The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered domain sales outfit UK Internet Registry to stop sending out letters that look like invoices.

The ASA's tough line followed a complaint that UK Internet Registry's direct mailing, which urged people to register the .com domain of their registered .co.uk domain, "misleadingly implied it was an invoice" that required payment.

The phoney invoice wanted people to cough up £175 to secure the .com domain for two years.

The ASA told the advertisers to "stop sending out the direct mailing until it had been amended so as not to appear it was an invoice for services provided by the advertisers".

However, UK Internet Registry failed to respond to the ASA's investigation. A spokeswoman for the ASA said the matter was still under investigation.

In February, Nominet UK - the national Registry for all domain names ending .uk - also raised serious concerns about UK Internet Registry's letters which "resemble invoices".

At the time Nominet wanted to make it absolutely clear that it had nothing to do with UK Internet Registry Ltd.

A spokeswoman for Nominet told The Register today that it is still receiving complaints from people claiming that the letters look like invoices.

Nominet is also looking into the possibility of taking legal action against UK Internet Registry. ®

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