Suppose you receive a letter through the post, from the Domain Registry of America, VeriSign, or some similarly official-sounding body, which says that your domain name requires renewal immediately. A form is provided for you to fill in and send off to complete the renewal and ensure that you will not lose your domain. Most people would quickly fill in the form and send it off, oblivious to the fact that the Domain Registry of America is not an official body at all; it's just a company that wants to steal your custom from your current domain registrar, and you can bet they'll be charging you more for their services.

This practice is called "domain slamming", and it is of dubious legality. It plays on the fact that registrants do not always remember with whom their domain is registered; by using a generic and official-sounding name, conning people into thinking they will lose their domain completely if they don't renew now with the form provided is a simple process. Whilst these unscrupulous domain registrars will almost always put their true intentions in the fine print when they send you a letter or email, they rely on the fact that you probably won't read it. This means that although they are technically being honest about their practices, they are clearly attempting to mislead the public, and this has led to court appearances. VeriSign appear to have cleaned up their act since they were taken to court for sneakily getting customers to switch to their service unawares. Unfortunately, the Domain Registry of Canada (or America, or Australia, or whatever else they happen to be calling themselves that day), even after being told by the court to clean up its behaviour, is still reported to be continuing to scam registrants with misleading letters and emails.

Spotting these sorts of scams shouldn't be too difficult. Basically, make sure you read all the small print before you sign on the dotted line. It shouldn't be difficult at all if you simply keep a note of who your domain registrar is. If you're ever unsure about an email or letter you've been sent regarding domain renewal, you can always email your registrar and ask them whether they had anything to do with the notice. Whenever you renew anything, do it through your registrar's website – not by clicking on anything in an email or sending off a form.

Another precaution you can take is to "lock" your domain name; many registrars now offer this service. What this means is that your domain name cannot be moved to another registrar or modified in any way until the lock is released by your current registrar. This is also important because now, after an ICANN policy change in 2004, domain name transfer requests will be automatically approved if the registrar fails to respond to the request within five calendar days.

By Natalie Catchpole