On 11 November 2026, a client forwarded us an email from “Domain Notifications | IPDS Ireland” asking for €190 to keep a “renewal notification service” running for their .ie domain. It is the latest version of a fake renewal invoice sent to Irish businesses since at least 2019, first as “DNS Ireland” and more recently as “IDS Ireland”.
Paying it does not renew your domain.
What the email says
The email was sent to the company’s info@ address and addressed to its full registered name, which is public information. The subject line was “Renewal notifications for: www.[yourdomain].ie”.
It says:
- “Action required: keep www.[yourdomain].ie renewal notification service active.”
- The service is “scheduled to extend” on a date one week after the email was sent.
- €190.00 is due for one year, with a “Pay now” link that takes Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
- “If you prefer not to renew, reply to this email at least 5 days before … otherwise, we’ll assume you would like to continue.”
The small print reads: “This is an offer to receive notifications regarding your domain. We are not your registrar.”
What is on sale is a reminder service. Nothing in the email renews the domain.
How to spot it
- The sender is not the company you pay for your domain. Only your registrar can renew it.
- It treats “www.[yourdomain].ie” as the domain. The domain is [yourdomain].ie. The “www” is part of a web address and is not something a registrar renews.
- The sender’s website is new and anonymous. ipdsireland.com was registered in October 2026. It gives no company name, CRO number, VAT number, address or phone number.
- It asks you to reply to cancel. You never signed up, so there is nothing to cancel. A reply only confirms that someone reads the mailbox.
A new name and a higher price
Michele Neylon of Blacknight traces the scheme to 2019, when it ran as “DNS Ireland”. Irish hosts warned about “IDS Ireland” invoices in January and February 2026, at amounts reported between €72 and €92.
Webworld updated its warning on 10 November with the IPDS Ireland name, at €164. The email our client received asked for €190.
The “We are not your registrar” line is word for word the same as a UK version sent as “IDM UK”, reported in July 2026.
Check your real registrar
A .ie domain is renewed through the registrar it is registered with. The .ie registry puts it plainly: “Your Registrar will contact you by email to remind you to renew your domain.”
To find yours:
- Go to the registry’s Find or change your Registrar page.
- Enter your domain without the “www” and run the WHOIS search.
- The result shows your registrar and your renewal date.
For a .com or other domain, ICANN’s lookup shows the same information.
If the company asking for money is not the registrar named there, it has nothing to do with your domain. To check the renewal itself, log in to your registrar by typing its address yourself, not through a link in an email.
What to do
- Don’t pay, don’t click the link and don’t reply.
- Mark the email as spam or phishing.
- If you paid this invoice, or paid DNS Ireland or IDS Ireland in previous years, contact your bank or card provider and ask about disputing the charge.
WP Care clients
If an email like this arrives, forward it to us at [email protected] and we will check it against your domain’s actual registration. No other action is needed.
