The Danvers (Mass.) Police Department recently alerted Forum that scam artists from the Boston area are targeting small businesses around New England. The callers are claiming to have an overstock of computers for sale at bargain prices. The scam has been around for years, but seems to have resurfaced in earnest.

Danvers police have received calls from several streetwise businesses that were suspicious about the offers of low-priced PCs. Unfortunately, some not-so-wise victims called after they had made the “deal” and lost thousands of dollars.

The con artists have been telling their victims to meet them in Danvers at the Liberty Tree Mall Best Buy store. One merchant from Vermont drove to Danvers, a six-hour round trip, to buy 11 desktop computers for $11,000. The person was told to bring the money in cash and hand it over to a guy in the parking lot, which he did. Now he’s out $11,000 and never saw a computer. Not to be rude regarding our Vermont neighbors, but this guy has to have more money than brains. If he’s still around, we have some used water heaters to offer at a good price.

What worries us is that victims often are too embarrassed to report these scams because they feel stupid and are ashamed that they have been so gullible. That means there are probably other plucked pigeons out there licking their wounded bank accounts.

For more information, call Detective Roland Levasseur, Danvers Police Department, 120 Ash St., Danvers, Mass. 01923 (978-774-1388) or visit www.danverspolice.com/scam3.htm for details of how this scam plays out.

Another scam hitting local businesses, this one on the Internet, is an official-looking e-mail “alert” from Domain Support Group that seems to warn owners of Web site domains that their domain name registrations might be in jeopardy. The wording is tricky, and we admit that we received such a notice and had to think twice. This domain registration stuff is usually alien to most but computers geeks, so we must be on our guard.

Here’s the way the scam tries to trick you. Domain Support Group lists the first part of your domain name (example: www.ConsumerForum) but not your extension (.org, .com, etc.). Then the e-mail suggests “the above domain name has now become available for registration” and warns that “conflicting domain name registrations may occur” and “licensing rights to this domain name may be assigned to another applicant.”

For the sake of example, let’s say Forum’s domain name is “www.ConsumerForum.org”. It may be true that ConsumerForum.com, ConsumerForum.net or similar names with different extensions are available, but that our real domain (ending in .org) is fine. That’s the scam.

Domain Support Group is trying to trick you into buying an additional domain with a different extension. Time to use your “delete” button.

If you have questions about the status of your domain registration, contact the company where you purchased the protected domain or call your ISP (Internet service provider). They can tell you if your domain name is secure.

Maine homes and offices are being increasingly cheated on the Internet. To protect yourself and fight back, we suggest you consider joining a statewide coalition of merchants and consumers forming a Maine Internet network. It may be the smartest thing you do this week.

For information, write Clean Commerce, 109 State St., Bangor, Maine 04401. Include a self-addressed, postage paid (#10) business size envelope.

Consumer Forum is a collaboration of the Bangor Daily News and Northeast COMBAT/The Maine Center for the Public Interest, Maine’s membership-funded nonprofit consumer organization. For help or to request individual or business membership information write: Consumer Forum, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor 04402-1329.