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Trusty VeriSign Accused of Deceptive Practices
Originally Posted
Updated
VeriSign, which promotes that "trust must be taken for granted in every communication and transaction," is accused of using deceptive advertising to poach customers from competitors.
The well-known Internet domain name registrar is a leading provider of digital certificates and trust services for communications and e-commerce.
Now domain-name seller BulkRegister has sued VeriSign for unsavory, aggressive advertising ploys involving thousands of "renewal notices" sent to BulkRegister customers, trying to trick them into becoming VeriSign customers.
Other domain registrars got into the act the following week, filing a class action lawsuit alleging that VeriSign had mailed thousands "Domain Name Expiration Notices" to their customers.
The notices, the lawsuit says, falsely implied that the domain names were about to expire and that owners could lose control of their domain names unless they returned a form and paid VeriSign $29. Any reply authorized a switch to VeriSign as the domain name provider.
VeriSign has been losing its share of business in the overall decline in the domain name sales market. The company's domain name renewal rates are at 40 percent, down from 54 percent the previous quarter.
We wondered when we got that VeriSign notice, ... 