AWS Route 53 - domain expiry - deletion

Question

Dear all,  
  
I have once registered under aws route 53 a domain ending with .de , but never needed it.  
aws has informed me - after one year - that the domain will expire and I have decided to do nothing and henceforth not prolong it and pay no further fees for it. So far so good.  
  
Now I have received a very detailed letter (including full name and address) form a German firm "DENIZ eG", who claims that, because the old hosting servicer no longer host the site  I **must** pay €58,-- to them for the next year for the domain, if I do not delete the domain until the next month.  
  
Questions:   
1) Has aws sold my domain and my contact details to this firm or is it a skimming firm?  
2) Can I simply ignore the payment request (I know that at some point in time then my unwanted domain gets free again for everyone) ?  
3) If not, how can I now still delete the domain?   
  
aws is telling me under Route 53: "Domain registration expired successful: Domain has been removed from your account upon expiration"  
  
Many thanks.

Answer

I have meanwhile solved the problem myself.  
At the first moment, when you receive a **letter** from DENIC eG, a company who you have never heard of before, it really seems like a spam/skimming letter.  
But indeed, if you do not terminate your **.de domain**, once it is still registered with aws route 53, the domain will go after expiry to   
    
the central register for .de domains and then things will get much more difficult and inside aws you cannot do anything any more.  
  
As a result it seems for me to be a much better procedure to terminate unneeded .de domains while still provide through the webhost.  
  
I think, it would be highly recommended if aws support would inform their clients about this procedure when a payment request for a .de domain expires and the user thinks, that the issue is then automatically resolved, when he does nothing, as it may be the case for other domains with different country codes!

AWS Route 53 - domain expiry - deletion

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