There is an email scam going around that is targeting businesses and domain name registration. Businesses are receiving emails from a website domain name registration company in China, warning them that they have received an application from a Chinese company that is trying to register domain names similar to theirs.
They pretend to be contacting the business to help prevent this, but in reality, they are trying to sell domain names similar to the company’s domain name at highly inflated prices. A couple of our customers have already received some of these emails and have been concerned.
Here are examples of the messages:
| Subject: Someone intended to use your domain names
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward to the right person/ department, as this is urgent, thank you.) Dear CEO, We are the department of registration service in China. we have something need to confirm with you. We formally received an application on April 5, 2011, One company which is called “Lajie Trading Co. Ltd” is applying to register [your-website-name] as brand name and domain names as below : |
| Subject: For your business names
Dear CEO, We are a leading internet solutions organization in China, and we have something urgent to confirm with you. We formally received an application on May,25,2012. One company called “SW Management Pty Ltd.” trying to apply for “hoax-slayer” as Brand Name and following Domain Names through our organization: After our initial examination, we found that the Net Brand and Domain Names above are similar to yours. These days we have been dealing with it. Now we hope to get your affirmation. If your company did not authorize the aforesaid company to register these, please contact us as soon as possible. In addition, we hereby declare that time limit for this issue is 7 workdays. If your company don’t respond within the time limit, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by SW Management Pty Ltd. Best Regards! |
| Subject: Notice of Intellectual Property-Trademark Name
Dear Manager: We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in Anhui, China. On March,17th,2011, We received HUNDI Company’s application that they are registering the name [your-website-name] as their Internet Trademark and “[your-website-name] .cn”,”[your-website-name] .com.cn” ,”[your-website-name] .asia” domain names etc., It is China and ASIA domain names. But after auditing we found the brand name been used by your company. As the domain name registrar in China, it is our duty to notice you, so I am sending you this Email to check. According to the principle in China, your company is the owner of the trademark, In our auditing time we can keep the domain names safe for you firstly, but our audit period is limited, if you object the third-party application these domain names and need to protect the brand in china and Asia by yourself, please let the responsible officer contact us as soon as possible. Thank you! Kind regards Anhui Office (Head Office) |
