These guys do for domain name registrations what the phone companies used to be so fond of doing... try trick you into switching to them. They do this by sending you a letter by mail that looks very official. The Liberty Names of America letter reads like an expiration notice that a domain registrar might send, but in this case if you look at the fine print you'll see that it's an attempt to get you to transfer your domain to them.
The reason this works, is because a lot of people don't know or remember who their domains are registered with. Make sure you know this, or can at least find out easily by looking it up when you need to.
Things like this are also easy to spot just by doing a quick web search with the company name as a keyword. Whether it's a hoax, scam or just poor service, you'll often find others who have made their own experience public.
If you're the type that likes to do something about this kind of junk, do feel free to file a complaint with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (or better yet, all three!)
To find out more about the Liberty Names of America scam, check out the following:
Two more creative things you can do to fight back are to not open mail from a known company like the above, mark "return to sender" on it, and send it back which increases their cost of sending junk mail to you. If the company is so kind as to send return envelopes with postage-paid, it can be fun to take one company's junk mail, and send it to another in their postage-paid envelope. All it costs you is a few minutes of time, and you can sleep well that night for having helped to make it less profitable for scammers.
I mean just run a search in Google for Liberty Names of America and see results like:- etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.
Wed, 5 August 2009, 17:52
Several years ago I got scammed by LIBERTY NAMES OF AMERICA. For over a year, I have been working on getting my domain registered back with YAHOO DOMAINS, (where it first started)
I fell for the scam letter I had received, and now, for 2 years in a row, I have had to renew my domain through that scamming company.
I have been going through a back and forth run-a -round. Does anyone know how to undo this error, without losing the domain name I currently have?
Below is an example of what I have tried. Note that LNOA DOES NOT REPLY TO EMAILS!
Lloyd,
I'm sorry about the problem you are experiencing with lloydkuhnle.com. I
can assure you that Liberty Names is a reputable company and they do answer
their phone when you call. In this case you will need to call them in order
to manage your domain name. If you have any difficulty let me know.
Sincerely,
Jeremy Watkin
DomainDiscover Customer Care
support@domaindiscover.com
Sirs
>
> Several years ago I was scammed into transferring my domain
> away from YAHOO web hosting to LIBERTY NAMES OF AMERICA.
>
> www.lloydkuhnle.com
>
> All I want to do, is get it back to YAHOO.
>
> I followed your instructions, see below, to no avail. They
> do not respond, and they do not fix anything.
>
> YAHOO Small Business is currently hosting my site. I WANT MY DOMAIN NAME
> REGISTERED THROUGH
> YAHOO. NOT THAT SCAMMING LIBERTY NAMES OF AMERICA!
>
> Their bad business practice is plastered all over the
> internet.
>
> YAHOO says I have to contact you, then you say I have to
> contact LNOA. Since LNOA ignores all contact, I have no options, other
> than asking YOU to fix it.
>
> Thank you
>
> Lloyd Kuhnle
>
> Your email to me:
>
> Hello Lloyd,
>
> Thank you for your e-mail inquiry regarding the domain "lloydkuhnle.com".
> To update your domain's nameservers to "yns1.yahoo.com" and
> "yns2.yahoo.com", you will need to contact your registrar
> company of Liberty
> Names of America, or LNOA. Their e-mail address is "support@lnoa.com",
and
> their phone number is (877) 696-5662. They
> will be able to update this
> information for you.
Hello Lloyd,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Domains.
I understand that you received an email from LIBERTY NAMES OF AMERICA
regarding your domain expiration and you paid money to them. Now, you
are being charged by them every year and you want to get your domain'
back to Yahoo! and want to pay to Yahoo! for service.
Lloyd, please note that this alert relates only to the domains that you
have registered with Yahoo!. It does not relate to domains that you have
registered with other companies.
It has been brought to our attention that companies other than Yahoo!
may have sent domain name (Web Address) holders such as yourself domain
name expiration notices and solicitations that specifically relate to
the domain that you have registered with Yahoo!. We are alerting you
that you are not required to respond to such notices from other
companies about your Yahoo! domain.
Lloyd, if you registered your domain name through Yahoo!, your domain
renewal fees are automatically paid by Yahoo! as a part of your
recurring monthly or yearly service fees, as long as your service is
active and not past due and as long as your domain hasn't transferred
away from Yahoo!.
If you would like to keep your current domain and associated services
with Yahoo!, do not respond to renewal solicitations from other
companies which specifically relate to the domain you have registered
with Yahoo! Be sure your Yahoo! Wallet information is up to date.
If you renew your Yahoo! domain through any other company you will be
transferring your domain away from Yahoo!. We also want to remind you
that transferring your domain away from Yahoo! does not automatically
cancel your Yahoo! Domains service.
As per the public who is record current registrar for your domain is
DOMAINDISCOVER.
Domain Name: LLOYDKUHNLE.COM
Registrar: DOMAINDISCOVER
Currently, your domain's registration has been transferred to
DOMAINDISCOVER and your domain is being hosted at Yahoo!. Please note
that at this time Yahoo! Domains does not offer the ability to accept a
registration transfer of your domain name.
Further, if you don't want to keep your domain's registration with them
and want to use this domain's registration with Yahoo!, you need to
cancel your domain at DOMAINDISCOVER's end and then request
DOMAINDISCOVER to release your domain to public pool so that you may
resign up the same domain with Yahoo!.
Please note that before signing up this domain with Yahoo! you need to
cancel the service with Yahoo! so that you may sign up a fresh domain or
its registration with Yahoo!.
To cancel:
1. Log into your account with your Yahoo! ID and Password.
2. Select Cancel Plan by clicking on the "Cancel Plan" link.
3. Click the Continue button to process your request.
When the cancellation is complete you will receive a cancellation
complete message.
If you face any problem in cancellation or have any billing concern, I
would suggest you to contact our billing help desk.
To better serve you, we now provide care for billing-related concerns
exclusively over the phone.
1-866-800-8092, option 3, option 2, then option 4, Monday through Friday
from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PST, and a Yahoo! Customer Care representative
will be happy to assist you.
Lloyd, I have tried my best to address the issue in the best possible
way. I appreciate you for taking time out and being patient in reading
the entire content of this message.
I hope you will find this information helpful. If I can be of some more
help, I would be happy to assist you.
Thank you for your understanding.
Please do not hesitate to reply if you need further assistance.
Have a nice day!
Regards,
Jason
Subject: Using your domain with Yahoo!
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Sat, 6 September 2008, 23:48
I got a letter from these clowns a while back, living in the UK as I do I kinda hoped maybe they wouldn't bother going through the expense of spamming me - how wrong I was.
Looks like they either have offices here or use people to spam for them.
I didn't really care and just ignored it; but y'know these idiots need wiping from existance, will have to see where they are located..