Q: Chris, I recently got something in the regular postal mail that says I need to renew my domain registration. I don’t recognize this company, but it looks pretty official. Is this a scam?
A: Yes, it is. If you read these things carefully you will see that it is an attempt to get you to change and transfer your DOMAIN REGISTRAR.
A domain registrar is different from your website hosting company, although some website hosting companies resell domain registrar/registration services.
For example, one of my clients hosts their website through InMotion Hosting and InMotion also handles their domain registration.
Yes, it can get confusing.
If what you received in the mail is from Domain Registry of America or Domain Registry, it’s a scam. See below.
You should know who your domain REGISTRAR is and how your domain registration is managed.
If you don’t figure that out now!
You can usually figure it through WHOIS at Go Daddy: https://www.godaddy.com/whois
Chances are you got this scam because YES your domain registration renewal is upcoming.
But you do not want to accept this offer or send these people any money or transfer your domain registration to them.
My favorite DOMAIN REGISTRAR is Google Domains (Google) with Go Daddy as a runner-up.
My favorite website HOSTING company is SiteGround.