1 & 1 internet service is in the business of intimidation. I assumed (silly me) that they would follow the general rule of webhosting organizations and when I did not take steps to be sure my domain name was secure that it would automatically cancel. Standard policy across the (legitimate) web. With Godaddy and others you have an option of automatic renewal or you have to go and manually renew. These mobsters wait for several months (make sure you've forgotten about them) and then threaten to turn you over to collections!!! They don't give you alot of time to respond (also part of their scam) so you have to respond quickly to avoid hours and hours of clearing up a smudge on your credit. Yep - they've got it all figured out! AVOID, AVOID, AVOID - IN FACT TELL YOUR FRIENDS TO AVOID!!! We ended up giving them their $18 to get them out of our hair. I see on here (now) after going through this scam that others have experienced the same thing.