Fear Based Domain Name Transfer Marketing

Jules of Floobergeist breaks down a particularly insidious domain name transfer marketing tactic that's spreading across Canada. For those of you in the US who own domains, you've probably seen this one before:

The Domain Registry of Canada is sending out notices to all domain owners whose domain names are due for renewal this year. Not by email, but by regular post.

If you aren’t on the technical side, or if you happen to be one of the thousands of Canadians who have domain names, and don’t really keep track of where the domain is (sometimes i can be accused of this), it looks like a very official and professional warning. It’s VERY ballsy.

With the name, "Domain Registry of Canada," they sound like they're some form of government group that tracks domain registrations. Only that's not the case. They're just another registrar who'd like you to transfer your domains over to their business. And they use a combination of manipulation and fear to trick people into switching.

I rank this with other bottom of the barrel direct marketing tactics such as:

1. "Mortgage Rate Change" letters on what looks like a lender communication but turns out to be a sales letter.

2. Anti-spyware software marketed via pop-ups warning you that your computer may be infected.

3. McAfee's anti-virus software warning me that my computer is at risk because I haven't bought THEIR anti-spyware protection to go with their anti-virus software.

Jules offers sound advice to her readers regarding this direct mail marketing:

It’s not illegal, but it’s certainly not good business, nor is it even playing fair. Nasty bit of work. Watch out for the Domain Registry of Canada. Oh, and they’ve got a sister organization, the Domain Registry of America. Snappy name. Misleading name.

What other forms of fear-based tech marketing have you encountered?

Comments

1. Posted by: Michael Janssen on March 12, 2007 2:25 PM:

This has been happening to me for years. Every year, or actually every few months, because I have multiple domains, I get a snail-mail spam from the "International Domain Registry Corp" or something similar, with nice looking letterhead and such. I always laugh and wonder how many people get hooked by their ploy. Of course, now my preferred domain name registry is sending me snailmail notices too (GoDaddy)..

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