I've been robbed by iRegistrations.com

[imp]

Could somebody please tell me who has the jurisdiction to stop and punish iRegistrations?

I registered two $5.95 domains with iRegistrations.com, one .com(5/23) and one .org(6/3), and brought myself a nightmare. I didn't find it until 9/20 that iRegistrations had billed my credit cards for at least four times: 7/2, 7/23, 8/1, 9/20, each time for $39.98!

I filed a chargeback to each credit card bank (unfortunately, I used different cards to reg the two names), and sent an e-mail to iRegistrations.com to ask them for explanation(9/20).

There was no reply, and some days later, I found I could no longer login both my domain accounts at iRegistrations.com, and when I checked the WHOIS, I was surprised to find that iRegistrations had taken the .com domain back, the registrar was eNom (!!), and 'iRegistrations Credit Control' became the registrant, as for the .org, it simply turned out 'no match'.

To put everything together, I found that if you change the name servers and cancel the hosting service of your domain name with iRegistrations, they would change them back later and when you try to login the domain account again, you would receive an error mwssage. If you contact them for the problem like I did, they would reply in a week or so, telling you "It works perfectly to me." You would try again, and it works, so you modify the NS and hosting options again, and this is beyond their toleraance, they decide to punish such a stubbon coustomer, and the domain name would be locked and go to iRegistrations Credit Control, thus months after you registered it, you are no longer the legal owner of the domain name.

In the meantime, they would still keep billing your credit card, once a month, $19.99 each domain name, including those they have taken away from you. If you try to contact them via e-mails, you can only do it on their website, and there would be no reply nor any records.

The most ironic thing is, when I tried to reg my third domain names with iRregistrations earlier, they wouldn't take my credit card, for it's issued in Taiwan! But later when they were stealing from me, it never bothered them at all.

I have submitted an InterNIC Registrar Problem Report, and reported it to the ACCC, please tell me what else can I do now?

Service Provided By: iregistrations.com

Registration Service Provided By: iRegistrations Credit Control
Contact: creditcontrol@iregistrations.com

Domain name: XXXXXXX.com

Nameservers:
NS1.SEDOPARKING.COM
NS2.SEDOPARKING.COM

Creation date: 05/23/03 00:00:00
Expiration date: 05/23/04 00:00:00

Registrant Contact:
iRegistrations Credit Control
Bryan Riley (creditcontrol@iregistrations.com)
+1.16463653121
FAX: +1.16463653121
Level 2
297 Hay St
East Perth, WA 6004
AU

Administrative Contact:
iRegistrations Credit Control
Bryan Riley (creditcontrol@iregistrations.com)
+1.16463653121
FAX: +1.16463653121
Level 2
297 Hay St
East Perth, WA 6004
AU

Billing Contact:
iRegistrations Credit Control
Bryan Riley (creditcontrol@iregistrations.com)
+1.16463653121
FAX: +1.16463653121
Level 2
297 Hay St
East Perth, WA 6004
AU

Technical Contact:
iRegistrations Credit Control
Bryan Riley (creditcontrol@iregistrations.com)
+1.16463653121
FAX: +1.16463653121
Level 2
297 Hay St
East Perth, WA 6004
AU

Status: PROTECTED
......

Domain Name: XXXXXXX.COM
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
Name Server: NS1.SEDOPARKING.COM
Name Server: NS2.SEDOPARKING.COM
Status: REGISTRAR-LOCK
Updated Date: 30-aug-2003
Creation Date: 23-may-2003
Expiration Date: 23-may-2004

And for the .ORG:

Service Provided By: iregistrations.com

[whois.crsnic.net]

Whois Server Version 1.3

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

No match for domain "XXXXXXXXXXX.ORG".

[Chicken]

Originally posted by imp:

I registered two $5.95 domains with iRegistrations.com, one .com(5/23) and one .org(6/3), and brought myself a nightmare. I didn't find it until 9/20 that iRegistrations had billed my credit cards for at least four times: 7/2, 7/23, 8/1, 9/20, each time for $39.98!
You saw the $5.95 but didn't read the fine print. I've not used them, but know from reading posts that they do offer cheap registration, but there is a catch.

I filed a chargeback to each credit card bank...

There was no reply, and some days later, I found I could no longer login both my domain accounts at iRegistrations.com, and when I checked the WHOIS, I was surprised to find that iRegistrations had taken the .com domain back...
You filed a chargeback and then were surprised you couldn't log into your domains?

Thing is that this company does offer low cost domains, but they do it by coupling it with other services (web hosting). You saw the $5.95 and stopped reading. Other web hosts offer free domain registration when you sign up for a plan, but you can't stop reading after "Free domain registration!"

I'm not sure what to tell you, other than to read more carefully next time. Sometimes all that stuff that everyone scrolls down past and clicks OK to is actually important.

[Adam]

Heh, if you file a chargeback you think the company is going to welcome you with open arms?

Pfft!!

[Chicken]

People do need to understand that a chargeback is something that should be used as a last resort, not the first thing you should do. You can't inititiate a chargeback and then try to discuss it. It's done, and you may have dinged them for an additional $25-ish fee.

[imp]

I gave them one whole month to reply, but they just blocked my accounts and took the domains away without a single word (All these happened BEFORE I filed any chargebacks!). And now, they are selling iRegistrations.com on eBay UK.

I can tell when I see a scam, but some people just can't.

[projo]

I agree with Chicken that you have to read the fine print and with the other things he said.

However, in my opinion, this is a trap. (like putting a speed limit sign where it can be seen but easily missed)

On the first page they obviously display the cheap registration with no conditions (A reputable retailer would price with $5.95* where the * would list additional conditions, such as after rebate, or costs).

EDIT: The condition turns out in this case to be a free one month trial that starts charging you if you don't say stop. You don't have a say about taking the trial. So this is probably not a "$5.95*" kind of thing but they should ask you to accept or regect the trial.

If you click on "learn more" you go to a second page that throws the price in your face again but no mention of conditions. Only in the registration process, after providing all the registration information do you reach this page:

Free Web Services Included

Your domain registration comes with free web services including parking page delegation, web and email forwarding, online maintenance and control panel. For the first month you also get a free trial of the following services with your domain name:

Web Hosting 50 MB web space, 2 Gb/month website visitor traffic, 10 POP3 email accounts, 1 FTP account, 1 Mailing List, SSH/Telent, Front Page Extensions, CGI-BIN (run Perl/cgi scripts), PHP + Zend, Control Panel

Search engine submission
Our search engine submission is the easy way to submit your site for listing on some of the internet’s premier search engines.

Trial these additional web services free for up to 30 days, they are absolutely obligation free. If you wish to discontinue for any reason you can cancel anytime. To continue you don’t need to do anything, these services simply continue on our everyday low rate of $19.99 per month for web hosting and $19.99 for search engine submission, conveniently charged to your credit card. You can easily cancel these by logging into your account anytime.


Continue registering your domain name
Click on the Continue button below to continue with the registration process.

Notice the "Free" in the heading but the 30-day limit in the body. Also notice the you-have-to-tell-us-to-not-charge-you.

IMHO, this is a major speed trap, uh, scam. It is a practice that we, representatives of the hosting industry, should condemn.

You decide.

[projo]

Nobody cares to express an opinion?

a) Acceptable business practice.

b) Not an acceptable business practice.

[Chicken]

Well, there's a fine line between 'creative marketing' and trying as hard as possible to hide things that shouldn't be hidden. I believe there is an agency that oversees this sort of thing. Most of us will make a decision (on whether it is acceptable or not), based on how we feel as consumers. This is how we'd want the information presented, etc.

First and foremost, do they provide what is advertised? If they do, then I think that's a step in the 'acceptable' direction. They do 'offer' some addon services, which are given automatically. This type of thing is practiced by other industries, though an example escapes me at the moment. I have seen free services offered which turn into pay services if you don't cancel. I suppose many trial offers fall into this category.
Originally posted by imp:

I gave them one whole month to reply, but they just blocked my accounts and took the domains away without a single word (All these happened BEFORE I filed any chargebacks!). And now, they are selling iRegistrations.com on eBay UK.

I can tell when I see a scam, but some people just can't.
Maybe you weren't specific enough (initial post), so that we cold understand the timeline of events.

[Adam]

You can't just miss out vital bits of info and then expect us to automatically guess and know what you're going on about and going through.

[spewn]

here is what i show for .com...

http://www.registerbuzz.com/whois/index.asp?domain=XXXXXXX&tld=.com

hope that helps.

- g

[Robert]

His domain isn't xxxxxx.com .

[sanctum]

See this web page for the people who might be behind iRegistrations.com:

http://whatsinaname.com.au/slammers/


Josh

[Chicken]

Josh, what in the heck is that diagram??? I think I'd have to print that out and study that (and the text, which doesn't clear it up) for a few hours to begin to understand that.

[sanctum]

Originally posted by Chicken:

Josh, what in the heck is that diagram??? I think I'd have to print that out and study that (and the text, which doesn't clear it up) for a few hours to begin to understand that.

Start here: http://www.whatsinaname.com.au/slammers/#start


Josh

[Chicken]

That's helpful, though it would still take quite some time to go through it. At least no one can accuse you of not being thorough and not doing research :D

[GIUTI]

Hello,

IREGISTRATIONS/EZINAMES robbed me in 23 of September, 2004. I registered a domain sarajeff.com in 17 of August and I was surprised when I checked my statement of CC: there was no charge at all, but a month later they stole from me 570$. That was a real shock for me! I returned back all my money, but not the domain. I am trying to return back the domain now.

[sanctum]

The iRegistrations and Ezinames web sites are currently off line, see:

http://domainwatch.org/