They're soliciting me through WHOIS!

ignore them, turn all your domains to private whois immediately, hah.

Don't know if you can do anything. I don't know of any law preventing a registered and tax-paying business from trying to sell its services. My guess is they count on there being a lot of businesspeople who aren't terribly knowledgeable about domain names.

I get 2 or 3 of these per year and it's pretty official looking with the maple leaf logo and "The Domain Registry of Canada". Just be glad they didn't get you.

When I got my first one it kinda freaked me out they look so "Official"

and then you open it, pffft $40 bucks to renew each of my names, what a joke!


It must be outdated info they are getting though,
cause they sent me one for a domain I haven't owned for over 8 months!

Just trashcan it and smile about the fact that they wasted their postage money on you.

I get those from the "Domain Registry of America" (I think that's what they're calling themselves these days) a couple of times a year - and I also have gotten them for domains I no longer own.

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They usually send those letters for crap domains, not the really good or premium ones. So my guess is: they're targeting newbies.

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Yep ive had them from "Domain Registry of America" just bin and ignore and as someone else said laugh at there waisted postage.

These people hope they cause you to panic thinking your going to loose your name and pay the fee but keep a level head pop into your registrar where your name is if it still exists and check the time length and pay the $ to renew it not the stupid $$ they are asking.

Ms Domainer said:

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They usually send those letters for crap domains, not the really good or premium ones. So my guess is: they're targeting newbies.

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I have been getting these letters from the American version "Domain Registry of America" for years. It appears that they routinely target good domains, bad domains, and anything else where they think they can make a buck off of people that want to pay high registration fees.

My high quality one-word .com domains are routine targets along with my crap, so NO, they don't just send them for crap domains.

I got my first letter a few months ago, it looked really official and I thought I had to do something about my domains that was government related. After reading through the leader I found out it was a solicitation and trashed it. Got a few more after that on domains I thought were protected but they weren't, I promptly protected them, hopefully I won't get any more.

I also received a phone call from a company offering DNS services, I forgot the name of the company but they said they do stuff for sites like IGN. Regardless I didn't need what they were offering.

I privatize all my domains now, I only have two that aren't because they are registered through Wordpress who don't offer such services. I don't like to do so but I hope if someone needs to contact me they will do it through the contact forms on my sites.

I have received tons of these as well. Seems they are sending out letters all over the world and have done so for years. Guess they must be making money out of it as it must be quite costly and still they continue. Just feed your bin with those letters ASAP!

Well... sometimes the recycling bin can get a bit lonely... so these unsolicited letters are the perfect companion!

just a law of averages thing, send enough out and get a few in

I noticed some domain providers such as 1and1 have a TOS that you essentially accept when you search for a domain using it as a provider where it claims you can't use the information for spam among other things unless you have permission from the owner.

Has anyone who uses a domain provider with such a TOS (it displays on the whois page) received spam such as this? If yes, did you take action against the company who sent it to you?

its all automated don't worry, first one is what the heck, after that just smile, and think of all the money they wasting on postage.

I haven't read all of this thread but let me tell you what I do:

In the US (unsure about Canada), the receiver of a piece of mail can send it back to the sender, free of charge, by writing "Delivery denied: Return to sender" on the envelope and dropping it off in the mail. I've done this to a few of their(the US branch) letters. I think they eventually got the idea and took my address off their mailing list. I dunno if this is permit-able in Canada but it works in the US. And this method had worked for me, although it took me a few letters before they got the point

What they are doing is illegal. Someone should try a class action lawsuit against them.

zoogo said:

On a few of my domains with public whois, The Domain Registry of Canada (droc.ca) who I did NOT register these domains with, has taken the liberty of sending me actual postal mail to my address, containing the domains they found my info from and an offer to switch to their services (which, may I add, cost $40/year CAD for a .com)

This is a blatant solicitation, and one of the many reasons I keep private WHOIS for as many of my domains as possible.

Now, what can I do about this in regards to action regarding the company?

Thank you.

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Return to sender

Why is it ilegal?. "Who is" is a public directory of ownership.

I look at it like.. many who have started up a new business open the phone book and mail or phone people to introduce their product or service. Free enterprize. Ususally it does not make a good impression, but 2-3 of those receivers take the deal up. Bottom line you can grow a business doing the mailings.

Being in business for a long time I have done mass mailings. Sure some pieces come back. Since I was not a big company that only benefited me. I would take the time to take the person off my mailing list if it came back "undeliverable". Thus saving time and postage in the future. I think though a large registry would not look at them and the returned solication would be trashed.

If you want to get off the list and it usually is only one or two companies involved is to simply use the toll free # provided in the promotional material. Ask the person in a nice way to take you off the mailing list. Also know this is not immediate as a month or more may be needed to pass on the request and for the mail piece to stop arriving.

goodkarmaco said:

Why is it ilegal?. "Who is" is a public directory of ownership.

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It is a against the terms you accept when accessing the Whois data. Because some data is being made public available it does not mean anyone is free to use the information as they like. Whois data is made available under certain terms, using it for other purposes is breaking the "contract" you are agreeing to when accessing the Whois database.

An example from GoDaddy.com said:

The data contained in GoDaddy.com, Inc.'s WHOIS database, while believed by the company to be reliable, is provided "as is" with no guarantee or warranties regarding its accuracy. This information is provided for the sole purpose of assisting you in obtaining information about domain name registration records. Any use of this data for any other purpose is expressly forbidden without the prior written permission of GoDaddy.com, Inc.. By submitting an inquiry, you agree to these terms of usage and limitations of warranty. In particular, you agree not to use this data to allow, enable, or otherwise make possible, dissemination or collection of this data, in part or in its entirety, for any purpose, such as the transmission of unsolicited advertising and solicitations of any kind, including spam. You further agree not to use this data to enable high volume, automated or robotic electronic processes designed to collect or compile this data for any purpose, including mining this data for your own personal or commercial purposes.

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This states explicit that you cannot use the information for sending out SPAM 8-X

Don't forget to recycle the stationary.

Save the Earth :D

EXACTLY. Thanks for explaining it. Reps added.

FanCube said:

It is a against the terms you accept when accessing the Whois data. Because some data is being made public available it does not mean anyone is free to use the information as they like. Whois data is made available under certain terms, using it for other purposes is breaking the "contract" you are agreeing to when accessing the Whois database.



This states explicit that you cannot use the information for sending out SPAM 8-X

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Good point, did not know that.. thks

Well for starters the official site is called CIRA Canadian Internet Registration Authority which I am a member of. Yes Canadian domains are worth more money and they have more protection also.

Now I know what I am about to say may not be the way things are supposed to be. I know years ago when signing up for a Godaddy account I read the tos, over time you forget about it. My point I guess is I like the fact that people can get ahold of me thru the "who is". I suspect alot of the more successful domainers feel that way too as I have seen them post over the years that they sold the name they are talking about, even right here in this forum thru someone finding them thru a "who is" search.

Thats the number one reason I do not pay a couple extra dollars to have my "who is" private. I want people to buy my domains. Truth be told I have sold 90% of my domains over the year's thru a person who looked up who owned the domain thru "who is" and contacted me directly.

Thats also why many domainers like myself type into the field for "address 2" not a real address but words such as " This domain is for sale". That way when a party searches to see who owns a name I may own they will see that I am open to them to get in touch with me.

About spam from those trying to sell me something I really get close to zero. Maybe one or two a month from someone wanting to sell me to buy a name I have regged in a different ext.

I think the benefits far outweigh a couple spam letters. That is if you like making money. Saying that I do not spam people. I merely make it easy for a person to contact me about my domains.

If you are a member of The Web's Largest Community Tracking Online Fraud & Abuse | Project Honey Pot you can publish the spam e-mail with full header or use an other spam database.

Btw: Anyone got domain spam e-mails from John Timmers InTrust Domains?

Ms Domainer said:

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They usually send those letters for crap domains, not the really good or premium ones. So my guess is: they're targeting newbies.

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From personal experience I know that this isn't fully true - I've had their scam letters for $xxx+ domains, too.