The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating a recent VeriSign Inc domain name marketing campaign, following allegations from competitors that it constituted deceptive business practices, a spokesperson for the company confirmed yesterday.
"We've been asked by the FTC not to comment on their request for information regarding our marketing activities," a VeriSign spokesperson told ComputerWire. "VeriSign has always taken its responsibility under the law seriously and we will of course cooperate fully with the FTC."
The probe is believed to center around a direct mail campaign in which "renewal notices" were sent to customers of competing registrars. Two rival registrars, GoDaddy Software Inc and BulkRegister Inc, sued for and won a preliminary injunction two months ago. A couple of class action lawsuits are also outstanding.
These plaintiffs allege the mailshots deceive customers into switching registrar. They say because VeriSign, as registry and registrar, has such a strong brand, even somewhat knowledgeable customers may be persuaded to inadvertently switch their business to VeriSign, which is one of the pricier companies on the market.
These critics refer to the practice as "slamming" in reference to the outlawed long-distance phone company practice of tricking users into switching providers.
According to Reuters, the FTC is also looking into VeriSign's relationship with Atlanta-based web host Interland Inc, on the basis of similar allegations, but VeriSign was unable to confirm this. Interland is a long-time VeriSign domain name reseller.
In March 2000, VeriSign's Network Solutions division, which was then a separate concern, invested $10m in Interland and the companies announced they would expand an older cross-promotional agreement under with VeriSign domain names and e-commerce security products were marketed to small and medium sized hosting customers.
They tried this on my company a month or so ago. Here's what it looks like:
______________________________________________
The VeriSign® domain name registration(s) you manage
and your contact information for NIC Handle *******
will be moved to our new system. Please review your
contact information listed below and make any
changes by July 12.
______________________________________________
In our continuing efforts to provide better products and services
to you, we will be upgrading our systems beginning in July. The
domain name registration(s) you manage and your contact information
will be moved to the new system as part of the upgrade.
With this upgrade, you'll have password-protected access to our
online account management tools, which will make managing the
domain name(s) you service much easier. Because these tools will be
available online, e-mail templates will no longer be necessary and
therefore not available.
Once your information is moved, we will e-mail your new login information.
For security reasons, we'll mail your password to the street address
we have on file. Depending on how your contact information is
associated to the domain name(s) being moved, you may receive more
than one username and password. Please read these messages carefully
and be sure you do not delete e-mails that may appear to be duplicates.
To ensure you receive this important information in a timely manner,
please take a moment to make sure the contact information below
is current:
NIC Handle:
****
HOUSTON, TX
US
If your information is correct, you do not need to take any action.
We will notify you as we move the domain name registration(s) and
your contact information to the new system.
To update your information:
1. Go to:
http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/makechanges/itts/handle
2. Enter your Contact/NIC handle and e-mail address
3. Select "modify" from the buttons to the right
4. Select "Proceed to Contact Information"
IMPORTANT: Please update your contact information by JULY 12.
Thank you for your business and your patience during this upgrade.
We are committed to bringing you the best possible products and
services to make your business online successful.
For further information, read our account migration FAQs at:
http://www.migration-faq.com or e-mail us at:
mailto:migration@verisign.com
_____________________________________________________________________
Please do not reply to this message, as we cannot issue a response.
For customer service inquiries, please contact us at:
http://goto.netsol.com/contactus
(c) 2002 VeriSign, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
I got this as well. And I'm thinking about another email that I got that I needed to reregister my domain name because it was about to expire and be available for others. Looking at the domann name it finally hit me, it wasn't the original name, but had been alterted by making the name plural. (Domain vs Domains)
I didn't think about it at the time, I was more concerned about losing my domain name. Another scam? I sure think so now, in light of this article!
Jen