Action Required: Notice Regarding Your Domain Name(s) Scam?

[EclecticEdith]

I received the following email with the above subject:

"Hello,
You’re receiving this letter because you have at least one domain registered through Weebly, a company that partners with Register.com to provide domain name services. We are required by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)* to contact you annually and verify your information listed with WHOIS, the public database listing information associated with every domain name registration."

Is this legit or a scam?

[Adam7]

That email is legitimate, @EclecticEdith. ICANN requires that all registrars verify domain contact information with domain owners every year. Register.com is the registrar we use for any domain bought through us, so the email will come from them. If your registrant contact info is all correct then you don't need to take any action.

[seabadger]

I thought it might be a scam too, because Weebly support pages imply that any email will have a link to click confirming verification. There's no such link in this email, but plenty of other links. 

But thank you for your answer Adam it has helped me too.

[Adam7]

There are actually different verification scenarios, and only one will contain a link to confirm info. That email is sent by us under certain circumstances and does require clicking a link to specifically verify your domain contact info. Even if your information hasn't changed, you are still required to actually go in and confirm. 

This email sent by our Registrar just asks that you to double check- if you know your information hasn't changed you don't need to take any action at all.

[rmw]

Adam- As you know, we've all been told many times that we should *never* click on a link in an email, even if the email appears to come from a known sender such as Weebly. (After all isn't that how they hacked the DNC?) And yes I know all the companies do it, but isn't it still bad form to send a mass-mailing with embedded email links (especially from a Registrar specifically tasked with something as critical as domain management & security!) The email says: "Please take a few minutes to review and confirm the accuracy of your WHOIS information by logging into your Weebly account at www.weebly.com" So when I got the email, I logged directly into Weebly and poked around until I found my domain contact info -- but I did not see a button to "confirm" that the current information is correct. Sigh. Is there such a button anywhere on the site? Or is it sufficient just to look at the information -- and if it is correct, simply do nothing? It is not clear whether "confirm" means to actually do anything other than looking over the information.

[Adam7]

Just looking is enough since the purpose of the email is just remind you to verify it's correct (third option on this page):

https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/contact-verification-2013-05-03-en

In the other circumstances shown, there will actually be action items to take other than just the domain holder looking on their own.

[Em-2]

Hi Adam,

I received the same email, and tried the links in the email and the domain verification information is somewhat confusing for me. I have two domain names, one from May 2018 and another recent one that was set up in April 2019. Both are protected. I believe the protection is for one year. How can I renew the protection before it expires? There have been no changes in the information I used when setting up the domains.

I read the Weebly Help Topics listed below, and I want to be sure I don't miss something I'm required to do. This is the statement I'm not sure what to do about: "Occasionally you may receive an email asking you to confirm or verify the contact information for your domain. It's important to act quickly when you receive this notification, as lack of action can cause your domain and associated services to stop working."  Thank you.

https://www.weebly.com/app/help/topics/update-a-domains-whois-info

https://www.weebly.com/app/help/topics/why-do-i-need-to-confirm-my-contact-information

[Bernadette3]

Hi @Em-2 The domain privacy protection prevents your personal information from being made available on the public whois database. I would recommend keeping it active if you can, but if you wish to remove it you will need to submit a ticket to our support team. hc.weebly.com

[Em-2]

Thank you for your prompt answer. I do want to keep the privacy protection active. How or where do I pay for it? I couldn't find any specific information about it under my Account. The domain expires in May 2020, but I assume the protection is just for one year, or am I wrong in assuming that? Thanks again. 

[Bernadette3]

Hi again. The privacy is added based on the domain registration term. You won't need to pay for privacy again until it is time to renew the domain and it will be automatically included in the price of renewal. If for some reason you change your mind and decide not to renew with privacy, contact support and a rep will remove it for you. 

[scotta321]

I received an email asking me to confirm my purchase of a new domain, but it referred my to a previous email that I don't have. It also said I could get it resent by logging into my account, but I can't find that button. HELP!

[Adam7]

Thanks for posting, @scotta321. I see that you bought a domain in December, then bought a similar domain a few days ago (essentially the same domain with a dash in between the words). Did you need this second domain? Also, to log in you'll log into your Square account then click on the Online Store link from your dashboard.

[scotta321]

No, I didn't need this domain. I'm having trouble with Google, it can't find my sitemap. It says "Sitemap could not be read"  

Sitemap Type Submitted Last read Status Discovered URLs  

/sitemap.xml

Unknown

Mar 1, 2020

Couldn't fetch

0

I could defintely use some advice.

[Adam7]

Your site is published using the second domain you purchased (the one with the dash in it). Which domain are you using with Google to submit your sitemap?

[scotta321]

The original without the dash. 

[Bernadette3]

Which domain name do you want to use with your site, @scotta321? The one with or without the dashes? 

[scotta321]

without the dash

[Bernadette3]

Okay, thanks for verifying. I've swapped the domain out for you. In the future, you can change the site address by navigating to the Weebly dashboard and clicking Website>General Settings. The site address option is at the top of the screen and will prompt you to connect your custom domain. It looks like the site is loading properly now, but you might want to re-publish before submitting the sitemap to Google again.