registrars Newbie + Cheap Domains + Auto-Renewal (at higher rate) = Scam?

[JayT]

Imagine some poor person reads a domain blog and decides to try investing. The newbie finds .xyz, .top .tech .space and many more for under $1. Buying a few hundred is no problem for this opportunity! A few months go by with no success, newbie loses interest and forgets it.

Newbie might not know that the registrar in which the credit card number was entered, and saved, will auto-renew these domains. The cost is usually $10 or more, maybe even $50+ for each one. 100's of domains, initially bought for just a few hundred $, now amount in $1000's. It's all automatic, and the registrar just takes the money.

You think it will become worse? Is it unacceptable? We are not hearing much about it? Does it seem fair that auto-renewal is a default setting, hidden somewhere in the deep pages of your account? Isn't there lack of transparency at time of registration? Isn't it especially deceiving that rates are higher at renewal? I know places are doing similar, with subscriptions, but is this different, and how or why not?

 

[RWD]

New business owners buys a domain for his new company...forgets to renew it. Unfortunately, there is two sides.

 

[Asfas1000]

Default auto-renew is OK and prefered if :
- the registrar notifies the domain owner that an automatic renewal is going to take place in, say, 7 days
- there is a way for the domain owner to change the auto-renew default option from the dashboard