It seems that no matter how cautious we are, we can always fall victim.
Five years ago this coming April, our church decided to create a website. Nobody in our congregation had any idea how to do it. At that time, there was a foreign exchange student from Denmark staying at my neighbors and she volunteered to help us get the website created and registered since she had experience.
About a month ago, our treasurer got what looked like an invoice in the mail informing us that our domain name registration was up for renewal. She wasn't sure what it was as she is not internet saavy in the slightest so she passed it on to one of the ladies in our church that has been keeping our website up to date. She didn't know what it was either and brought it to me as I am the council chair. I brought it to our council meeting which was scheduled about a week later. It was decided that we would renew it for another five years at a cost of $180.00.
As I mentioned before, nobody in our group has any experience in these matters and so we were not alarmed by the price and did not know this company was not our domain name registrar.
About a week ago, we got a thank you letter in the mail along with a request for our current domain code key or something along those lines to finalize the process. This caught my attention because I figured if we were just renewing, they should already have this information. Turns out, the original letter was not an invoice but rather an offer to transfer our domain name services to the new registrar and now they need additional information to complete the transfer.
I decided to do a web search to find out about this company called iDNS (Internet Domain Name Services, Inc.). I got page upon page of hits identifying iDNS as a scam. It appears that the company, iDNS, is a legitimate domain name services company but they use shady and deceptive tactics to obtain new clients. I also learned that they may tend to be very rude and belligerent when called.
We decided that I would try to get our money refunded so I looked up their contact information and sent an email. Here's what I wrote...
To Whom It May Concern:
It has come to my attention that we, the Salem and Sauk Valley Lutheran churches, have unintentionally submitted payment for the transfer of our website domain services to iDNS. After further review we came to the realization that we had mistaken your solicitation for transfer of our domain services to iDNS as an invoice.
We appreciate your generous offer but at this time we must decline and request a refund of the $180.00 which was sent to you.
Please accept our apology for any inconvenience this may have caused. We will try to be more careful in the future.
Instead of a reply attempting to sell me into finishing the transfer, I got the following...
?
To which I replied...
Wow, interesting reply from a place of business. Is there additional information you need? I can send you a photocopy of the letter you sent thanking us for the payment and then requesting additional information to complete the transfer if that will help.
If we are unable to get a refund, we'll be forced to ask our bank to cancel payment on the check. Just thought I'd share this and maybe others will not be caught off guard.
Five years ago this coming April, our church decided to create a website. Nobody in our congregation had any idea how to do it. At that time, there was a foreign exchange student from Denmark staying at my neighbors and she volunteered to help us get the website created and registered since she had experience.
About a month ago, our treasurer got what looked like an invoice in the mail informing us that our domain name registration was up for renewal. She wasn't sure what it was as she is not internet saavy in the slightest so she passed it on to one of the ladies in our church that has been keeping our website up to date. She didn't know what it was either and brought it to me as I am the council chair. I brought it to our council meeting which was scheduled about a week later. It was decided that we would renew it for another five years at a cost of $180.00.
As I mentioned before, nobody in our group has any experience in these matters and so we were not alarmed by the price and did not know this company was not our domain name registrar.
About a week ago, we got a thank you letter in the mail along with a request for our current domain code key or something along those lines to finalize the process. This caught my attention because I figured if we were just renewing, they should already have this information. Turns out, the original letter was not an invoice but rather an offer to transfer our domain name services to the new registrar and now they need additional information to complete the transfer.
I decided to do a web search to find out about this company called iDNS (Internet Domain Name Services, Inc.). I got page upon page of hits identifying iDNS as a scam. It appears that the company, iDNS, is a legitimate domain name services company but they use shady and deceptive tactics to obtain new clients. I also learned that they may tend to be very rude and belligerent when called.
We decided that I would try to get our money refunded so I looked up their contact information and sent an email. Here's what I wrote...
To Whom It May Concern:
It has come to my attention that we, the Salem and Sauk Valley Lutheran churches, have unintentionally submitted payment for the transfer of our website domain services to iDNS. After further review we came to the realization that we had mistaken your solicitation for transfer of our domain services to iDNS as an invoice.
We appreciate your generous offer but at this time we must decline and request a refund of the $180.00 which was sent to you.
Please accept our apology for any inconvenience this may have caused. We will try to be more careful in the future.
Instead of a reply attempting to sell me into finishing the transfer, I got the following...
?
To which I replied...
Wow, interesting reply from a place of business. Is there additional information you need? I can send you a photocopy of the letter you sent thanking us for the payment and then requesting additional information to complete the transfer if that will help.
If we are unable to get a refund, we'll be forced to ask our bank to cancel payment on the check. Just thought I'd share this and maybe others will not be caught off guard.