{"id":2072,"date":"2012-12-23T12:57:59","date_gmt":"2012-12-23T16:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2025-07-01T13:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T18:15:16","slug":"email-scam-holiday-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.directoryone.com\/blog\/email-scam-holiday-update.html","title":{"rendered":"Email Scam Holiday Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Email scams and internet scams are a real pain at any time of the year, but seem to really come out of the woodwork during the holidays.<\/p>\n

Promotional strategies seem to be a little more inventive this year than in previous years. An internet server company located in Vancouver, WA (United States, not Canada) has been using some slick email and snail mail advertising. The advertising is in the form of an official looking invoice for managed DNS backup service.<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019m a copywriter and not at all geeky, I have limited knowledge of servers. All I know is servers are computers storing large amounts of information. People having the proper authorization can access the information. DNS (domain name service) servers are where all your website files are stored and can be accessed on the internet. Most good webhosting companies have built in redundancies (safeguards) to ensure your website stays up and can be accessed, even if something happens to the primary server(s).<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t know about this questionable form of advertising until Directory One<\/a> told me about it today. So I just had to check it out. For all intents and purposes, the said advertising invoice is walking a fine line between legal and illegal, at least in the US. And way outside best practices in copywriting.<\/p>\n

Typing \u2018[company name] email scam\u2019 into Google\u2019s search returned over 6 million results. IT services, hosting services, review sites, and even computer repair shops were talking about this newest snail mail\/email scam. Judging from the blogs and complaints, most of the email and snail mail targeted the owners of small business websites. Many folks had sent money to pay the \u201cbill\u201d. Savvy folks had called their hosting company or the domain registrar to find out what it was all about.<\/p>\n

I looked at the advertising copy to sniff out the cause of the hullabaloo. I was downright flabbergasted. If you did not read the entire thing carefully, you would think that the “email scam invoice<\/a>\u201d was legit. (Thank you, Homestead Title). The company most likely had gone onto WHOIS. All the relevant info for payment was there including domain and DNS servers, invoice number, and small $65 amount.<\/p>\n

There was a bulleted, bolded section slightly below the middle of the invoice. The last bullet was the disclaimer<\/p>\n

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