I get a lot of spammy emails from people who are trying to sell me things I don’t need. One particular email I get often is from companies who claim that someone is trying to register domain names in Asian ccTLDs that could infringe upon my “trademark” since the registrations are for a domain name I own in .com.
Today’s email is funny because there’s a bit of a twist. This company claims it wants to help me prevent someone from registering similar domain names to a .com I own, specifically because they suspect the person who is supposedly trying to register these domain name is… gasp… a domain investor.
If this was legit, I would probably be happy if someone bought and built a website in an alternate TLD to my .COM.
Dear Sir/ Madam
I’m sorry to disturb you so abrupt. We are a domain name registration service company in Asia,
On 15th September. we received a formal application submitted by Mr. John Zhang who wanted to use the keyword “independencemortgages” to register the Internet Brand and with suffix such as .cn /.com.cn /.net.cn /.hk /.asia / domain names.
After our initial examination, we found that these domain names to be applied for registration are same as your domain name and trademark. We aren’t sure whether you have any relation with him. Because these domain names would produce possible dispute, now we have hold down his registration, but if we do not get your company’s an reply in the next 5 working days, we will approve his applicationAs authorized anti-cybersquatting organization we hereby suspect Mr. John Zhang is a domain investor. so we need you to attach importance to this issue.
In order to handle this issue better, Please contact us by Fax ,Telephone or Email as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely 　　　　　 　　　2010-9-16
Rachel
Oversea Marketing Manager
——————————————-
Room 1008,
International Building,
No.38 YueLong road,NanTong City
Tel:+86(513)85330968
Fax:+86(513)68099585
Email:Rachel@ntchinanet.com
Website: www.ntchinanet.com
You don’t trust “Rachel” from No.38 YueLong road,NanTong City?
can’t stand things like this…
I get these all the time and rush over to register them. NOT
I’m glad to see you post about this, everyone should do the same on blogs and forums. This particular type of scam coming out of China or India has been going on for at least a year or two. While most of us would know better even without a warning, there are many business people that may take it seriously.
You know, with all the big players in domaining, I don’t understand why there is not a high-profile organization working to educate the public on issues like this? I dislike Godaddy in general, but they have raised awareness about domain names to the general public more than anyone else.
@ Chris
This is a non-revenue generating expense that would probably not be approved by any large companies.
Maybe it needs to be done by small companies then…?
And why does it have to be non-revenue generating?
I see these many time.
Spam!
I recently received spam email as well, which said someone wanted to buy a few of my domains… I googled the company and everyone reported the email as spam..
I posted about this on Namepros.com (http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/678103-asian-domain-name-scam-reappearing.html) to warn others. I have included a copy of their “application form” and posted the prices they charge to register doamains which are excessive!