What is domain slamming and 3 tips to help you from falling for it.

Before talking about domain slamming, let’s briefly look at the importance of your domain name, whether you have a personal website/blog, or own a business. Your domain name is how you are identified on the the public Internet. When someone browses to your web site, their computing device needs to know the IP address of the domain in order to allow the web browser to render your landing page. If you have an email address for your personal website/blog or your business, your domain name is also tied to it. For example, if you owned the domain of foo.com, your email address might be moc.oofobfsctd@ofni.

Now if anything happens to that domain name; you forget to renew it and someone else purchases it, or a (Distributed)Denial of Service(DDoS/DoS) attack targets a DNS server, it can prevent you, your employees, and your customers from accessing important resources. You won’t be able to communicate with your customers/employees via email since it’s tied to your domain name.

What brings up the the need to talk about domain slamming? Simply put, it’s relevant. We recently had a client who, in passing, mentioned that they received a notification to change registrars. This is where domain slamming rears its ugly head.  To see an example, click here.

At best, the practice of domain slamming is unethical. The owner of a domain name will receive a notice from another registrar stating that their domain registration is about to expire and to renew it through them. Once you do that, you may be subject to higher renewal rates. The worst case scenario is that a malicious registrar takes over and controls your domain name, leaving you without access to your important digital assets, such as your website and your email.

A couple of tips on what you can do to protect yourself:

  • When you register your domain name, make note of who the registrar is, such as GoDaddy.
  • Put a lock on your domain registration to prevent it from being transferred.
  • Disregard any offers from other registrars. If you are considering moving your domain name to a different registrar, do your due diligence before making the move.

One thing we look at, when working with clients, is the health of their domain. If you have a business, or you’re setting up a personal site/blog, we’re happy to help protect you when you’re ready.