amenworld.com - domain hosting service

[GomiGirl]

OK I will admit that I am a bit of a cynic.. but does anybody know anything about Amenworld

They have sent me emails requesting that I renew my domain name registration with them.. however, they were not the original company I registered with.

As a cynic, am I correct in my initial suspicion that this is an opportunistic marketing excercise by a company trying to get new business by sending renewal emails to domain holders about to expire?

This information is public domain.

However, it is quite possible that my original registration company has vanished into the ether and the customer accounts have been sold to this company.

[cstaylor]

Are you talking about your .com or .co.jp address? You .com address is still handled by Network Solutions, and it's paid up until November 20th, 2006.

[Taro Toporific]

O
As a cynic, am I correct in my initial suspicion that this is an opportunistic marketing excercise by a company trying to get new business by sending renewal emails to domain holders about to expire?

Message
Steve Bildermann
Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2003 3:42 am

Post subject: Extract From Byte Magazine - July 30 -


I Slammed Myself

I own several web domain names, including some like "Feathersnake" which relate to books I have written. Of course my main web site is http://www.jerrypournelle.com. I'd prefer http://www.chaosmanor.com but that seems to be owned by an Iowa writers' group. At one time they offered to sell it to me, provided I let them host it. That seemed too high a price to pay.

Incidentally, it's easy enough to find out who owns a domain name. Visit the Network Solutions whois server, type in the domain name, and click the search button. Up pops a password in graphics format designed to foil automated spammer tools. After you type in the password, the whois server returns the registrant name, address, and other details about the domain owner. If the domain is registered with a different registrar, the whois server lists basic information about the domain name and refers you to the whois server at the other registrar for additional details.

Bob Thompson notes that various advocates for the blind are objecting strenuously to these graphic spammer spoilers because blind users can't see them and therefore can't prove they're human, but everyone has started using them, e.g., Yahoo, MSN, etc. I'm not sure what ought to be done about that. Text to speech programs come to mind. Eakspay the etterslay in igpay atinlay.

Another domain I'd like to own but don't is http://www.pournelle.com. My son Richard had that one for a couple of years, but he forgot to make a payment, and a commercial speculator grabbed it. Last time I made contact with those people they offered to sell it to me for about a thousand dollars. I told them to go to the devil.

I'm told I can appeal to some organization or another in a case like Pournelle.com and possibly get the domain back, but it looks to be a lot of trouble, and there's no assurance I'd win anyway; not worth the bother.

Then the other day I got a "bill." It said one of my Web domain registrations was about to expire, and to send money to Domain Registration of America to renew it. I'd never heard of that outfit, but domain registration outfits change their names a lot, and this looked official, so I wrote out a check the next time I paid my bills. The registration wasn't to expire for a couple of months, but no harm in doing it early.

So yesterday I got a letter thanking me for moving my Web registration to its new home. It turned out that this outfit wasn't where I had the domain registered at all. I had already thrown away the original "bill" so I can't say for certain, but if there was any notice that in sending them money I was changing my registration site, I certainly didn't see it. To make it worse, I think now I had already renewed the registration of that domain with the original registrar.

There are several morals to this story. First, keep better records than I do, so that you will know where you have registered your domain names.

Second, pay by American Express or a Chase Visa or other credit card with good support services so you can protest the payment if it turns out to be questionable; don't so as I did and mail them a check. Finally, it's probably worthwhile to choose one registration outfit and get all of yours registered there so that you can ignore all the various "notices" and "bills" that firms seeking to get you to slam yourself will be sending you.

Bob Thompson and I have been using a registration service with the unlikely name of GoDaddy which is easy to use, competent, and doesn't send me unwanted solicitations. Recommended.

[Steve Bildermann]

OK I will admit that I am a bit of a cynic.. but does anybody know anything about Amenworld

They have sent me emails requesting that I renew my domain name registration with them.. however, they were not the original company I registered with.

As a cynic, am I correct in my initial suspicion that this is an opportunistic marketing excercise by a company trying to get new business by sending renewal emails to domain holders about to expire?

This information is public domain.

However, it is quite possible that my original registration company has vanished into the ether and the customer accounts have been sold to this company.

Not exactly the same but along the same lines from Jerry Pournelle

A Warning

If you own a domain and get a "bill" for domain registration from "Domain Registry of America," look at it closely. It may not be a bill, but a transfer from where you have it now to DROA. Send them money and when they do the transfer they may not get the information right, and then they may lock the account, and you may find you have trouble moving it elsewhere. I am in the process of transferring an account that got moved to DROA because I paid what looked like a bill. I want to put my registration with http://www.godaddy.com who are good guys with an odd name. I do not recommend Domain Registry of America. I can recommend GoDaddy.

[GomiGirl]

Well yes after a bit more snooping around my "account" I found that the invoice - should I choose to accept it - is for:

Order description

Domain: GOMIGIRL.COM*
TRANSFER PACK WEB ADDRESS
Period : 12 months

*changed for purely ego reasons.

I wonder how many people have been caught by this sneaky bastards.