Some common yet hidden potholes domain registrars dig to leverage your domains, your traffic and your money to their advantage

Tricks of the trade

1. "transfer-out"
Most registrars include within their ‘Terms of Service’, a hidden fee permitting them to charge your credit card a "transfer-out" fee if you switch to another registrar. This fee is usually double or even triple the original cost of registration. This clause violates the ICANN policy on domain transfers. In case this ever happens to you, a single call to your credit card company will have the charge reversed.

2. The fine print
Almost no one bothers perusing the long-winded, Terms of Service when buying online. Some registrars hide truly disturbing things in these terms like the abovementioned "transfer-out" fees and in one instance even a "power-of-attorney"! So, be alert.

3. Pay for term
When you register a domain for say, 5 years (perhaps to avail a discount), you expect your domain name to be registered for the next 5 years. However, some registrars pay the registry for 1 year. Then they'll renew each year for the rest of your five-year term. Meanwhile, with a strict "no-refunds" policy they stand to gain by providing inferior service to the point of forcing you to leave them. This helps them to line their pocket with your hard-earned money.

 You can verify by using a free tool such as EasyWhois for the actual expiration date for your domain.

Whois database scams

4. whois edit fees and lockdowns
Every time you register a domain name, the details of that domain registration must be published in a publicly accessible database called Whois.

A registrar is supposed to provide you with the ability to change these whois records. Some unscrupulous registrars register your domain for rock-bottom price and then charge you with an "administration fee" to edit your Whois record.

Another common practice is to "lockdown" your domain for 60 days every time you make an edit to your record, to prevent you from changing the registrar.

5. whois masking services
Your domain record is public info and some registrars convince you to buy into "privacy services" or "whois masking", "private registration", etc where their own info is in the whois record instead of yours. This is a major trap.

What you need to understand is that in the eyes of the domain Registry to which all the Registrars interact, and the Registry's oversight body (like ICANN, or in Canada, CIRA), whoever is listed in the domain whois record as the domain registrant will be the legal owner of the domain name. When the registrar’s info is in the whois it is they who own the domain, not you, irrespective of whatever contract or Terms of Service you enter into with them to "own" this domain on your behalf. In a legal dispute, they will definitely own the name.

Totally unprincipled registrars may even go a step further, sign you up for the whois ‘privacy service’, and then sell your data.

6. whois mining and domain slamming
Since all your data is just sitting there, the whois database is vulnerable to spammers and marketers to "mine".

Reform processes in the Whois database are in process through ICANN, as well as CIRA. Meanwhile people often wonder why they start getting all kinds of marketing spam in their mailbox soon after they register a domain name. This is because their email address is being harvested by robots from the Whois database. The good news is there is a free service to protect your email address called MyPrivacy.ca.

Some disreputable registrars have been known to ‘mine’ the whois database for registrant information, and later mailing out fake renewal invoices for either those domain names or variations of them.

Unsuspecting recipients get ‘slammed’ when they remit payment thinking they've received a renewal invoice on their domain. It triggers off a domain transfer and in some cases their website and email comes crashing down as their DNS services terminate with their old provider.

Domain lock-ins

7. registrar lock-ins
"Domain slamming" (tip 6) and unauthorized domain transfers have been a real problem for a long time. "Registrar-lock" was created to protect a domain against this. If the registrar lock is set, nobody can transfer your domain away from you. This is actually a good thing and best practices dictate that you set the register-lock for all your domains. Experienced registrars enable it by default when they register or transfer a domain for you.

Unfortunately, this lock is a double-edged blade that can cut both ways. It can become a real threat to you if it is turned on and the registrar will either not turn it off, or give you the facility to turn it on or off yourself.

8. domain auth-code
Some of the Top-Level-Domains (TLDs) run on a protocol called "EPP" and to further guard against unauthorized transfers, a domain must have an 8-character auth-code supplied before it will transfer. Existing examples are .BIZ, .INFO and .ORG. The registrar generally holds this code and you need it if you want to move your domain away. With a bit of luck they will give it to you!!

Traffic scams and monetization

9. unauthorized domain parking
Though you may not be aware of this, domain parking is big business. Have you noticed that every time you click on a link somewhere or make a typo entering a web address you wind up on some "search page" that throws up a million pop-up ads? That is a parked domain and large players can park thousands of domains and make literally millions of dollars "monetizing" them via domain parking.

The domain registrars have access to thousands of domains. Some of them offer domain registrations at cheap prices so they can monetize the parked names.

Certain audacious registrars have had the actual effrontery to charge their customers for domain parking monetization. Remember, if you actually have a domain that's worth something parked then take it to a parking service. They will pay you to park your pages and not the other way round.
 
10. "free" URL Forwarding
Some people wonder why the costs vary greatly for domain registrations and what the difference is between somebody who offers everything for $2/year while others charge 10 times or more for basic DNS and URL forwarding.

Well, the cheaper ones often have a number of tricks up their sleeve for making money, either by adding your domain to their parked pool (mentioned above) or else they offer, "free" URL forwarding for your domain. In such instances, they sell pop-up or pop-under advertisements on your domain.

Conclusion

There are many potholes in the mysterious and treacherous world of domain name registrations that the unwary can fall into. There are no free lunches in this world. The cheap domain registrars have clever but underhand plans to boost their revenues and at the end of the day, you need to  realize that…

You get what you pay for

If you want to register your domain with a registrar who doesn't play any of these underhanded games, a domain registrar who:

• Has no hidden fees
• Pays the registry up front for the same number of years you order
• Gives you unregulated access to your whois records, your registrar locks, your auth codes and even total control over your domain's DNS settings like hostname records, mail exchangers and nameservers
• Offers a free whois email privacy service and will never sell your data to a third party
• Doesn't "monetize" your domains
• Is available and doesn't try to sell you a bunch of services you don't need
• Is courteous, professional and has over the past 8 years been providing rock solid domain and DNS services...

If the answer to the above is “yes”, then …

You want to be dealing with a reputable company like KT Graphics.