I register a lot of domains. A new client, a new website, a new web address. It is a normal part of the job.
Here is the part nobody tells you. Every time I register one, my phone starts ringing. Not clients. Not friends. Strangers with very urgent news about a website they have never seen.
At least ten calls a day. Some days more. I keep a call-screening bot on my line now, and it does most of the talking. Without it I would answer the phone all day and never build a single website.
How they got my number
When you register a domain, your name and contact details go into a registration record. Data brokers scoop those records up, package them, and sell them as "fresh leads." A brand new domain is the freshest lead there is. It tells a scammer three things: this person just started something, this person spends money online, and this person probably does not know how any of it works yet.
So within a day or two, the calls start.
A short tour of my voicemail
The Google caller. "Hello, this is the Google Business department. Your listing will be removed today unless you verify." Google does not call you to threaten your listing. Google barely answers email. If Google calls you, it is not Google.
The renewal letter. Sometimes it shows up in the mail, sometimes in your inbox. It looks like an invoice. It "renews" your domain for three times the real price, from a company that is not your registrar. Pay it and you may have just handed your domain to them.
The friendly SEO expert. "I was looking at your website and noticed some problems." The website went live eleven minutes ago. He was not looking at anything.
The trademark scare. "Another company in Asia is trying to register your business name. Do you want to protect it first?" Nobody in Asia wants "Dave's Fence Repair." I promise.
The silent one. It rings, I answer, nobody is there. That call is a robot checking that my number is real so it can sell me to the next robot. Robots selling me to robots. What a time to be alive.
Why this is your problem too
The people who make these calls are good at them. They do this all day. They know the words that make a business owner nervous: "removed," "expired," "suspended," "final notice."
Now picture a busy owner. Maybe you run a shop, a farm, or a trade business. You just paid for a website. Your phone rings mid-job and somebody says your website will go down tonight unless you read them a code or pay a fee. You do not know what a registrar is. You do not want your new website to break. That is the exact moment these people count on.
I have had clients forward me these emails asking "Is this you?" The good news is they asked. Not everyone asks.
So I keep the domain, and I take the calls
When I register your domain under my account, the registration record points to me. The brokers sell my number, not yours. The fake Google calls me. The fake renewal letter comes to me. I get to say "no thank you" ten times a day, so you get to say it zero times.
That is not a burden. It is part of the job. A good IT person takes these calls for their clients on purpose. It is a lot cheaper for me to hang up on a scammer than for you to lose your domain to one.
About "owning" your domain
I know how this sounds. You hear stories about web people who hold a domain hostage and will not give it back. That is a real problem, and it is not what this is.
It is your domain. It carries your business name and it points to your website. If you ever want it moved to your own account, ask me and I will move it. The only thing you lose is the phone calls.
If one of them gets to you anyway
Sometimes they still find you. If a call, email or letter mentions your website or domain and you are not sure who sent it:
Do not pay it, and do not read anyone a code. No real company needs a code from your phone to "keep your website online."
Hang up and call me instead. If it is real, I know about it. If it is not, I will tell you in about thirty seconds.
Forward me the email. Same deal. It costs you nothing.
Send it to me
Got a strange call or a scary letter about your website this week? Send it to me. I have probably already had the same call. Twice. Today.