[Public-List] USCG Certificate of Documentation renewal

[George Dinwiddie]

Beware of scams!

I just got a letter in the mail from "Vessel Documentation Portal" 
warning me that my Certificate of Documentation was set to expire. (It 
actually expires at the end of October. I went to the site, 
vesselrenewal(dot)us, and was filling out the renewal form when saw they 
wanted to charge $75 to renew. This didn't seem right, so I ran a whois 
on the site and found it's registered to

> Registrant Name: Vessel Renewal
> Registrant Organization: Vessel Renewal
> Registrant Street: 1900 E Beach Blvd
> Registrant Street:
> Registrant Street:
> Registrant City: Long Beach
> Registrant State/Province: California
> Registrant Postal Code: 90802
> Registrant Country: us
> Registrant Phone: +1.8663430530
> Registrant Phone Ext:
> Registrant Fax:
> Registrant Fax Ext:
> Registrant Email: danny at seoexpertdanny.com

For those that don't know "seo" stands for Search Engine Optimization, 
techniques to make your web site appear higher in the results when 
someone searches. While there's some legitimate need to make a site show 
up for certain web searches, most SEO companies will completely 
misrepresent a site, and live by spamming site operators. So this 
slime-bucket has decided to misrepresent the USCG Vessel Documentation 
Center, also.

When I searched for the actual USCG Vessel Documentation Center, I 
noticed in the search results that there is a similar company, 
unitedstatesvessel(dot)us, also trying to skim money from documentation 
renewals.

While the USCG Vessel Documentation Center may not be optimizing their 
site for search engines, you can renew your documentation online for 
only $26 at https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/1175233

I don't know if the USCG sends notices to remind you to renew or not. I 
went ahead and renewed mine.

  - George

-- 
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   When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
   I think how evening follows morn;            gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
   So many I loved were not yet dead,           http://www.Alberg30.org
   So many I love were not yet born.                          also see:
                'The Middle' by Ogden Nash     http://idiacomputing.com
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