Registry Australia Pty Ltd has been sending unsolicited mail (physical) to Australian businesses for some time. This is the latest we’ve received.
Their letters could appear at first glance to be a renewal notice for your Australian Business Name Registration but in fact is an unsolicited commercial offer for them to renew it for you with an extra fee.
They are able to do this as a private service provider (PSP).
Business names can be registered or renewed directly with the Australian Securities and Investment Commision (ASIC) on their website.
https://asic.gov.au/for-business/renewing-your-business-name/
The current rates are one year for $37 or three years for $87
Registry Australia Pty Ltd is offering to renew your business name for you for $99 for one year or $199 for three years.
This doesn’t seem like very good value.
ASIC has information about private service providers on their webpage, including their expectations.
Most PSPs have started behaving better by making their unsolicited mail comply to ASICs requirements to state that it is NOT a letter from ASIC and use less confusing and deceptive formating. Still, these letters catch many business owners out and you will find many compaints online.
If you recieve renewal offers, you should check them and report companies that exhibit deceptive and misleading behaviour.
Information contained in letter:
Company: Registry Australia Pty Ltd
ACN: 625 637 023
Address: Level 14 / 333 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000 (serviced office provided by Victory Offices)
Phone: 1300 070 000
Website: www.registry.com.au
Domain Registrant Contact Name: Technical Administrator
Domain Registrant Contact Email:admin@registry.com.au
ABN also associated with other names, some of which violate ASIC guidence.
Do not use marketing that may mislead customers
Do not operate under a business name that may make customers think ASIC endorses or authorises your services. For example, you must not use words such as ‘ASIC’ or ‘Business Name’ in your business name.
Interesting there are some very generic names including Phone Numbers and Hosts registered.
They all have various serviced offices or co-working spaces as addresses.
The domain history of the registry.com.au domain using the Wayback machine, shows that the domain was owned and run by Robert Kaay of Kaay Holdings until at least 2018.
Looking at Kaay Holdings on the business.gov.au site turns up an interesting mix of business names including DBR Domain Brokerage, Data Centre Cleaning, Organic IT Services and Wikileaks (????).
What links Kaay Holdings to Registry Australia Pty Ltd is that the address of the mentioned business matches addresses used by Registry Australia business names.
13 57 Labouchere Rd South Perth WA 6151
The Registry Australia website prominently displays their TrustPilot rating and shows only positive reviews. If you visit the TrustPilot website you will see they also have a slew of extremely bad reviews that they don’t show on their own website.
Most Recent Letter received:
The only change in this latest letter is they have now included a web link to opt out of receiving any of their marketing.
https://registry.com.au/opt-out
@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Registrant Organization: Datamatics Business Solutions Limited
Registrant State/Province: Maharashtra
Registrant Country: IN
Registrant Email: Select Contact Domain Holder link at https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=enetworktrends.com