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The short answer
If a domain “renewal” letter or email comes from a company you don’t pay, it isn’t a bill you owe. Official warnings describe three kinds: invoices for a different, look-alike name; notices that move your domain to another provider; and fake emails fishing for your card details, login or identity documents. auDA (.au Domain Administration) doesn’t send renewal notices. Sign in to your own provider and check before paying.
- Read the domain on the notice letter by letter.
yourname.comis notyourname.com.au. - A .au name can’t be renewed more than 90 days before it expires, so a “renewal” for one with months to run isn’t renewing it.
- Never give your domain password (the auth code) to anyone who contacted you first.
- Already paid? Call your bank or card provider first, then check your real domain and report it.
Jump to: the two-minute check · I’ve already paid · where to report it · the register · genuine Chill Domains emails
Is this renewal notice real? The two-minute check
A renewal bill is genuine only if it comes from the company you pay, for your exact domain. Check it against your own account, never against anything the notice tells you. It takes about two minutes and costs nothing.
Who do you pay for this domain?
Find the receipt, the card statement or the account you sign in to. That company sends your renewal. A notice from anyone else isn’t it.
Open their site yourself
Type the address or use a bookmark, then sign in. Don’t use the link in the notice.
Find the exact name
Letter for letter, ending for ending. A name that’s one letter different, or
.cominstead of.com.au, is a different name.For a .au, check the date
Look at the expiry date in your account. A .au can’t be renewed more than 90 days before it expires, so a .au “renewal” any earlier than that isn’t one. Other endings, such as .com, can be renewed early, so for those the date alone proves nothing.
Keep the password to yourself
Renewing with your current provider doesn’t need your domain password. A notice that asks for it is a red flag.
No match on the sender or the name? Don’t pay
Keep the notice, report it, and renew the real domain with the company you actually pay.
What are the three kinds of fake renewal notice?
Official warnings describe three: an offer for a different, look-alike name dressed as a renewal; a notice that moves your domain to another provider; and a phishing email built to take your card details, login or identity documents.
| Kind | What it looks like | What paying actually does | Who has warned about it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Look-alike name offer | A letter or email styled like an invoice or renewal, sometimes with card logos, a tear-off payment slip and a barcode. | Buys a new, similar name, such as a .com instead of your .com.au. Your real domain isn’t renewed. | Scamwatch (run by the National Anti-Scam Centre), Consumer Affairs Victoria, auDA and the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) |
| Transfer notice | A “renewal” notice by post, from a company you don’t deal with. | Can move your domain to the sender’s registrar (a company accredited to add and change names in the registry, the master list for an ending). To move it, the sender also needs your domain password, so never hand that over. | ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which sets the rules for .com and other generic endings), 2014 |
| Phishing email | An urgent email saying your domain will be suspended or deleted unless you act now, with a link to a payment or sign-in page. Some pretend to be auDA or a well-known provider. | Hands your card details, text-message codes, login or identity documents to the scammer. Nothing is renewed. | auDA, and the security companies MailGuard and Malwarebytes, 2021 to 2026 |
Consumer Affairs Victoria lists two more twists: a fee for a registration that never happens, and a service contract disguised as a renewal. In 2013 Scamwatch also warned about urgent, overpriced offers to register your name overseas, such as a Chinese .cn version.
Our lesson on keeping your domain safe has an annotated mock-up of a fake letter. A notice selling the .com of your .com.au is selling a separate name; how .com.au, .au and .com differ explains why. An offer of the .au version of your name is an offer, not a renewal, and whether you need the .au as well is a separate question.
What if I’ve already paid?
Call your bank or card provider first, straight away. Then check your real domain in your own provider’s account, because a scam payment doesn’t renew it, and report what happened.
| What happened | Do this first | Then |
|---|---|---|
| You paid on a page you reached from an email | Call your bank or card provider now. | Report it to Scamwatch, and to police through ReportCyber, run by the ACSC (Australian Cyber Security Centre). |
| You paid a look-alike invoice | Contact your bank or card provider. | Check your real domain is renewed, with your own provider. Ask the sender for a refund in writing. Report it to Scamwatch. |
| You may have paid a transfer notice | Contact your real provider and ask whether a transfer of your domain is under way. | Report it to Scamwatch. Read how transfer locks work. |
| You typed in a login or sign-in code | Sign in to the real site yourself and change that password. | Turn on two-factor sign-in (a second check, such as a code from your phone), and tell your provider. |
| You sent identity documents | Contact IDCARE, the national identity and cyber support service, on 1800 595 160 (individuals) or 1800 595 170 (small businesses and organisations). | Report it to Scamwatch, and to police through ReportCyber. |
| You gave out your domain password | Ask your provider to change the code, and whether the domain can be locked against transfers. | Read how the .com.au domain password works. |
This is general information, not legal or financial advice.
Where do I report a domain renewal scam?
Report any scam to Scamwatch. If you lost money, call your bank first, then use ReportCyber to reach police. Who else to tell depends on what happened.
| What happened | Who to tell |
|---|---|
| You got one and didn’t pay | Scamwatch. Keep the letter or email. |
| You lost money | Your bank or card provider first, then ReportCyber and Scamwatch. |
| You sent identity documents | IDCARE, on 1800 595 160 (individuals) or 1800 595 170 (small businesses), as well as Scamwatch. |
| It claimed to be from auDA | auDA as well, through the contact details on its scams page or on 1300 732 929. |
| It claimed to be from your provider | Your provider, through its real website, not by replying. |
Does auDA send renewal notices?
No. auDA’s renewal page says your .au registrar or reseller (a business that sells domains through a registrar) sends you a reminder email as your licence nears its end. For a .au, the licence is what you hold: the right to use the name for a set period. auDA itself doesn’t invoice you for a renewal.
Emails pretending to be auDA are a known trick. In January and again in April 2021, auDA warned about fake auDA emails asking registrants (the people and businesses domains are registered to) for identity documents or to verify their contact details, and said it asks for that kind of material only through your registrar. In June 2024 it warned about emails asking registrants to click a link and confirm their details “in order to retain” their licence. auDA’s advice on that one: don’t click the links.
A genuine verification email normally follows something you started, such as a correction to your details or a change of registrant (putting the domain into someone else’s name). If you didn’t start anything, check with auDA directly, not through the email.
Can a .com.au be renewed months early?
No. auDA lets a .au licence be renewed no earlier than 90 days before it expires, for one to five years at a time. So a “renewal” invoice for a .com.au with months left to run can’t be renewing that licence. If yours has just expired, auDA allows a 30-day grace period after expiry in which it can still be renewed, through your existing provider or a new one. Renewal and expiry explains the window.
Don’t read anything into the timing, either way. auDA’s public WHOIS (the public lookup for domain records) no longer shows .au creation, renewal or expiry dates, and auDA’s WHOIS Policy gives unsolicited renewal notices as the reason. But expiry dates can still surface outside auDA’s lookup, so a letter that lands at exactly the right moment isn’t proof it’s genuine. The date in your own account is the one that counts.
Who is my real domain provider?
The company you pay for the domain: your registrar, or the reseller you signed up with. That’s who sends your renewal reminder, and your receipt, card statement or the account you sign in to will tell you who it is.
A public lookup helps too: auDA’s at whois.auda.org.au for .au names, and ICANN Lookup for .com and other generic endings. It shows the registrar, and auDA’s WHOIS Policy says a .au record also has a field for the reseller. If you signed up through a reseller, the registrar named may be a company you’ve never heard of. That’s normal, and it doesn’t mean that company bills you. How to look a domain up has the details.
Why would a notice ask for my domain password?
Because the domain password is what lets a domain move to another provider. It’s also called the auth code, transfer code or EPP code (EPP is the Extensible Provisioning Protocol, the system registrars use to talk to registries). You don’t need to give it to anyone to renew with your current provider.
For .au names, your provider can give you the code, and auDA’s recovery tool at pw.auda.org.au emails it only to the registrant contact on record. Never give it to someone who contacted you first. How to get your .com.au domain password covers when you genuinely need it, and the transfer code explains what it does.
Is an email about my ABN (Australian Business Number) and my .com.au real?
It can be. The rule isn’t new: a .com.au renews only while its holder is still eligible, and an ABN or ACN (Australian Company Number) that’s been cancelled can stop the renewal. What changed in May 2026 is enforcement: notices from registrars say renewals are now checked automatically, and blocked when the number isn’t active. The ABN check at renewal explains it.
A genuine notice comes from the company you pay and names the exact domain you hold. To check one, sign in to your provider yourself and look your ABN up on ABN Lookup; don’t act through the email’s link. If the fix is putting the domain into a new business’s name, that’s a change of registrant, which you start from your own account.
Which senders have regulators, courts and ICANN named?
In 2018 the ACCC named Domain Name Corp Pty Ltd and Domain Name Agency Pty Ltd, and Consumer Affairs Victoria named Domain Register Pty Ltd, after Federal Court cases over notices styled like renewals. In 2014 ICANN named Domain Registry of America and three related trading names. Older cases, from 2002 to 2004, involved Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd and Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd.
The first two tables list only companies that a regulator, a court or ICANN has named, in that source’s words, with the date. Dollar amounts are as the source reports them. Most of these findings are years old: we don’t claim any of these companies operates today, and an entry says only what the source said at the time. We use “scam” for the practice, not as our verdict on any company. The third table lists impersonation emails and unsolicited offers reported by auDA, Scamwatch and security companies.
Spotted an error, or have a newer official source? Email info@digitalgreenhouse.com.au and we’ll check it and correct the register.
| Name, as the source prints it | Channel and pitch | What paying did | Named by (source, date) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain Name Corp Pty Ltd and Domain Name Agency Pty Ltd (the ACCC release also gives the trading name Domain Name Register). The release’s body misprints the first as “Domain Corp”. | About 300,000 unsolicited notices that looked like a renewal invoice for the business’s existing name, for $249 to $275, sent from November 2015 to at least April 2017. | Bought a new .net.au or .com name, not a renewal. About $2.3 million was paid. | ACCC media release, 15 June 2018. The Federal Court declared the notices misleading and ordered combined penalties of $1.95 million under the Australian Consumer Law. |
| Domain Register Pty Ltd | Unsolicited notices that looked like bills for existing names, at $249 for two years. | Bought a different, similar name. The Federal Court found the notices misleading. | Consumer Affairs Victoria, 27 December 2018. The court ordered refunds to be offered to more than 9,800 customers, and future notices to say “This is not a bill. You are not required to pay any money.” |
| Domain Registry of America, Domain Registry Services, Domain Registry of Canada and Domain Renewal Group: names used by Registration Services Inc., a reseller for the registrar Brandon Gray Internet Services Inc. | Post. Domain renewal notices. | ICANN said the notices were used to deceive holders into transferring their names to Brandon Gray. | ICANN Notice of Breach, 18 July 2014. A second notice suspended Brandon Gray from creating new names or accepting transfers in, from 12 August 2014, for a period set to end on 17 October 2014. Not Australian brands; listed because people search for them. |
Older cases (2002 to 2004)
| Name, as the source prints it | Channel and pitch | Outcome | Named by (source, date) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd | Notices, including one mail-out of about 418,000 according to the ACCC, that the court found implied their existing name would expire unless they paid. Many offered a similar name. | The Federal Court found the notices misleading under the Trade Practices Act (the law before the Australian Consumer Law) on 8 April 2004. The Full Federal Court (the court’s appeal bench) dismissed the appeal on 10 September 2004. | auDA and the ACCC both brought proceedings. ACCC releases: the court’s orders, 27 April 2004, and the appeal, 10 September 2004. |
| Internet Registrations Australia Pty Ltd | Unsolicited “renewal advice” notices that looked like invoices, sent to about 70,000 recipients. | Settled in December 2002. The Federal Court made orders against the company, including orders stopping similar conduct, and the ACCC accepted court-enforceable undertakings (formal promises to the ACCC that a court can enforce) to refund recipients who responded to its apology. | ACCC release, 5 December 2002. |
Reported email campaigns and offers
These warnings don’t name who is behind them. auDA and the domain providers Crazy Domains and Vodien were impersonated: they were targets, not senders. “Renovarix” is the name the fake emails themselves used.
| Date | What it pretended to be, or offered | What it was after | Reported by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Urgent, overpriced offers to register or “renew” your name overseas, such as a Chinese .cn name | A fee far above the normal price | Scamwatch | |
| Unsolicited emails offering look-alike names, typically the .com of a .au name | Payment for a name you don’t need | auDA consumer alert | |
| auDA, by email, asking for identity documents or contact verification | Identity documents and personal details | auDA scam alert | |
| auDA again, by email, asking for identity documents or contact verification | Identity documents and personal details | auDA scam alert | |
| auDA, by email, asking you to click a link to confirm your contact details | Your details | auDA scam alert | |
| The domain provider Crazy Domains, by email from “Domain Services”, subject “Renew Your Domain to Avoid Service Interruption” | Card details, a text-message code and the card PIN (personal identification number) | MailGuard | |
| The domain provider Vodien, by email, subject “Your Domain Will be Deleted” | Card details | MailGuard | |
| “Renovarix” renewal emails sent from ordinary Gmail addresses, with a €2 “special price” and a 15-minute countdown. The report doesn’t say which countries were targeted. | Personal and card details. No renewal happens. | Malwarebytes |
Register change log
- Register started .
Next review due 6 January 2027. Court and regulator findings are summarised from the sources linked; this isn’t legal advice.
How do I tell a genuine Chill Domains email?
A genuine Chill Domains email comes from info@digitalgreenhouse.com.au, and its links go to chilldomains.com.au. We never send letters by post. The table has the rest. If your domain is with another provider, ask them for the same list: it’s the quickest way to spot a fake.
| Check | A genuine Chill Domains email |
|---|---|
| Who it’s from, and its links | “Chill Domains” <info@digitalgreenhouse.com.au>, the shared mailbox of Digital Greenhouse, the company that runs Chill Domains. Links go to chilldomains.com.au, but it’s a good habit to type the address yourself and sign in. |
| Subject line | Renewal reminders, auto-renew notices and security alerts normally start with “[Chill Domains]”. A few don’t, including sign-in links (“Your Chill Domains sign-in link”) and order confirmations (“Your Chill Domains registration:” and the domain). |
| Renewal reminders | By email only, never by post. Plain text, 30 days, 7 days and 1 day before expiry. Nothing after expiry. For .au names they also note that the ABN or ACN is checked at renewal. |
| Paying | By card only, through Stripe, our card payment processor. An email “from us” asking you to pay any other way is fake. |
| Signing in | No passwords: an emailed link that works once and expires in 15 minutes, a passkey (sign-in with your device’s fingerprint, face or PIN), and optional two-factor codes. An email asking for your “Chill Domains password” is fake. |
| Auto-renew charges | Only if you turned auto-renew on. The charge normally shows on your card statement as CHILLDOMAI* AUTORENEW, and the price is emailed to you at least 7 days before. |
| Security alerts | Sent when something changes on your domain or account. For example: your transfer code is revealed or changed, the transfer lock is switched, contact details change, or nameservers (the settings that say where your website and email live) change. If you didn’t do it, don’t click anything in the email; sign in yourself or email us. |
At Chill Domains. We’re a reseller, so the registrar shown on your domain’s public record is our auDA- and ICANN-accredited wholesale registrar partner, not Chill Domains. That’s normal. Some genuine emails don’t come from us. For example, when you start a .au correction or change of registrant, or a transfer to us, the approval or verification link comes from the registry or registrar, not from Chill. If you didn’t start one, don’t click it. Not sure about any message, or a paper letter? Don’t click or pay. Forward it to info@digitalgreenhouse.com.au and we’ll tell you what it is.
Questions people ask
I have a .com.au. Why did I get an invoice for the .com?
The letter says “This is not a bill”. Is it still a scam?
Can I just ignore a fake renewal notice?
How did they find me?
Have regulators named “Domain Registry of Australia”?
Is an email from auDA asking me to confirm my details genuine?
Does Chill Domains send renewal letters by post?
Terms in this guide
- Fake renewal notice
- A letter or email dressed up as a renewal invoice from a company you don’t pay.
- Phishing
- A message that pretends to be from a company you trust, to get you to sign in on a fake page or pay a fake invoice.
- Typosquatting
- Registering a name that looks like someone else’s, such as a misspelling or a different ending.
- Auth code
- The domain password that proves you’re allowed to move a domain to a different registrar.
- Registrar
- A company accredited to add and change names in a registry.
- Reseller
- A business that sells and supports domains through an accredited registrar, without being a registrar itself.
- WHOIS
- The public lookup that shows whether a domain is registered and through which registrar.
- auDA
- .au Domain Administration, the body that sets the rules for .au names.
- Licence
- What you hold when you register a .au name: the right to use it for a set period, not ownership.
- Change of registrant
- Putting a domain into a different person’s or business’s name.
Every term, in full, is in the glossary.
Sources
All read on 6 October 2026.
- Renew your .au domain name (auDA): your registrar or reseller sends the reminder; renewal from no earlier than 90 days before expiry, the 30-day grace period after it, and one-to-five-year terms.
- WHOIS Policy (2025-11) (auDA): which .au details are public, and why expiry dates were removed.
- Scam alert: email scam targeting .au registrants (auDA, 21 January 2021), the 20 April 2021 alert and the 11 June 2024 alert: fake auDA emails, and what auDA does and doesn’t ask for.
- Consumer alert: beware of unsolicited emails offering similar domain names (auDA, 23 May 2019): look-alike name offers.
- Online scams awareness (auDA): checking a message that claims to be from auDA, and where to report.
- Beware of unsolicited domain name registration offers (19 December 2016), Domain name renewals: don’t be dot conned (12 July 2007) and Think carefully about unsolicited offers to register domain names overseas (19 February 2013) (Scamwatch, now run by the National Anti-Scam Centre): how look-alike and overseas offers work, and what to check.
- Domain name scam (Consumer Affairs Victoria, updated 12 October 2023): the variants, and matching the name exactly.
- Domain Register Pty Ltd: court outcome (Consumer Affairs Victoria, 27 December 2018): the court’s findings and orders.
- Domain Name Corp and Domain Name Agency to pay $1.95 million in penalties (ACCC, 15 June 2018), and ACCC releases on Domain Names Australia (27 April 2004, and the appeal, 10 September 2004) and Internet Registrations Australia (5 December 2002): the court cases.
- Notice of Breach and Notice of Suspension to Brandon Gray Internet Services Inc. (ICANN, 18 July 2014): the renewal notices and the trading names.
- Crazy Domains spoofed in domain renewal scam (MailGuard, 27 January 2026) and Vodien domain expiry scam email targets payment card details (MailGuard, 12 March 2026): impersonation emails and what they collect.
- Fake domain renewal emails trick website owners into paying scammers (Malwarebytes, 25 June 2026): the “Renovarix” emails.
- Australian domain name scams and consumer alerts (domainregistration.com.au, a domain provider): you don’t need your domain password to renew with your current registrar.
- Domain registration compliance notices: how to check yours is legitimate (Domain Central, a domain provider, 10 June 2026): what a genuine compliance notice looks like.
- Scams information in English (Scamwatch) and ReportCyber (Australian Cyber Security Centre): where to report.
- Contact us (IDCARE, the national identity and cyber support service): the support lines, 1800 595 160 for individuals and 1800 595 170 for small businesses and organisations.
Keep reading
- Keeping your domain safe: hijacks, lookalikes and a ten-minute security check-up.
- How to get your .com.au domain password: when you need the auth code, and who should have it.
- The ABN check at renewal: what a genuine eligibility notice is about.
- Changing who holds a .com.au: the verification emails you should expect.
- .com.au, .au or .com: why the .com isn’t your .com.au.
- The October 2026 .au price rise: what changed, and where a genuine new price shows up.
- WHOIS, RDAP and privacy: what a public lookup shows, including RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol, the newer WHOIS).