A newer phishing attempt that arrived in 2020 is an email that can either be emailed directly to your email address or via a Contact Us form on your website. It alleges that your Domain is about to expire and that you have 24 hours to submit funds to them online or the domain will be terminated.
This is wrong at so many levels. Domains not just “Expire” and then get “Terminated”. Domains expire and then must go through a “Redemption Period” for 30-60 days whereby you (the original domain owner) solely have the choice to renew the domain. You are the only person who can renew the domain during this period, so there is never a fear of “someone grabbing your domain” immediately after it passes the renewal date.
During this Redemption Period, the domain is in an INACTIVE state and your website will be down.
If for some reason you do not renew the domain during the 30-60 day Redemption Period, then the domain will enter back into of available domain names for someone else to register.
The SCAM email that you recieve is simply preying on most people’s’ lack of understanding and knowledge about how domain renewals work…. and they are trying to scare you into sending them money. This money has NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR DOMAIN. They just keep the money and leave you confused and scratching your head.
Here is what the email looks like:
