Today I received an unsolicited call (number withheld) from an Indian woman from Registrar Domain Support seeking to confirm the status of my domain babyster.com (Yepper, I have babyster ;). This person’s nefarious intent I believe was to perform a legal sleight of hand to gain ‘legal’ control of said domain. I hate these scams because even saying “I unoquivacally confirm or approve nothing” leaves one with little confidence considering anyone ready to trick you out of property would be just as ready to take it. Worse, even the thought of a legal battle against some hidden overseas grifter is exhausting.

Upon hanging up I dialed the number she said she could be reached at. Though she denied it was fake it was. Searches on this company resulted in descriptions of scammers working under a similar name trying to scam people out of domains. Others described my exact experience. For what that is worth I filed a complaint for Domain Registry Support with the FCC .

Highly paranoid I immediately went to my domain to ensure babyster’s domain lock was on. Domain locks as a newish registrar setting which negate third party requests for a domain transfer. I’m not 100% confident the lock can never be superceded, and my registrar later stated “Your domain is locked, so transferring is disabled. If you receive any emails regarding a transfer, please inform us immediately,” which perhaps implies the lock is 100% fool-proof.

If you aren’t sure of the lock status of any domains you own you should login with your registrar and take a look see. Most registrars chose to default locks to on. The downside of the lock policy, however, is that it’s now possible for a third party to request control of domain and if it’s unlocked and no rejection from the original owner in five days it’s possible for control to be handed over. So check your locks, don’t daly to read unexpected domain notices from your registrar and never speak with anyone about your domain status other than your registrar (and make sure it’s really them ;)