A quite similar scam happenend over here (Germany) but they used a slightly different strategy. Since here you normally pay your bills by automated money transfer they could not send you bills to pay. So they thought up a new company, called it "Domain Registry of America" used *really* expensive paper. (In color and this this special print you often find on the cover of paperback novels) and plastered it with american flags. The mouseprint said that you were actually switching providers to them. So after that they would have had the *legal* right to bill you for their "services" .

I can't even begin to imagine what living hell I would have had to go through would I've wanted my domain back.