Does SIDN or ICANN send invoices to domain owners?

No. SIDN, the registry for .nl, never sells domain names directly but always through registrars, and ICANN does not collect fees from domain owners. You pay your own registrar or hosting provider. An invoice that appears to come from SIDN or ICANN is not genuine.

Do I have to pay an invoice for a domain I never ordered?

Don't pay before you have looked up who your domain is registered with. If the sender is not your registrar or provider and you never ordered anything from them, SIDN advises not to pay such invoices and to report them. In the Netherlands you report them to the Fraudehelpdesk.

Someone says another company wants to register my name with .com. Is that true?

This is a well-known scam. As the owner of a domain you have no first right to the same name with another extension. Don't agree to anything, end the call and check yourself whether the name is still available. If you want it, register it at the normal price with your own provider, at LJPc through the customer portal.

How can I tell an invoice really comes from LJPc?

An LJPc invoice comes from info@ljpc.nl, the payment link starts with https://factuur.ljpc.nl and the invoice appears with the same number and amount in the customer portal under Financial > Invoices. If it isn't there, don't pay it and create a support ticket.

I already paid. Can I get my money back?

Contact your bank right away and ask whether the payment can be recalled. Then report it to the police and, in the Netherlands, to the Fraudehelpdesk, which advises you on next steps. Whether you get your money back depends on your bank and the situation.

Will I lose my domain if I ignore an unknown invoice?

Your own registrar manages your registration with the registry. As long as you pay them and your domain is renewed, an invoice from another company changes nothing about your domain. At LJPc your domain renews every year until you cancel it.

Fake domain invoice or renewal scam? How to spot it

Invoice or renewal notice for your domain from a company you don't know? Check if it is real, spot a genuine LJPc invoice and report the scam.

Got an invoice, payment request or renewal notice for your domain name from a company you don't have your domain with? Don't pay it until you have checked who really manages your domain. You only renew a domain with your own registrar or hosting provider: SIDN, the registry for .nl, never sells domain names directly but always through registrars, and ICANN does not collect fees from domain owners. An invoice from LJPc always also appears in your customer portal.

Below you'll find the common forms of domain invoice scams, a five-step check to tell a real invoice from a fake one, how a genuine LJPc invoice reaches you and where to report a scam.

What does a fake domain invoice look like?

Scammers send letters and emails that look like a bill from an official body. The sender often uses a name with words like domain, DNS, registration, host or the name of a country. In the Netherlands, SIDN has warned about fake invoices sent in the names of DNS Registraties NL, Domeinregistratie Nederland and NL Domein Host and Domeinhost Nederland. ICANN has warned about fraudulent domain renewal emails that use its name. The names change, the tricks stay the same:

Type	What you receive	What is really going on
Bogus invoice	An invoice for registering or renewing your domain, often for a small amount	You never ordered anything from this company. The sender hopes you pay it out of habit
Offer disguised as an invoice	A document that looks like an invoice, with small print at the bottom saying it is an offer	If you pay, you agree to a new service or a contract
Threatening renewal notice	"Pay now or lose your domain name", sometimes with a debt collector involved	The sender has no say over your registration. Only your own registrar renews your domain with the registry
Sales call or email	"Another company wants to register your name with .com or .info, and as the owner you have the first right to it"	There is no such first right. You are offered an expensive registration, sometimes for years in advance at many times the normal price
Copied invoice	An invoice that looks exactly like one from your own provider, except for the bank account or payment link	You pay the scammer instead of your provider

An email can also link to a fake payment or login page. How to spot that kind of phishing is explained in email security against phishing, spam and abuse.

Is this invoice real? Check it in five steps

Don't pay yet, and don't click links or open attachments. A genuine invoice can still be paid after you have checked it.
Look up who your domain is registered with. Check a .nl domain in the SIDN WHOIS, and .com and other generic extensions in ICANN Lookup. You'll see the registrar, and for .nl often the reseller too: the company you pay for your domain. If the sender of the invoice isn't listed, you are not their customer for this domain. How to read the result is explained in who manages your domain?
Compare it with your own records. Did you order anything from this company? Do your customer number, the domain name and the bank account match earlier invoices from your provider?
Read the small print. If it says the document is an offer or a quote, it is not a bill for something you already have.
Ask your own provider. Use the contact details you already have, such as your customer portal or an earlier invoice, not the phone number or link on the suspicious document.

How to recognise a genuine LJPc invoice

If your domain is registered with LJPc, it runs as a subscription and renews every year until you cancel it. The renewal appears on your LJPc invoice, together with your other subscriptions when their billing dates are close together. This is how you recognise that invoice:

The email comes from info@ljpc.nl, with LJPc as the sender. The subject is New invoice available, or New invoice - direct debit if you pay by direct debit.
The email shows the invoice number and the amount, and the invoice is attached as a PDF.
The payment link starts with https://factuur.ljpc.nl and takes you to the payment page of our payment provider Mollie.
Every invoice from us appears with the same number and amount in the customer portal under Financial > Invoices. Your domains with us are listed under Services > Domains.

Not sure about an email that looks like ours? Don't click the link. Type portal.ljpc.nl into your browser yourself, log in and go to Financial > Invoices. Pay there with the Pay button, as described in pay invoices in the customer portal. If you prefer to transfer the amount yourself, copy the bank account from the PDF you download in the portal. Invoices belong to the main account; a subaccount only sees them with permission to view invoices. More about billing is in billing at LJPc hosting.

Is an invoice missing from the portal, or does the amount or bank account differ? Don't pay it, and create a support ticket with the sender and the invoice number so we can look into it with you.

Already paid or said yes? What to do now

Contact your bank right away. Ask whether they can recall the payment. The sooner you call, the better.
Report it to the police. Invoice fraud is a criminal offence. In the Netherlands, if the money went to a Dutch account, your bank can give you the recipient's name and address for your report.
Report it to a fraud help desk. In the Netherlands that is the Fraudehelpdesk, which advises you on next steps, also if you already received a contract or reminders.
Said yes on the phone or signed something? A verbal agreement can count too. Read the terms, as you can sometimes cancel within a short period. Object in writing, preferably by registered letter, keep all emails and letters, and get legal advice if you are unsure.
Logged in or entered a password through a link? Change that password right away. If it was your customer portal, also secure your account with a passkey or authenticator app, as described in log in to the customer portal.

Where to report a fake domain invoice

Fraudehelpdesk (Netherlands). Report the fraud with the form on fraudehelpdesk.nl (in Dutch) or call +31 88 786 73 72. Give as many details as you can, such as the sender's name, phone number and email address. SIDN also asks you to report fake invoices about .nl domains there.
A suspicious email can be forwarded to valse-email@fraudehelpdesk.nl: from a computer as an attachment, from a phone or tablet as it is.
ICANN. If an email about a .com or other generic domain uses ICANN's name, report it to ICANN Contractual Compliance at compliance@icann.org.
Outside the Netherlands, report it to your national fraud reporting centre or the police.
LJPc. If the invoice looks like ours, or mentions a domain registered with us, create a support ticket.

Keep your domain and your accounts safe

Keep your domains with one provider. Then you know exactly who to expect an invoice from. With the transfer code you move a separate domain to LJPc, as described in transfer a domain to LJPc.
Keep your domain renewed. An expired domain name can eventually be registered by someone else. At LJPc your domain renews every year until you cancel it; what happens if a domain does expire is explained in expired domain, redemption period or quarantine.
Send invoices to one fixed address. In the portal, the Notifications tab of My account lets you choose where new invoices and reminders go; see notification settings in the customer portal.
Agree who approves invoices, and tell your colleagues how these scams work.

What LJPc hosting takes care of

If your domain is with us, you'll find it in the customer portal under Services > Domains, with its nameservers and transfer code. The renewal is on your LJPc invoice, which you find under Financial > Invoices and pay there, or which we collect automatically if you have set up direct debit. Unsure about an invoice or letter about your domain? Create a support ticket or call us on +31 85 130 6429.

Fake domain invoice or renewal notice? How to tell if you have to pay