Bob Parsons, President of the Arizona-based domain name seller and web host has posted a warning to his customers. He accuses VeriSign, formerly Network Solutions, of sending the deceptive notices by US Mail to “get the unsuspecting customer to transfer to and renew their domain names with VeriSign at significantly higher prices.”
The warning goes on to explain that the expiration notices “are designed so that it is not obvious that the notices are from VeriSign as opposed to Go Daddy Software.”
Many oppose VeriSign’s right to act both as registry and registrar. As registry, VeriSign has exclusive control of the database for all .com, .net and .org domain names. Any third party that sells domain names must pay a fee to VeriSign for the registration and renewal of the names – currently $6 per name. As registrar, VeriSign sells names direct to the public, in competition with the re-sellers.
Bob Parsons is appealing to his customers to complain both to VeriSign and to ICANN, the internet’s supervisory body to which VeriSign is answerable.