Domain Registry Of America / Liberty Names of America

As I’ve warned customers in the past, DO NOT make a payment to renew your domain name through the Domain Registry of America, or ANYONE ELSE for that matter. The letter you received is trying to get you to switch services to them, NOT a bill to protect you from losing your domain name. They are not your provider, but you may mistakenly think they are.

They are under investigation by the FTC and have lost a couple of court battles over this practice of theirs.

A letter I emailed their sales staff:

Listen up you Scam-holes:

One of my clients (a LAW PROFESSIONAL’S ORGANIZATION) almost switched to you by mistake, until I alerted them to your scam.* I used to getting your crap in my PO Box, but tired of you targeting my clients.* Your bull about not intentionally scamming obviously doesn’t hold water when reasonable people (under definition of law) are misled.

I will be posting information on your scam shortly on our consumer education site, www.GeeksBearingGifts.com, and there’s not a damn thing you’re going to do about it.* Consider yourself served.

I received a response (rather polite considering) from a representative of Domain Registry of America (DROA), who expressed an interest in rebuttal or explanation of their position here on the forums, to which I extended a heartily warm invitation.

In the meantime, I have done some research and found that MANY companies like Kentropolis have posted similar warnings regarding domain name “slamming” from DROA. Often listed were other companies I have had such problems with, including Register.Com and Verisign.

There were very little hard facts about the details of the DROA’s practices, but opinions abound. However, here are two articles that are not editorials.

(1) The settlement (not an actual ruling / judgement) by the FTC, which can be found directly on their website at … http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/12/domainreg.htm, titled Court Bars Canadian Company from Misleading Consumers in Marketing of Internet Domain Name Services.

(2) The court ruling in favor of Register.Com against DROA … http://www.whois.sc/news/2002-12/registry-america.html, titled Register.com Wins Stay Against Domain Registry of America.

Apparently, there have been various beefs about DROA’s marketing practices over the last couple of years, even before they changed to their current name. And even after the FTC’s statement of “keeping an eye on them” the complaints abound.

I will be very interested in hearing the other side of the story, and have a lot of specific questions that when answered would give people an honest opportunity to decide for themselves — is DROA slamming or not?