Guess what, the Chinese have found me! The Chinese domain name scam is quite popular on the Internet, so I will just go ahead and add myself to the search results.
If you EVER get an email like this, simply delete it or you can choose to have some fun with these inglorious bastards.
Dear President/CEO,
We are a domain name registration and dispute organization in Asia, which mainly deal with the global companies' domain name registration and internet Intellectual property right protection in Asia. Currently, we have a pretty important issue needing to confirm with your company.
On Feb .15 , 2009, We received an application formally. One company named " Falong Holdings Ltd " wanted to applied for the Internet brand " Ethnicdenim " and some domain names through our body.
During our preliminary investigation, we found that these domain names' keyword and internet brand is identical with your trademark. Meanwhile, it is in the special time of financial crisis. Many companies are registering and protecting their own internet intellectual property right in various methods.These days we are dealing with this case, I wonder whether you consigned Falong company to register these domain names through us? If yes, we will complete the registration on these domain names. Or you do not even know this company what so ever? Currently, we have postponed this application of this company temporarily already. In order to deal with this issue better, please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.
Best Regards
Meryl Yue
Auditing Director
_________________________
Hong Kong Head Office:
Tel: ++852-95660489
Fax: ++852-95660302
Email:Meryl@scdomain.org
Web: http://www.sk-holdings.net
I then wrote to them saying:
Hello,
I have owned EthnicDenim.com since 2005. I am not affiliated with your client, I retain all rights to www.ethnicdenim.com.
Hyder
They replied back with this horseshit -
Dear Hyder,
Please note, the auditing period is coming soon. If you decide to protect these domain names, pls reply us within 3 workdays. We will send the application form to you to fill in. If your company do not register these domain names, we will finish aforesaid company's registration within 5 workdays. Falong Holdings Ltd will become the legal owner of these domain names in the world.
Best Regards
Meryl Yue
So now you know about these sorts of scams and what you can expect.
Also, don't worry because your domains names are COMPLETELY safe. My best advice would be to immediately call your domain registrar and let them know about these sorts of scams, if you ever receive them, and forward them copies of the email.
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Thanks for the heads up – I did receive one of these emails no so long ago. At the time I just went ahead and replied advising them that I was not interested in securing the aforementioned domain and was quiet happy with what I have.
And ofcours they replied with some lame of an excuse urging me to give the matter consideration as a matter of urgency – I wrote back saying “Sorry not interested so go ahead and sell it to your customer” please don’t write back – I never did hear back from them
At the time I wasn’t aware of the ensuing scam so thanks once again for sharing – I hope others will take heed and not fall foul to these cyber thieves.
Yet i received lots of email like this but never care one
Just to let you know these things are still going as of Sept 1, 2009 – the text is hardly altered, but now they have a name and a logo ! See below:
Dear Manager,
We are a professional Internet consultant organization in Asia,which mainly deal with the global companies’domain name registration and internet intellectual property right protection.Currently,we have a pretty important issue needing to confirm with your company.On 2009-9-1,we received an application formally,one person named “Mike Shayan” wanted to apply for the Internet brand “bizvectors” and some domain names through our body.
During our preliminary investigation,we found that these domain names’ keyword is related with your trademark.I wonder whether you consigned “Mike Shayan” to register these domain names through us or not?Or is “Mike Shayan” your business partner or distributor in Asia?Currently,we have postponed this application of this company temporarily.In order to deal with this issue better,please let the principal make a confirmation with me by telephone or email ASAP.
In addition,I must state that we have time limited for one person or one company’s registration.It is just 15 days.If we haven’t receive the respond from your company within the time limited.We will unconditionally authorized the application of ” Mike Shayan”.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Best Regards,
Doris Jan
Registration Commissioner
Mail:doris@worldwidenetwork.asia
Web:www.worldwidenetwork.asia
I received one exactly as described above on 090209.
I received nearly the exact same thing. This is the most convincing scam I’ve seen in a very long time.
Thanks alot for the info. I just got the same mail. All the wordings are the same expect for the name. It felt like a scam so just to confirm mailed a friend who sent me your link, it confirms.
I sent them this back:
Please contact domain_names_scam@I_am_not_stupid.hk for any help with
this inquiry.
And go mug old ladies instead of trying scams on enlightened people.
Same here. I just have some fun with them, even so they are quite annoying
Great Resource! I am adding your blog to my favorites, given my interest in finding domain names. One of the sites that can help find great name suggestions is http://www.squadhelp.com. Most individuals receive 200+ domain name suggestions in 2 days for just $50. It is an online community of people who submit ideas – and the best idea wins the award amount. It sure beats the time and energy I would have spent myself to come up with names. You might want to check them out. Just thought your readers might find it interesting!
This scam that has been going on for years and still continues. I’ve written about this issue on my blog at http://learnthenet.org/2010/05/10/the-domain-game/ and many others have shared similar experiences and emails they’ve received that mirror the ones posted. Amazingly, I’m still receiving emails from these shell companies. Haven’t they ever heard of a search engine?
Genial dispatch and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you on your information.
Wow, Yourwords will be the Hotin the world!!
A number of Chinese Domain Name providers are trying, in bad faith, to encourage European companies to register a number of Asian domain name extensions. These providers typically claim that they have received a registration request from another company who wishes to register domain names that are identical to your company name.
What to do?
Our China IPR SME Helpdesk Experts suggest that in case you receive such an email you have four options:
1) ignore the email
2) reply to the email that you will report this email to CNNIC (the Chinese domain name registry) as ‘slamming’ and an attempt at fraudulent activity
3) forward the email to CNNIC at service@cnnic.cn
4) Register some of those domain names you may have already considered registering, through your local or usual registrar.
For more information and free, confidential business-focused advice on Online IPR or any China-related IPR issues visit our website. http://www.china-iprhelpdesk.eu/hd_publication.php
Or send us an email enquiries@china-iprhelpdesk.eu
Excelentes comentarios. Me encanta tu sitio, sigue así!
Actually good article, it was a plaisure to read it. I despatched it to all my friends. Actually thanks, every thing is absolutely true.