Safeguarding Your Domain Name Registration

If you're like the majority of our customers, you've already registered at least one domain name: your business name, your family name, or something equally important. Now that you've registered the name, the last thing you want is to lose control of the registration to someone else. You may be surprised to learn it happens virtually every day to individuals and businesses alike.

Fortunately, you can take a few simple steps to help keep your registration up to date and under your control. But first, it's helpful to understand how a registrant can lose a domain name registration. There are two primary methods:

• a) domain registration hijacking, and
• b) failure to renew a registration.

Although we won't go into the specifics of how fraudsters hijack a domain name registration, they usually take advantage of out-of-date account information to transfer a registration to another registrar. So it's important to pay special attention to any e-mail notifying you of a change to your domain name registration account information. If you didn't request the change, contact your registrar immediately.

While accidental rather than deliberate, a renewal failure is usually also a result of incorrect account data: For example, if the e-mail address listed on the registration is out of date, renewal notices won't reach the registrant, who may not realize the registration term is about to expire.

To help protect your domain name registration, follow these simple guidelines:

• Lock It Up: Most domain name registrars offer mechanisms for "locking" your domain name registration. When the lock is engaged, the registration can't be transferred to another registrar until the registrant - that's you - removes the lock. It Current: Make sure all of the contact information on your account is up-to-date, especially e-mail addresses, so renewal notices and other important messages will reach you.
• Keep It Private: Did you know that the name and contact information for each domain name registrant is listed in a public database called WHOIS? Some registrars offer a service- Private Registration (ID Protect) —that replaces your personal data with alternate information in WHOIS and forwards to you all non-spam correspondence received at the alternate address.
• Make It Automatic: Sign up for automatic renewal of your registration, which triggers an extension of your registration before it expires. To minimize renewals altogether, consider signing up for a multi-year registration.

To check the status of your domain names, log into your account @ The Webheads Help Center.

The bottom line: Make sure your domain name registration remains yours by taking advantage of domain-locking and -renewal services and keeping your contact and billing information up to date.