An invoice or renewal notice from a company you do not know: how to check if it is real

If the message comes from a company you never bought from and asks for money for a domain, a website or a “listing”, it is most likely a scam. Whoever registers a domain ends up with details that may be public, and some people use them to send notices that look official. This article covers that case; to know whether a message in the name of Interweb is really ours, see how to tell whether an e-mail really came from us.

The most common patterns

What the message says Why it is suspicious
“Your domain is expiring, renew here”, from a company that is not yours Whoever renews your domain is whoever registered it for you. A third-party notice asking for payment is not a renewal: it may be a transfer to another company in disguise.
An invoice for a “directory listing”, “ranking” or “search submission” You ordered nothing. The message presents the invoice as an obligation; it is not.
An attachment or a link to “view the invoice” A real invoice exists in your account, and that is where you see it.
An urgent deadline and a threat The hurry is there so you pay without checking.
Asks you to pay into a new account or a phone number The real payment details are on the invoice, in Meu Interweb, and do not travel by e-mail.

How to check, step by step

1 Do not click, do not reply, do not call the number in the message. Do not open attachments either.
2 Go to Meu Interweb by typing the address yourself. Open the list of domains and the list of invoices. If the domain, the service and the invoice named in the message are not there, they do not exist.
3 Confirm the domain’s expiry date in your account, or in the public WHOIS lookup, and compare it with what the message claims.
4 Compare what WHOIS shows for the domain with what the message says. If the company in the message appears nowhere in your account, it has nothing to do with your domain.
5 If in doubt, send us the message (with the full header, if you know how) in a support ticket, and we will tell you what it is.
If you have already paid or given details, act now. Call your bank to try to stop the payment or block the card, change the account password if you typed it anywhere, and tell us what you sent. See how to recognise a phishing e-mail or message, and what to do if you clicked.
Never give a domain’s authorisation code to anyone who asks for it by e-mail. It is the key that lets the domain be transferred to another company. Use it only when you are the one starting a transfer. See domain renewal notices and deadlines.

Got a notice you cannot tell is genuine? Forward it or describe it to us before you pay.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

How to tell whether an e-mail really came from us

How to recognise a phishing e-mail or message, and what to do if you clicked

Domain renewal: deadlines, reminders and what you lose

Look up a domain in WHOIS

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