Like most notices that fill your mailbox after a car purchase, you need to know that 99.9 percent of it is junk and not relevant or necessary. The vast majority of this junk mail comes from other registrars or third-party companies who just want to scrape a few dollars from an unsuspecting business. And, sad but true, many of these businesses fall for these scams.
Where does all of it come from?
When you register a new domain name, all of the contact information that you provide (including your name, mailing address, and email) is entered into a database called WhoIs, which basically keeps a record of who holds which domain name. Since WhoIs is a public database, anyone can access it and mine it for “leads”. Unfortunately, there are also malicious businesses that use this resource to scam you out of bogus fees.
Are you curious to see what information this database has about your business? Run a search for your domain name here: www.whois.net.
What can you do to prevent junk mail?
While it’s not possible to remove your contact information from WhoIs, you can opt to mask some of this information when registering your domain. At New York Ave, we recommend using GoDaddy to register your domain name. GoDaddy offers a private registration option, which keeps your personal information hidden from spammers.
As a best practice, you definitely want to talk to your registrar or host about any junk mail you receive and ask what you can do to protect your contact information from becoming public to scammers.