We've seen another renewal scam being sent to our customers in the last 
couple of days. It's targeted at .biz owners, sent via spam e-mail to the 
WHOIS contact.

Here's a sample:

>Dear Registrant,
>
>Your domain EXAMPLE.BIZ is due for renewal shortly. If you wish to
>renew your domain name please see our web site:
>
>http://www.domain-renewal.biz
>
>IMPORTANT: FAILURE TO RENEW YOUR DOMAIN BEFORE ITS EXPIRY DATE
>WILL RESULT IN LOSS OF SERVICE.
>
>Registration Fees:
>
>2 Years - $30/year
>3-5 Years - $22/year
>6-10 Years - $19/Year
>
>All costs are US Dollars. Should you have any questions on renewing
>your domain please fill out our online contact form.
>
> .BIZ Renewal
>http://www.domain-renewal.biz
>
>----------------------------------
>If you no longer wish to receive domain renewal notifications
>via email see http://www.domain-renewal.biz/notifications.htm
>This email was sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]

There's no mention in the e-mail, or on the site, that "renewing" your 
domain name with them is actually a transfer.

People who "renew" with them might get a few surprises. For example, they 
don't even have a control panel that you can use to update the 
nameservers... this feature is "coming soon"(!). They're also using 
servers hosted in China in an attempt to avoid anti-spam restrictions, 
and they don't accept support requests by phone.

By the way, domain-renewal.biz is registered through TUCOWS; I don't know 
if they're a TUCOWS reseller or not. Perhaps compliance can do something 
about this...?

-- 
Robert L Mathews, Tiger Technologies

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