Domain Registration Scam
Recently several agents have received emails and faxes from a company called U S Domain Licensing. These letters and emails look very official, they quote United States Legal Code and they prey on people that have recently made changes to their websites. It appears that they are trying to sell you your domain name with a .us extension. This makes no sense unless you just want an additional domain with a somewhat obscure extension.
The emails and faxes start out with: Final Notice and list your Administrative Contact then yourdomainname.us then INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY NOTIFICATION then the statement that the above noted domain is available for registration. Again, the domain that they are referring to is an agent’s domain with the .US extension rather than the normal .com or .net that we are accustomed to. This company is obtaining your contact info from is the WHOIS information that is widely available on the internet.
You should only respond to emails or notifications from your domain registrar regarding the renewing or changing of your domain name. Your domain name is part of your personal branding and you don’t want someone messing with your brand do you?
You should be suspicious of any domain or website related notices that come by mail or fax. Domain Registration and website management issues are pretty much on-line process and only between you and your particular registrar or web host. When in doubt, or as a good cross check, go straight to your registrar/host to get any information you are concerned with.
As for .us, or .co extensions, these can be good alternative choices if your favored domain name is already taken under more desireable .com or .net extensions