If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’ve received an email like this one:

Hi,

Greetings for the morning.

I looked over your website ********* and think both it and your businesses have a lot of potential.

I'd like to send you an audit report of your website with prices and some suggestions on how to significantly enhance these search results, if you don't mind.

These are not hard tasks, and I will provide a detailed report. It will outline precisely what must be done to significantly raise your ranking.

We have the ability to list your (website, design, post, graphics, repair, and screenshot on Google's first page) (including YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yahoo).

Could I email you a quote? In the event that you're intrigued

Regards ahead of time!

Twanda

At first glance, this might seem like a helpful offer to improve your website’s SEO and digital presence. But let’s break it down—and explain why this message is almost certainly a scam.

Red Flags in the Message

1. Vague Language and Poor Grammar
Scam emails often contain strange phrasing like “Greetings for the morning” or “regards ahead of time.” These awkward or overly formal greetings,

Over the years clients have asked about this letter, and just this last year I probably got 25 of these letters myself.

If you receive a letter from iDNS – throw it in the trash.

You do not have to send them a cent, you do not have to transfer your domain name to them, and there is no risk of losing your domain. This is a scam to trick you into transferring your domain to a different company that will most likely take you to the cleaners.

According to the letter: “ You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the Web, and now is the time to transfer and renew your name from your current Registrar to Internet Domain Name Services. Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customers and friends to locate you on the Web.”

I imagine that since so many of these letters are obviously mailed out that there are a lot of people who get confused and fall for this trick. Thankfully none of my clients has done that so I’m not