In the past week, two clients have contacted us to ask if they should pay a domain name renewal that has been sent to them in the mail.

Short answer - NO!

Domain records are public, and there are some dodgy operators out there who will scan these records and send letters, hoping you will pay their inflated prices without thinking about it.  This practice is apparently not illegal, although it's highly unethical.

Generally when we start a digital project with a new client, we also offer to take on the domain name management, which provides peace of mind for a lot of people.

"If the invoice doesn't come from us, please feel free to ask before paying".

In both instances, we were already managing the client's domain name, and both had many months left before renewal would be necessary.