Is your domain name registrar a licensed registrar?

When choosing a domain name registrar you want to make sure they are a legitimate business and authorized to register domain names.

ICANN publishes a list of all their accredited domain name registrars. ICANN accredits these registrars to register names with the following Top Level Domains: .aero, .biz, .cat, .com, .coop, .info, .jobs, .mobi, .museum, .name, .net, .org, .pro, .travel.

If you have never heard of a domain name registrar before, it pays to visit this list to make sure they are accredited. If they are not, then do not register your name with them. Non-accredited companies are either a scam or are naively thinking they are registering domains when they cannot.

A lot of domain name registrars typically have DBA (Doing Business As) names. If you can’t find your registrar on the list under there common name, try to find out the name of their parent company. Typically it is the name of this parent company that is listed.