We have recently been made aware of unsolicited mailings targeting domain name registrants. In a letter purporting to be a reminder to renew your domain, it asks you to register your domain with their company rather than your existing registrar - for a fee. 

It suggests that if action is not taken quickly, it could result in the loss of your online identity. 

Please be wary of any unsolicited emails or calls regarding your domain name(s) or web presence.

If you have an existing domain name and you receive an unsolicited email about its registration, you should contact your registrar in the first instance and they will be able to give you advice and verify if any action needs to be taken.

If you don’t know who your registrar is, for .uk domains you can use the WHOIS search on Nominet’s website at http://www.nominet.org.uk.  Enter your domain name in the WHOIS search box and it will return details of your registrar. If you have a domain name that is coming up for renewal, your registrar will generally give you notice of this well in advance, rather than a matter of days before expiry.

For .coms and .nets visit: http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/products-and-services/domain-name-services/whois/index.xhtml and for .orgs visit: http://www.pir.org/whois/

You can find more information about domain name scams and how to avoid them on Nominet’s website at http://www.nominet.org.uk/registrants/security/scams.