This time of year always brings out the scammers, and if you own a domain for your small business, be wary of any notices coming through email or postal mail concerning the “renewal” of your domain that are sent by anyone but the company you originally registered the domain with (Network Solutions, GoDaddy, etc).

A perfect example is the following email that I received just today (click to enlarge):

While it’s blocked in this example, this particular scam made sure to include all public registration information for the domain as well as several other misleading items that this might actually be a notice to renew the domain.

However, there are many clues to look for that this is not a legitimate request for renewal — beside the fact that I know from my records this domain is NOT up for renewal, nor did I have any prior business dealings with this company.

1) This letter is to inform you that it’s time to send in your search engine registration

None of the major search engines require a fee to register your domain with them.

2) Failure to complete … may result in the cancellation of this offer

While it would be nice if they never bugged me again, I wouldn’t hold my breath that this is the last “offer” I’ll see from them.

3) Though never actually detailing what service they’re offering me, they’re quite clear that I am under no obligation to pay the amount stated above … unless I accept this offer by Jan. 5th.

4) And: This notice is not an invoice.  It’s merely a “courtesy reminder” to pay for a service I never used in the first place.

5) Most importantly, pay attention to any unsolicited email that invites you to pay for goods or services “securely” online.  Odds are that if you do enter your credit card number, you may as well contact your bank to cancel the card now.

Those are just a handful of examples for things to watch out for when reading emails like this.

To be honest, it’s really not hard to read between the lines, but companies sending notices like the example above, hope something that looks to be official, will be blindly paid without giving the matter a second thought.

But it’s that second thought that’s the most important one.