Many Australians and New Zealanders have been caught out by fraudsters or scammers trying to trick unsuspecting people to hand over their domains.

Common scams

Here are some of the scams that fraudsters sometimes attempt:

• Fake renewal notices are sent out when your domain name comes up for renewal requesting a cheque for payment. When you send them the money they renew your domain for you, but also transfer management to themselves and collecting a payment for doing so. It pays to read the fine print!
• Renewal invoices for domain names very similar to the ones you already own are sent out (e.g. a .net domain name instead of a .net.au domain name) . The victim ends up purchasing another domain they did not want.
• Guaranteed pre-registration for a new domain name extension. If the extension .ozzie became available for example, there are no guarantees that any company could preregister yourname.ozzie - it would be a race when the domains became available.

While the Commerce Commission of New Zealand and ACCC in Australia crack down on these scammers where they can, many operate from countries which make it difficult to prosecute. This means you need to be super-careful once you have purchased a domain.

Protecting yourself - some useful tips

• When your domain names are coming up for renewal, take a note of the dates and check the names of anyone who sends you a renewal notice. Make sure it was the company you bought the domain from to start with.
• Keep on top of the latest scams by visiting the ACCC's scamwatch website.
• Check that your domain name is registered to you. You can run a search on the registration details to check the details of a domain name. This service is called whois. For .au domains go to http://www.ausregistry.com.au/registrars.php.