Thanks Dave, I have been asked to renew my name and chose to ignore because I was angry that once I have started or coined a name someone else thought they could charge me for it.  It made me angry and I did nothing and then kept checking my site and it still worked.  So, I figured it was a scam.  I am really getting tired of scam artists and feel like there is a business opportunity for someone to investigate and hunt down the culprits to prosecute.  These vermin are ruining the greatest tool kown to mankind to date.  People with the means to start this venture should think about how they can create a bounty for these theives and put them behind bars.

I recently received an email from Office Live Small Business informing me that my free website, which I've had for two and a half years, will expire in six months unless I pay a $14.95 fee.

As I've gotten strange emails about my domain expiring which urged me to pay money before, I am leery about believing that this is legit.

I originally accepted the offer for a free website, which included a domain linked to my company's name.  Which is to say that it was a www.etc.com and didn't have office live in the title at all.  Now, I am told that unless I pay the $14.95 at the end of six months, I will continue to have a free website, but it will be routed through officelive.com and I will lose my email accounts.

Is this something new?  Has the original come-on expired, and does MSN now want us to pay for what was formerly free?

And is a $14.95 annual fee a good deal to keep my website going as it is now?  And will I get more features (as they describe), such as better editing tools, etc?

I am only writing this because I have become skeptical when anyone writes me over the Internet and wants money.  I continually get emails from someone purporting to be my bank wanting me to "fix" my online banking, which has had no problems at all.  I also get emails from so-called AOL addresses that want me to give them my credit card info.  I always send these to spam and wonder if this domain thing is a similar scam?

Finally, there used to be a way to communicate directly with MSN website support people whenever I had such queries or needed technical support with my website, but it doesn't seem possible anymore.  One of the things indicated in the email I received is that if I opt for the free website I would be routed to a company in Melbourne, Australia, which owns the domain (presumably the officelive.com).  But when I click on the FAQs for the Melbourne site it doesn't at all refer to the Office Live situation, and tells only about websites and domains that they offering.

Forgive my long, multi-part question, but I'm hoping someone will have answers and hopefully someone from MSN is watching as well.

Plus, if I decide to pay for the formerly free domain service, how do I do so?

Thanks.

Michael