What's this "We're just checking your contact info" scam?

[beggers]

I was contacted by phone by someone speaking such broken English that I could barely understand him. He kept saying "we're verifying the contact info on your domain" (some obscure domain I own). He asked me if the email address was correct, and I said yes.

I've also gotten some emails about this regarding various other random domains including a couple I don't even own. It basically says that they registrar has to verify my contact info. I've only gotten this on a few domains and I own hundreds so it seems kinda fishy to me.

Anyone know anything about this?

 

[tinner666]

Sounds like a scam. Registrar contacts by e-mail annd snail mail first, to my knowledge.

 

[Domagon]

Filing a Whois Data Problem Report (WDRP) is a backdoor way to legally "steal" a domain...

Registrar locks, domain passwords, etc are NO protection...

Most registrars, including many of the well respected ones, will only give the registrant a relative short time (several days to perhaps two weeks) to respond to a WDPR before taking further action, which can include deleting or more likely assigning ownership of the domain to someone else via drop services or potentially even transferring / selling it to the person the filed the WDPR to begin with - and yes, to the best of my knowledge, that's legal!

That may be the story behind the weird phone call you received - either a person who wants your domain hoping you wouldn't know anything about the domain so they have a better shot with a WDPR ...

Or, perhaps, simply verification by the registrar in response to a WDPR that someone filed; billing issues and other things can also lead to a registrar calling.

In regards to the whois contact emails you received - many are legit. Most registrars send them out annually.

Problem is that one can't easily tell a bogus email from a real one - so it's best to never click any link in any email, even when from a known sender...

All it takes is a scammer to link to a fake login page that looks legit (other ways include stealing cookies, rogue javascript, etc), to steal one's password, and then transfer out their domains - sadly, such thefts happen all too frequently.

Ron

 

[Yofie]

This sounds close to a phone call that I got a couple weeks ago. I wrote about it here. It's a Scam!

http://www.dotweekly.com/2008/04/10/scam-alert-domain-registry-support/

 

[draggar]

I just got an email from NetSol about making sure my (2) domains with them have accurate information asking me to click on a link and log on.

Yeah, right.

 

[beggers]

This sounds close to a phone call that I got a couple weeks ago. I wrote about it here. It's a Scam!

http://www.dotweekly.com/2008/04/10/scam-alert-domain-registry-support/

This is exactly what happened, including that the person was difficult to understand, wanted a fax number, etc. :veryangry:

 

[NameGuy]

From this number, right?
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-800-223-9113

 

[DDC_Cyn]

Worst case, it's a scam. Least case it's some business with something to sell that needs to confirm your info so they can send you a sales pitch.

 

[MAllie]

I got one of those this morning, supposedly from GoogleAdWords:

Dear Google AdWords Customer,

We were unable to process your payment.
Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment.
To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information.

Please sign in
to your account at http://adwords.google.com/select/login,
and update your payment information.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was sent from a notification-only email address that does
not accept incoming email. Please do not reply to this message.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for chosing Google Adwords
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 8.0.100 / Virus Database: 0.0.0/0 - Release Date: 00:00
_________________________

Naturally, I have no intention of clicking on the link. As with any other site where I want to check my details, I go straight onto the site from my PC address bar.