A friend of mine is in the process of being scammed by a domain registrar and I am trying to sort out the mess. However I could use a hand understanding some of the details. He paid for 2 years of domain name registration on 6 november 2009. The whois record reads: Domain ID:XXXXXXXXXX Domain Name:XXXXXXXXX.ORG Created On:06-Nov-2009 09:23:12 UTC Last Updated On:17-Dec-2010 00:15:10 UTC Expiration Date:06-Nov-2011 09:23:12 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:OnlineNIC Inc. (R64-LROR) Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED Status:HOLD Status:PENDING DELETE SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE Registrant ID:ONLC-XXXXXXX-X Registrant Name:My friend's name ... Registrant Email:Old email The registrar charged a renewal fee a week ago and is now asking an extra $150 to "reclaim" the domain name, even though the domain name is apparently still in my friend's name and it looks like there is still another 10 months before the expiry date. The expiration date on the WhoIs record looks right (Nov 2011), so I don't understand why the domain status says "PENDING DELETE SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE". Can someone explain me better what the deal is and explain what I need to do get the domain name transfered to a more honest registrar? I already have a registrar for my own domain names, been using them for 10 years without problems, so I know where to transfer the domain names to, I just don't know how to proceed.