New Domain Services letter

[Joel]

I registered a new business name with ASIC about 2 weeks ago. Five business days after I registered the name, I received a letter from New Domain Services (newdomain[dot]com[dot]au) offering to buy the .com.au domain version of my business name.

The letter came to my registered postal address with ASIC (which is publicly available of course). I know you can publicly look up business registration details but I do not believe this was a case of some random typing in my newly registered business name into ASIC's systems just days after I registered it, then checking the .com.au availability of the domain, and then sending me a letter offering the .com.au domain (at the fantastic price of $120 mind you )

We've all received those dodgy Domain Registry letters that look remarkably like invoices which are based on whois records, but what's different about this one is that it came so quickly after the business name registration and I have not entered the actual business name anywhere except with Synergy Wholesale for a reseller account.

I'd really like to know how this came about but ASIC weren't much help. I should just ask Jonathan Horne directly (the registrant of aforementioned domain) I guess but I wanted to check if anyone else has received a similar letter from this reseller?

 

[MelbourneDomainer]

Hi Joel. You can ask me directly

Let me start from the top as you have raised some important topics.

1) You would not have received a letter if the domain name was not available when the letter was prepared. It would be pointless sending a marketing letter for a domain we could not register for you. As you understand, it takes a period of time to prepare the data and have a letter sent, therefore your situation can happen from time to time. If you called us or when to our site to register the domain we would have informed you it was not available.

2) We have no affiliation what so ever with the letter / companies you mentioned offering .net.au matching domains or renewal notices.

3) The letter has been very deliberately done NOT to look like an invoice. There is no way to make payment without either going onto our site, or speaking to a staff member. We make it very clear it is an invitation to register a new domain name only. We even go to the length of a statement on letter "This is not an invoice, bill or statement of account due. This is an invitation to register a domain name only and availability shown above was current when this letter was prepared". This is a really important point, and something we take seriously as we want to use mail as a marketing channel, however it has been constantly abused previously by people being miss-leading.

3) We do use Synergy wholesale, however I can assure you we did not obtain your information from there. As you stated, the actual information we obtained is publicly available, the process for which we are able to find is our business IP.

4) The $120 reg fee is reflective of the service we provide and the operating costs we incur.

Feel free to call the number on letter and you can speak with me directly. We are building a business and any feedback or suggestions are always welcome.

Jonathan

 

[Joel]

Thanks for the reply Jonathan.

I personally don't like this type of marketing at all, but that's only my opinion.

As you stated, the actual information we obtained is publicly available, the process for which we are able to find is our business IP.

This was actually the part I was more interested in - the mechanisms used to poll for newly registered business names (ASIC/ABR information systems) and then subsequently a simple whois check.

 

[findtim]

i don't like them either, especially when they get sent to my clients as all i end up getting a phone call have to explain it to them and then get them to throw it in the bin.

i'd love to see a screenshot of the letter you received.

as for $120, i think that's fair if he's managing it for them.

tim