Monday, June 22, 2009

Domain scammers will charge you fees and worse

This is a popular type of scam, which I call "domain scams." I get several of these scams every month, all offering a variation on the same offer. These scammers have not been approached by anyone to register any of your names. They're cold calling, and yes, they want to set up a business relationship. If you respond, they will register your name, and then charge a big fee to sell it back to you. The scammer will also demand a recurring fee to keep your domain safe... and that means handing over your credit-card number. You'll never hear the end of it. Just ignore these scams. Don't respond, don't be fooled. (I changed the domain name used in the this message to MYDOMAIN.)

From: "michelle"
Date: June 22, 2009 8:54:21 PM PDT
Subject: Copyright of MYDOMAIN (To principal) Urgent

Dear Principal,

We get your name and email address from the Internet. It is glad to write to you with keen hope to open a business relationship with you in the future.

We are a professional internet consultant organization in HongKong, On June 22nd, 2009, we received an application formally from Pre-research Holding Ltd. They want to apply for the registration of the domain names and internet brand name "MYDOMAIN" from us.

After our initial examination, we found that the brand name and domain names applied for registration are the same as your company's name and trademark. These days we are dealing with it. We need to know the comment of your company. Because the domain names and Internet brand name may relate to the copyright of brand name on internet. Now we have not finished the registration of them yet, in order to deal with this issue better, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.

Have a nice working day !

Best regards,
Michelle Po

Domain Name Dept.
HongKong Net Center
TEL:00852-3072-3948
FAX:00852-3072-3949
Web:hkitos.com
Email: michelle@hkito.net

12 comments:

  1. Thanks.
    I came to your site here when googling about a similar email I received.
    Martin

    ReplyDelete
  2. I got one as well!

    Dear President,

    Hello! Sorry to trouble you!

    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.
    On the Jan.8, 2010, we received an application formally from Lungfu(HongKong) Investment Corp,who applied for the Internet Keyword"MYDOMAIN"and some domain names relevant to this trademark from our organization.

    According to our procedures and in order to protect your intellectual property rights, we need to send this email to the original company for confirming the actual relationship with this company.If you do not know this company, we doubt that they have other motivation to register these domain names and probably want to do some cybersquatting. 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.

    PS:If you are not in charge of this matter,please transfer this email to appropriate dept.

    Best Regards,

    Jeffery Tsang

    Auditing Department Director
    HongKong Net Center
    Tel: +852-3060 6608
    Fax: +852-3072 3949
    Email: jeffery@us.networks.hk.cn
    Web: www.net-center.org

    ReplyDelete
  3. And today mine was,

    Sent: Mon Jan 11 06:03:50 2010
    Subject: (company name)-Related Copyright Investigation (To-President)
    Dear President,

    Hello! Sorry to trouble you!

    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.
    On the Jan11, 2010, we received an application formally from Dci-High Investment Corp,who applied for the
    Internet Keyword "Ciginsurance "
    and some domain names relevant to this trademark from our organization.

    According to our procedures and in order to protect your intellectual property rights, we need to send this email to the original company for confirming the actual relationship with this company.If you do not know this company, we doubt that they have other motivation to register these domain names and probably want to do some cybersquatting. 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.

    PS:If you are not in charge of this matter,please transfer this email to appropriate dept.

    Have a nice day!

    Best Regards,

    Batista Chan
    Hong Kong Net Center
    T: 00852-30606608
    F: 00852-30723949
    E: batista.c@mail.net-center.org
    Website: www.net-center.org

    ReplyDelete
  4. One of my members just received such a letter.
    -------------------------
    Dear President,

    Hello! Sorry to trouble you!

    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.
    On the Jan.6, 2010, we received an application formally from Freemind Holding Ltd,who applied for the
    Internet brand"speautomotive "
    and some domain names relevant to this trademark from our organization.

    According to our procedures and in order to protect your intellectual property rights, we need to send this email to the original company for confirming the actual relationship with this company.If you do not know this company, we doubt that they have other motivation to register these domain names and probably want to do some cybersquatting. 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.

    PS:If you are not in charge of this matter,please transfer this email to appropriate dept.

    Have a nice day!

    Best Regards,

    Andy Fang

    Hong Kong Net Center
    T: 00852-30606608
    F: 00852-30723949
    Website: www.net-center.org

    ReplyDelete
  5. This is a well known scam that I haven't seen in a while. Guess they picked it back up. People must fall for it still then.

    Buyer Beware!

    Always go to your trusted parties for these kind of services or check with them if you get these kind of notices.

    The initial costs might seem steep, but moving away afterwards will often be many times more expensive still. If, and that is a big if, you can move away later the beging with. Often you will not be the real owner or the lock won't be released without a lump sum payment.

    Better be safe then very very very sorry

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad you've got this blogspot. Great information. We got a bunch of these today. I figured it was a scam, but was glad to be able to confirm it via your website. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Here is what i got

    Dear President,

    Hello! Sorry to trouble you!

    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.
    On the April.5, 2010, we received an application formally from Laredo
    Investment Corp,who applied for the Internet Keyword"Bestindianfilms"
    and some domain names relevant to this trademark from our organization.

    According to our procedures and in order to protect your intellectual
    property rights, we need to send this email to the original company for
    confirming the actual relationship with this company.If you do not know
    this company, we doubt that they have other motivation to register these
    domain names and probably want to do some cybersquatting. 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.

    PS:If you are not in charge of this matter,please transfer this email to
    appropriate dept.

    Have a nice day!

    Best Regards,

    Alena Lee

    Auditing Department Director
    HongKong Net Center
    Tel: +852-3071 7789
    Fax: +852-3071 7607
    Email: alena.l@hkncl.net
    Web: www.net-center.org

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hep,

    Yep, we got i too - All like the above but from Amy Chu.

    SCAM!!!

    Thanks for the warning :-)

    - Mikkel - Denmark

    ReplyDelete
  9. WE GOT IT TOOO.....
    JUST DELETED IT ;)
    THANKS ALL..



    -------- Original Message --------
    Subject: Urgent notice: with/without Authorization Dispute Domain xxxxxxxxxxxx
    Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 11:30:03 +0800
    From: Justin Zha


    (Letter to the President or Brand Owner, thanks)

    Dear Sir or Madam,

    We are the department of Asian Domain Registration Service in China. Here I have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on June 14, 2013 that a company claimed "SKY & NN Co., LTD" were applying to register xxxxxxxxxxxx as their Brand Name and some domain names through our firm.

    Now we are handling this registration and after our initial checking, we found the names are similar to your company's, so we need to check with you whether your company has authorized that company to register these names. If you authorized this, we would finish the registration at once. But if you did not authorize, please let us know within 7 workdays, so that we could handle this issue better. After the deadline, we will unconditionally finish the registration for "SKY & NN Co., LTD". I am looking forward to your prompt reply.

    Best Regards,
    Justin Zha
    Tel:+86-551-64651651 | Fax:+86-551-64651654
    No.71 JinZhai Road, Hefei, Anhui, China

    ReplyDelete
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