Phishing or spoof emails attempt to trick you into clicking on links which will redirect you to a website and ask you to confirm or update personal information such as credit card details, account numbers, or other information the scam company may already have. They may have some of your personal details correct from a completely different source such as domain registration which may add to their credibility.

Phishing emails generally try to look like the legitimate provider’s email but when you look carefully the  From and reply to address is not the legitimate providers email address. Often the grammar and spelling is incorrect or very poor and the layout slightly or very inconsistent with the real emails.

Another extremely common scam email that many domain owners becomes target for is where scam emails and fake letter invoices are sent which look like domain registration renewals but are nothing but a scam!! They don’t come from your domain registrar and don’t even look like they do but they do look legitimate. These types of scam are one of the many reasons to have a good relationship with your registrar so that you can easily query invoices or emails. These scams emails and letter offer a genuine sounding but non-existent product or service such as “Traffic Generator” or “Google VIP Support”. An example is below.

My domain has expired.What can I do?

First thing is to do a whois using the form above and see what “state” your expired domain name is. A whois gives you quite detailed information about a domain name including all the details in the public domain record such as expiry date, owners details etc.

Whether you can still renew it if it has been expired for a number of days or weeks will depend on the domain extension and exactly how long it has been expired for. There are different rules for .com’s and each country’s domain names such as .com.au

In the case of a .com.au or .net.au domain name, they can be renewed a upto 90 days before the expiry date, and 30  days after the expiry date. No matter what date a domain is renewed the new expiry date for a .com.au will always be 2 years from the original expiry date.

Once a domain expires, it goes into a state called “Expired Hold” and the domain shows in the WHOIS as:

serverHold (Expired)
serverUpdateProhibited (Expired)

And in this state the following rules apply

1. the domain gets removed from the DNS (i.e won’t work on the internet anymore);
2. the domain cannot be updated;
3. the domain name can be renewed or transferred to another registrar

When a .com.au or .net.au goes precisely 30 days past the expiry date, it enters a new state marked as “Expired Pending Purge” and shows in the WHOIS as:

serverHold (Expired)
serverRenewProhibited (Expired)
serverUpdateProhibited (Expired)

In this state an Australian domain name:-

1. cannot be updated, renewed or transferred to another registar;
2. gets published on the Australian official domain drop list, and precisely one day after this the domains state changes state to “Expired Pending Purge” ;
It then becomes available for purge , and will be purged from the registry at the next purge cycle.

auDa’s official links:
auDA Domain Renewal, Expiry and Deletion Policy (2010-01)

Finding out the expiry date on a .com.au domain

Following abuse of the internic database, the ability to view the expiry date has been removed from the .au domain space. Expiry dates can now only be obtained by the Registrant. If you are a Registrant, and you have lost access to your expiry date, you can only obtain the expiry date from either your Domain Provider or your Domain Registrar

For .com’s domain expiry’s are slightly different

In the case of a .com domain, they can be renewed up to a maximum total of ten years at any time. If your domain is within 30 days after the expiry date, the domain is said to be in the grace period. While a domain is in the grace period, although the domain is expired, you can still login to your domain management account, and renew online.

If it is more than 30 days after the domain has expired, a domain goes into the redemption period. If a domain is in the Redemption period, the domain can still be renewed, but now it becomes a manual process at the Registry, and that becomes much more expensive.

What is the Redemption Period?

The Redemption Period is the window of time that the domain leaves the grace period. Each domain extension has a different redemption period.

The .com extension has a grace period of 30 days, a redemption period of 30 days, and a pending delete period of between 5 and 7 days where nobody can do anything with the domain.

How much is it to get my .com domain back during the Redemption period?

The current cost of a .com redemption is from $175.00 that includes a 1 year registration fee.

I’d like to find out the expiry date on a .com domain, how do I go about doing that?

Use a whois tool like the one above and if the domain is taken and active, the results that return will include the results from a WHOIS query of the internic database, and that result will include the domain’s expiry date

Are the expiry dates listed in the WHOIS database correct?

Unfortunately, it has become apparent that some Registrars are generating false expiry dates in the .com WHOIS database. It is no longer possible to rely on the expiry dates being presented in the public database.

reference: whois au knowledgebase

Domain names are valuable branding tool / commodity for any business, corporation or enterprise and as such it is becoming increasingly harder to get your first choice of .dot domain names but don’t be discouraged if your first choice is gone just get a bit more creative with your thinking, for example if you wanted yourcompany.com which some else has already purchased consider adding words such as online or web to the name.

What’s In a Name?
Quite a lot, actually. Remember that not only does your domain name act as your address on the Web, but it also communicates and reinforces the name of your business to every Web site visitor. It can also be used as part of your e-mail address to reinforce your online identity.

Keep these tips in mind before you choose your domain name:

• Make it memorable. “Amazon.com” is more unique and less limiting than “booksonline.com.”
• Describe your business. Avoid confusion by simply and logically describing your business. “Flowers.com” obviously leads one to believe they can buy flowers on the site. If you are setting up an online presence for an established business, keep the name of your site the same as the name of your business
• Keep it short. The best domain names are those that customers can remember and type into their browsers after seeing or hearing them only once, so complicated strings of words like “onlinecdstore.com” don’t work as well as a simple phrase: “cdnow.com.”

How to Get and Manage Domain Names
Once you’ve decided on your Web identity, the next step is to determine if it is available and then register it with a domain name company or “registrar.” Registering is easy and inexpensive, so do it as soon as you’ve decided on your domain name to make sure you get the name you want.

Many businesses register a number of variations, just in case they want to use them later-or to avoid the risk of competitors obtaining similar names. You also may want to register common misspellings so that customers who type your address incorrectly still find their way to your site instead of receiving an error message. E-commerce businesses most often register a name with “com” as the domain name extension (the letters after the dot; also called a top-level domain, or TLD), but names with “.net” and “.org” (for “organization”) are also common. Other suffixes include “.tv” for rich content/multi-media Web sites, “.edu” for schools and universities, “.biz” for small businesses, and “.info” for resource Web sites.

More help for choosing domain names is on the Search Engines page.

For those purchasing second level domain names such as yourcompanyonline.com.au it can be very wise brand protection to also purchase the .com domain name if it is available.

Check if the domain name you want is available here

Important Benefits of Registering Your Domain Names :

• Registering a domain name secures your identity online – your image, identity and reputation
• Protects your brands online in both a local and global space.
• Adds value to your assets and goodwill
• Registering your domain name can place you in a good position if you wish to ‘go online’ in the future.- If you don’t secure your domain names now you may reduce your options. This is also seen as the first step for any business intent on establishing or building a web presence.
• It allows you to get your own company e-mail – email addresses can derive from a domain name – if you don’t own the domain name you can’t get email addresses in your business name
  E.g.: joe@yourcompany.com.au
• It avoids the threat of cybersquatters who may take your name for their own purposes.

How do I start?

Register your .com and the second level domains name for any country eg .com.au -you plan on doing business in including your home country as it informs people that you are a registered and legitimate business. Although you will need to consider your target audience which deciding if this is neccessary more on this in step 2.
Check and register a domain name here

You wouldn’t want anyone else to begin trading on your hard work which is exactly what can happen if you do not protect your corporate identity by purchasing all relevant domain name relevant to your business.

What Do The Different Extensions Represent?
Common extensions include:

• .COM — Abbreviation of “Commerce” — currently available to all
• .NET — Abbreviation of “Network” — currently available to all
• .ORG — Abbreviation of “Organization” — generally restricted to registered non-profit organisations
• .INFO — Abbreviation of “Information” — currently available to all
• .BIZ — Abbreviation of “Business” — currently available to all
• .GOV — Abbreviation of “Government” — reserved for government institutions
• .EDU — Abbreviation of “Education” — reserved for educational institutions

Check and register a domain name here