Ed's Note: this article was published in 2005 and companies are now able to register .eu domains through accredited registrars. However, you should still guard against pre-registration as the pitfalls below can still apply.

Register or pre-register your .eu domain name scam

You may receive emails from companies claiming to 'operate the .eu domain name' or to be a registrar for .eu. They are offering pre-registration services, and guaranteeing to get your .eu domains for a fee. Are they genuine? No.

It is not yet possible to register a .eu domain name nor to make an official pre-registration for such a domain. EURid have not yet begun accrediting registrars so nobody can claim to be a .eu registrar yet nor can they guarantee to get a particular name.

In particular, a number of complaints have been received about EU Registry Services (www.registereu.com). This company has no relationship with EURid and is not an accredited .eu registrar. If you believe that you have a justifiable complaint and are unable to contact "eu Registry Services", EURid suggest that you should contact your credit card company and if appropriate instigate "charge-back proceedings" in order to obtain a refund of monies paid.

The official EURid site can be found at www.eurid.org and more news regarding these scams can be found at
www.vnunet.com/News/1144248

See also: Domain Registry Services/mis-selling

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