The scammers send an email titled Brand name dispute or similar, claiming someone is trying to buy domains that are associated with your business, and offering them to you instead

I originally reported this domain scam back in August 2008

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1. Buying the rights to a domain Having both the dot com (.com) and the dot com...

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Sound familiar? You may have read this here in Sept 09

Do I need this domain?
It is really superfluous to my needs. I already have a domain and if someone (a competitor?) decided they would try to steal some potential clients by creating an online facsimilie of my site. If they did I could take the matter up with AuDA

The price
At just $245 many businesses I’m sure would think this is a reasonable offer, however $60 is about the going ‘street price’ for .au domains so its not really a bargain at all…

Note sure if your domain renewal is legit ?
The ACCC has information on domain name scams and as always Google is a great information source

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So far these have stemmed from outside Australia, but I was very disappointed indeed to see an Australian business running what appears to be domain scam recently.

My client received an official looking letter that offers to register a domain similar to their website domain. The renewal fee of $ 245 inc GST even offers a free iPod Shuffle.

This sounds like a great deal! But is it?

They don’t need it
The domain is superfluous to my client’s business needs so there is no point in them buying it at all.

Wow! Check the price!
You can self-register an Australian domain at around $ 60 for 2 year registration
Even the premium domain registrars only charge $140 per two years
You can currently buy a iPod Shuffle 1 Gig in Australia for $65

Not such a bargain after all is it ?

So if you receive a domain offer you check it carefully

Assuming an Australia domain is involved (ie .com.au etc) check the Australian Domain name Administrator to confirm if this business is indeed an accredited registrar www.auda.org.au/registrars/accredited-registrars/

The Code of Practice explicitly forbids solicitations for business so you wont receive these types of offers from a legitimate, certified domain registrar.

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See email 1 below (Client information removed for privacy)

On face value this appears to be a valuable service, and the administrator’s initial response was of interest, and they referred it to me for a second opinion.

As this client was actively involved in business in Asia they rightly felt this may be an important piece of information for their Asian online presence.

On reading the email I was suspicious (aren’t you ?!) but the website appears as a legitimate Asian domain registrar, and they are not asking for money – not at that stage anyway.

After further discussions the client decided there was no need to acquire the Asian domains and that was that… or so I thought

More recently I’ve received a similar email (see email 2 below) from another client, again allegedly from an Asian domain registrar providing helpful information about a potential domain conflict.

You could image that the disputed domain purchase would then escalate into an auction, facilitated by the helpful registrar and the client would ultimately purchase an unneeded Asian domain, and after paying far more than the standard domain fee.

Am I being paranoid in thinking this is a scam ? I don’t think so!

What do you think ?

Kim Yang or  Tom Xiang are more than welcome to comment also

Cheers
Pete

Subject: Urgent- Dispute of Asia/ China Domains with your entity

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward to the right person/department. Thank you)

Dear CEO,

We , a registration organization in China, have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on today. One company called “Spond Investment Corporation” is applying for “<client’s domain> as internet brand and following Asian/.CN domain names to use.

<client’s domain>.asia
<client’s domain>.com.tw
<client’s domain>.hk

<client’s domain>.net.cn
<client’s domain>.org.cn
<client’s domain>.tw

After our initial checking, we found the internet brand and these domain names being applied are as same as your company’s, so we need to get the confirmation from your company. If the aforesaid company is your business partner or your subsidiary company, please DO NOT reply us, we will approve the application automatically. If you have no any relationship with this company, please contact us within 7 workdays. If out of the deadline, we will approve the application  submitted by “Spond Investment Corporation” unconditionally.

Best Regards,

Tom Xiang

Senior Director

Tel:  +0086-21-2973-1795

Fax: +0086-21-5271-5978

http://www.meep-china.cn/

2008-07-17

Email 2 (client identifying information removed)

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are Beijing Anwins Network Service Co., Ltd which is the domain name register center in China. We received a formal application from a company who is applying to register “<client’s company name>” as their domain name and Internet keyword on July 29, 2008.Since after our investigation we found that this word has been in use by your company, and this may involve your company name or trade mark, so we inform you in no time. If you consider these domain names and internet keyword are important to you and it is necessary to protect them by registering them first, contact us soon. Thanks for your co-operation and support.

Kind Regards,

Kim Yang

Tel:+86-10-62961631（ext.8013）

Fax:+86-10-62968871

Email: kim.yang@beijing-anwins.cn

Kim.yang@beijing-anwins.com.cn

Beijing Anwins Network Service Co.,Ltd

Website: www.anwins.com

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