UPDATE: I received a cease-or-desist from DRoA in March 2006 about this post.
Just received a letter in the post from ‘Domain Registry of America’ (DRoA), urging me to pay them for renewing my domain name. The paper, with a London address on the back, looks like a bill and tries to scare the reader with “Your registration will expire on May 10, 2005. Act today!”
The issue is: it’s a scam. There is no need for me to renew now, and certainly not with DRoA. I know exactly who manages my domains and I am quite happy with them. But I can imagine this trick works quite well with people who have no clue how DNS works, or in accounting departments of companies. These guys have been fooling people since at least 2002, as the Domain Registry of America, of Canada, of Europe and of Australia.
Who’s behind it?
- The letter I received has a UK address: 56 Gloucester Rd, Suite 526, SW7 4UB London. This happens to be the same address as Mail Boxes Etc, so it’s probably just a mail box.
- The letter was shipped from “Jamaica, NY”, which seems to be the USPS post office in John F Kennedy Airport. The address on the DRoA site says “2316 Delaware Avenue #266 – Buffalo, New York”, which apparently is again a “Mail Boxes Etc” location.
- A legal document of the Federal Trade Commission (Dec 2003) places them in Ontario, Canada. I found a “PO Box 4577, Markham, Ontario, L3R 5M7″ address on their Canadian site. Again no ‘real’ address.
- A search in Canada’s WHOIS comes up with: droc.ca was registered in Aug 2001 by a Mr Pearl Bitton. A search in Canada’s 411 phone directory gives us one Mr. P. Bitton in Thornhill, Ontario – about 15km away from Markham. I can’t be sure it’s him, of course.
- The FTC final judgment of Dec 2003 mentions a Daniel Klemann, President of DRoA. Mr Klemann must be seing a lot of court rooms, because he was already convicted in Canada in June 2002. So this man has been told twice by a judge that he should stop his practices, but still continues. What a hero. There is a D. Klemann living in Markham and in Toronto.
- His partner in crime, James Tetaka, equally popular in courtrooms, was convicted for similar facts in May of 2004 and described as a Toronto-area man.
- The company under which they operated is “1473253 Ontario Inc”, which is run by Peter Kuryliw, also from Toronto.
- So they first ran a scam as Yellowbusiness.ca, then as Internet Registry of Canada (IRC), and now they are basically active all over the world. Global scumbags.
Other mentions of the scam:
asa.org.uk
compudave.blogspot.com
coofercat.com
domainavenue.com
domainregistrationtips.net
drbacchus.com
seowebsitepromotion.com
theregister.co.uk
webhostingtalk.com
wellho.net
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I told york region police 3 months ago they told me It`s only money people have sat in jail for these guys while they enjoy their lifestyle makes me sick.
What do you mean did scam from his house??? While paying this guy His btother started yellow pages scam when Alen was in pennsylvania he came out and went at it right away,jails gaurd were paid while he was in jail in Canada for the Yellow Pages scam to make sure no one hurt the LIER .WOULDN`T BE SURPRISE HE PAYS COPS TO HAVE PEOPLE ARREST.Alan will always be Alan .He has a mansion in Florida also He is laughing at American and canadian justise system.he is unstopable.He needs half a million just for hius lifestyle he has about 30 millions hidden away. It`s ONLY money
Yep, they are one smooth bunch. The internet is rife with bad domain name registrar resellers, miserable hosting companies, and underhanded creeps like Domain Registry of America. The guy who owned BlackBearBike.com was getting these until I changed the contact email to my own so that I get them instead. Now I just want to do something to them – but of course there’s nothing TO do short of tracking them down and giving them a beating. I’ll bet that anyone who does transfer over to Registry of America will NEVER be able to get their EPP Code from them and so never be able to leave – and nobody will lift a finger to help. What garbage these people are.
From the Half way house get it.Look he does it from jails.Wish I had proof of that.
From the Half way house get it.Look he does it from jails.Wish I had proof of that.
I was so glad to find your web page, I recieved a letter from these guys, mine has a Australian address for sending money. I nearly sent it, but something didnt feel right so I looked up there web ad and found you guys right under them. Thankyou so much, your wonderful, just saved us a lot of money and wasted time
Can you guys help me, Is whois@name.net legitamite, I am confused about who to trust in trying to retrieve my domain name.
Thanks Michelle
July 2008 I have just been mailed by Domain Registry of America, so they’re still at it…I live UK. The guy who looks after my website warned me against them. I recognised them to be a scam. What alarmed me was that they knew my name and address.
I will pass the letter onto Scotland Yard internet fraud office.
Received a domain expiration notice from them while I was on vacation. Accounting paid it on the credit card. Thankfully the webmaster emails come to me so I was not here to click the link to confirm the domain transfer. I emailed asking for a refund to the card a few times and then finally called today and spoke to some gum chewing twit who agreed to refund it within two seconds, curiously not long enough to even call my account up on the screen. When I said there was an injunction against them and I cant believe they are still operating he started talking over me, loudly reading from a script and shouting the words from it. I started laughing (out of shock) and asked what he was screaming for. He said if he was screaming, I’d know about it. Lovely company. I am reporting to the BBB and have asked me REAL domain provider to issue an email to all their customers warning them of the scam.
The full report is available online on the Federal Trade Commission website at:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/12/domainreg.shtm
A copy of the complaint filed by the FTC against DROA is available here:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/12/031219compdomainreg.pdf
A copy of the actual Federal injunction against DROA can be found here:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/12/031219stipdomainreg.pdf
You can find him at 80 Parr place, thornhill ontario Canada ( 5 million $$$ house) his name is Alan Benlolo the wife is Sharon benlolo nice bunch of low life.
I work for a domain registrar. The amount of calls we get from idiots who don’t know they are with us and have paid domain registry of america is amazing. Some times people are getting stung for up to $300 or more.
I still cannot believe these guys still operate its such a joke. Makes me sick.
All i can suggest to people is to get Private Registration on your domain names. They grab all your details from the whois. Address, email etc, and then send out those stupid bloody letters, which are soo dodgy.
Anyway, Im thinking of doing what others have suggested and just messing with them for fun. Pretending interest in buying expensive domain names and making them go to western union etc. Just to make them waist some time, and get revenge for all the waisted time my Company has had to deal with because of these annoying letters.
DROA please go away and die. thanks.
I read an artilce about this online at http://www.buildasitebookmarks.com/DNS_scams.html it had a lot of good information on it. You should check it out if there are things that you are leary about. They seem to update the site pretty frequently. Also the FTC publishes information about shady scaming companies.
I have just received a letter in the post from these people. I am used to receiving letters from vaious people, like Performing Rights Agency if I play music to my clients at home, even though I don’t see clients at home. Then there was a request to register with data protection at some fantastic sum, where in face it costs peanutes, and like the DRG all these letters suggest that I must act or lose out or be fined. I usually drop them into my local police station who pass them on to their fraud department. Also I think I remember reading something about Gloucester Road, London being quite common for accomodation addresses.
Hi everyone,
Unfortunately, I just got hit by these guys. I have been so busy as of late that when that letter came in the mail I didn’t even think about who my registrar was. I just thought, oh my domain is going to expire I better pay it. Now I’m shaking my head in disbelief at how dumb that was. It’s not so much the $30 I paid that I care about. I don’t want these guys to have anything to do with my domain. The thing is, I am not sure if my domain is in their hands now or not because while I did end up paying the $30, I received an email from them saying that they needed me to approve a transfer of my domain. The email looked fishy so that is why I started researching this company, and man, was I shocked to see how they had scammed so many people the same way. So naturally, I am not going to approve the transfer, and am just hoping that will be enough to keep my domain with my current registrar. I know I paid the $30 but I never once did I give them permission to transfer my domain from Arvixe to theirs.
So anyways guys, I feel for all of you people who have had to deal with these guys. We need to do a better job in educating people about these scams. Let’s face it, this company has been doing this for years, so noody is going to do anything about it. But we can. There is strengh in numbers and what we have hear is A LOT of angry, fed up people. I encourage you to give as much bad publicity to this company as you can. Through your online businesses, blogs, websites, etc, spread the word around of what this company is doing.
Ok, I got stung. Had surgery, husband paying the bills, he sent them $95. BUT I caught it and did a stop payment on the check before it hit my bank. So I am out $15 instead of the $95. Got the emails about them needing me to “unlock” my domain. No way. Also have filled out an FTC complaint for all it seems to do. I am going to fill out a complaint at my local post office for mail fraud. If anyone has a current copy of the letter they are sending out I would appreciate it. They have you sign and send the letter back with your payment.
Well, I’m back again. How about some feedback on this scenario. My client is contacted and fully assumes that it is me contacting him, but it’s DROA. My client writes out a check for $50.00 and sends it. My customer makes the check payable to me. Droa contacts me numerous times to authorize the release of the domain, but I don’t. Then Droa cashes the check made payable to me. What do I do or who do I contact to take legal action against them?
I have had so many clients ask me why they are getting this letter when I take care of all their registration. I explained to them what they do and the reaction is always the same. “How can they be allowed to do this?” My reply is basically, ‘it’s not technically fraud’ and remind them that they are in good hands with me and that if they receive any more, to disregard them.
I myself have written at least one article on this and it’s nice to see others trying to help unsuspecting and potential victims of their less than honorable ways.
Just read the fine print on the back of one of these notices from DROA and it says “We”, “us”, “our” refer to eNom, Inc, Wild West Domains, Inc, Brandon Gray Internet Services, (dba “NameJuice.com) and DROA.
I have dealt with all of these guys from past clients. Stay away.
Here we are, Feb 2010 and they are still at it. *sigh*
Nice sleuth work. I’ve been getting these things for years. They used to be totally fraudulent. Now after being taken to court by the FTC there are mostly fraudulent as they reworded the letters. I have a new version of the letter here on my blog:
http://the-name-i-wanted-was-already-taken-so-i-used-a-lot-of-dashes.com/the-domain-registry-of-america-scam/
Why not nibble away at their ankles?
Instead of recycling the notices from Domain Registry of America, do the following: 1) Do not open the envelope, 2) write refused prominently across the white space on the envelope, and 3) pop the envelope back in the mail. They could be charged as much as 70¢ in postage fees for the return.
It won’t put them out of business, but inflicting a bit of revenge, however small is gratifying.
I just got one of these. Only $30 to renew my domain for a year! Hah.