We have received a report from a visitor informing us of a possible advance fee fraud scam from the website www.domaininformer.com. It was reported that DomainInformer.com will list various expired or deleted domain names as available for registration. Upon registration and payment the client will later be informed that the domain cannot be registered as it was never available for registration.

We investigated the matter and visited the domaininformer.com website. After conducting a search on their 'Deleted / On Hold' search facility we noticed that some domain names were indeed indicated as available for registration.

We commenced applying for registration on three available domain names. On all registration applications we were required to register and make payment to a third party, www.aplus.net. We followed the procedure and finalized the domain name registration.

After a day none of the domains were registered and we enquired with Aplus.net. Here it was confirmed that they would not be in a position to register the domain names, as they were indeed not available for registration. Aplus.net was helpful in recovering the costs they charged for registering the domain names.

Visitors are warned against registering domain names found in the 'Deleted / On Hold' search facility of DomainInformer.com. It is strongly suggested that every domain name be investigated with services such as www.whois.sc, to determine its availability.

As stated on the website of DomainInformer.com, this tool is only speculative of nature and users must use this tool for this purpose alone as the availability notice and registration process on the domains listed is misleading.

We are currently in the process of investigating the refunds to determine whether any actual losses are incurred. Should actual losses be incurred, further legal steps, criminally and civilly will be taken in the United States.