming to be in the business of checking for duplicate domain name registrations or similar. These types of companies try to make you believe that there seems to be a problem with your domain name. They indicate that you have the first registration right on a certain domain extension, but that information shows that another company has indicated that they want to start a website with the same domain name as yours, but with a .com, .eu or other extension. Of course you don't want that. But, and here comes the scam trick, the rep on the line can provide you with the solution to this problem. Don't fall for it!
We have also recently heard a lot of complaints about phone calls from so-called marketing agencies that have a special offer to score higher in Google and to become easier to find on keywords. Also be careful with that. These parties are mainly concerned with selling expensive contracts with long terms and high installments. The consideration by the marketing agency is often limited to sending a high bill. Never let yourself be pressured to sign for something and ask for a reflection period so that you can inform yourself.
If you receive a call from a so-called domain name seller or marketing expert and do you not feel good about it? Then just hang up the handset. Never conclude an agreement with an unknown party during a (first) telephone call. Do you have doubts about an offer or do you have another question? Please do not hesitate to contact us. We are happy to advise you. That is also the service of Hoogma Webdesign.
Would you like to read more blog posts? Go to the page Blog.