|
It appears, from the excerpt of the email you posted, the domain name is still available for registration - if so, the best thing to do is take your business elsewhere if you've not done so already.
I've never heard of any registrar demanding photo ID for a ~$10 domain registration ...
With that said, there appears to be a recent rash of credit card fraud worse than normal ... all those stolen credit numbers/data one's been hearing about lately is having a cascading effect that will be felt for quite awhile ... most of the card numbers and related data are still valid ...
And even when a credit card is cancelled it's not really ... while there are different levels/types of blocks issuing banks can utilize, it's still no guarantee...
A personal AMEX card of mine was used fraudulently about a month ago for a small purchase - to make a long story short, about two months *after that card was canceled*, another fraudulent charge showed up! ...
That bogus charge involved a domain name registrar reseller - they were very apologilic and immediately credited it back without forcing me to get AMEX involved - and from what I gather talking with folks at the domain registar reseller is they got hit badly lately.
Credit issuers really seem not to care much even though they say they do ... and thus merchants, especially small ones, are left to fend for themselves - and after being "scammed" badly, often resorting to desperate measures that make 3rd-party scrubbers seem lenient in comparison.
Rambling on ... point is Dotster shouldn't be demanding photo ID ... but on the other hand, with the rash of fraud lately, what are they supposed to do when a transaction appears questionable - the obvious choice is to reject it, but over-scrubbing causes much lost sales and upset customers ... they're between a rock and hard place and thus likely their reasoning in demanding a photo ID ...
Harsher *criminal* penalities for credit card fraud along with laws requiring merchants to share more of the processing risk with on-line merchants would go a long way, but I digress.
Ron
__________________
Domagon - Website Management and Domain Name Sales
|