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Tuesday
May152012

Chinese domain offers - beware!

Year of the Dog?

I’d hoped that this scam had been nailed once and for all but it’s back again in 2012. I last saw it five years ago when I advised a legal firm about this domain name con-trick. Their client had been approached by a Chinese company purporting to be suppliers of domain names.

The way it works is that a Chinese outfit contacts a UK company with a distinctive name, and tries to flog them a raft of Asian domain names. Their covering story is that someone else [a phony company] recently tried to register [the following domain names] but as you appear to be the genuine holder of intellectual property rights, you’re being contacted first for permission [in reality, to see if we can bounce you into buying them].

This also used to happen in the UK in the early years of the web. Domain name scammers based in Britain would flog a domain for an absolute fortune, and people fell for it.

Typically, the domains being offered have Chinese, Hong Kong, Indian or Taiwanese TLDs (top-level domains – eg  .in or .cn  for India and China respectively). For pretty much every business I can think of, owning a domain with these TLDs will be of no value whatsoever. It’s unsettling stuff for someone who doesn’t know the score though and the temptation is to cover yourself and buy them just to be sure.

One contact forwarded an email that he’d received recently from “NaSnet Company” in China.

(It's very urgent, Please transfer this email to your CEO or appropriate person, Thanks) 
                
Dear CEO/Principal,
 
This is Deray Qian---Senior Consultant of domain name registration and solution center in China. have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on May 9, 2012, one company which self-styled "Diocesis & Holdings Co.,Ltd" were applying to register "s******r" as Network Brand and following domain names:                
s******r.asia
s******r.cn
s******r.co.in
s******r.com.cn
s******r.com.hk
s******r.com.tw
s******r.hk
s******r.in
s******r.net.cn
s******r.org.cn
s******r.tw
After our initial checking, we found that the brand name applied for registration are as same as  your company's name and brand, so we need to check with you whether your company has authorized that company to register these names. If you authorized this, we will finish the registration at once. If your company has no relationships with that company nor do not authorized,please reply to us within 7 workdays,if we can't get any information from yours over 7 workdays, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by "Diocesis & Holdings Co.,Ltd" .
Thanks for your cooperation.    
          
Best Regards,

Senior Consultant Manager

Does this pass the sniff test? I looked at their Chinese site http://www.nscns.org.cn/ [now defunct] to see what gives. Much of the text is images (try the Hosting Plans pages), text is badly written and the Add to Cart buttons don’t work. Note the credibility-enhancing logos: what have Mercedes, Omron, Panasonic, Canon or Sharp got to do with it? The last Tech Support announcement is dated July 2009 and their Search box results always lead to a Contact Us page. Much information is missing, but overall it gives a passing impression that it’s an authentic site to do with hosting, email plans, DIY websites.

However, most of the content doesn’t ‘work’, they try to rush you into deciding and finally, I found no information on “Diocesis & Holdings Co., Ltd.” anyway. I noticed one or two product similarities with the (authentic) web hosting firm Dotster whose name is also found in the 'Announcement' in their 'Support KB'.

Emails on the same lines have also been received from an outfit calling themselves "Shanghai  SPS Network Technology Co., Ltd" who were allegedly instructed to register a client's trade mark in domain names ending in "cn; hk; mobi; net.cn; org.cn and tw".

Needless to say, on checking a WHOIS database a month later, the proposed domains remained unregistered.

As always, you have to be vigilant out there and my advice is to trust your instincts when confronted by fishy-looking emails like these.

(I updated this on 22nd May.)

 

Reader Comments (103)

We have also got the same email from Richard Wang wanting our company name in Perth.
Unfortunately we replyied to him saying no way before we found this site..but he keeps on replying...what do we do..do we just ignore..he reckons our name does not belong to us in all of Asia and that he can go ahead and proceed without our consent.

October 9, 2013 at 2:11 | Unregistered CommenterPerth

I had a similar encounter with the same guy, "Richard Wang" on behalf of Godom Trading China.

Dear President,

We are the department of Asian Domain Registration Service in China. I have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on September 24, 2013 that a company which self-styled "Godom Trading Ltd". were applying to register some "hongkong-chefs" Asian countries top-level domain names.

Now we are handling this registration, and after our initial checking, we found the name were 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 will finish the registration at once. If you did not authorize, please let us know within 7 workdays, so that we will handle this issue better.

Best Regards,

Richard Wang

Senior Manager
Tel: +0086-28-81453978|| Fax: +0086-28-85915586
9/F,No.4 Guanghua building,JiangDong Road,Chenghua District,Chengdu City,China


Dear XXXX,

Thanks for your confirmation. As soon as receiving the application of Godom Trading Ltd, we checked and found "hongkong-chefs" is your company's using name and brand,this is why we informed you. Following Net Brand and domain names are applied for by Godom Trading Ltd:
Net Brand:
hongkong-chefs
Domain Names:
hongkong-chefs.asia
hongkong-chefs.cn
hongkong-chefs.com.cn
hongkong-chefs.com.tw
hongkong-chefs.hk
hongkong-chefs.in
hongkong-chefs.net.cn
hongkong-chefs.org.cn
hongkong-chefs.tw

You have to know that the domain names registration is open in the world, Godom Trading Ltd also has the right to apply for the available domain names, you only have the preferential rights to register them.
At present, we haven't passed their application, we need your opinion. If your company consider these names of importance to your company's business or interest, I suggest that your company register these names first so as to avoid confusion or speculation. Of course, each company has their own idea. If you don't think their application will affect your company in the future, or you have no marketplace in Asia and you don't intend to develop business in Asia, then my suggestion is your company give up these names so that we can finish registering for them as per our duty. Please give me your company's decision as soon as possible in order to handle this issue better.

Best Regards,

Richard Wang
Tel: +0086-28-81453978|| Fax: +0086-28-85915586

Regarding the Domain name dispute and registration case,we did not receive any of your reply until now. Concerning the mentioned Domains and Net Brand please confirm whether you need to register those names by yourselves? If need, please let us know in time, we can send an application form to you. If you think the registration of "Godom Trading Ltd" or the use of following domain names will not bring any negative effect to your company, I suggest you can give up these domain names, then we will accept "Godom Trading Ltd" application unconditionally. Further questions please contact me in time.

Best Regards,

Richard Wang
Tel: +0086-28-81453978|| Fax: +0086-28-85915586

We had discussed the case about disputing your company's domain names and Net Brand. You have never registered these domain names and Net Brand, and I had told you that the domain name registration is open. The dispute period will come soon. If your company does not register these domain names and Net Brand, we will finish aforesaid company's registration within 2 workdays. Godom Trading Ltd will become the legal owner of these domain names in the world.
We had notified you, so we are not responsible for any dispute question about your intellectual property right and trademark after they succeed in registration. If you have any questions, pls contact us within 2 workdays.

Best Regards,

Richard Wang
Tel: +0086-28-81453978|| Fax: +0086-28-85915586

October 9, 2013 at 4:15 | Unregistered CommenterFrancis

@ Perth domains are sold largely on a first-come first served basis. Your situation is typical of many, you are being worried into buying Asian domains that would be of no other value to you. There's no need to reply further to them. In general, the only reason you'd buy such names is for strategic reasons, i.e. to stop anyone else having them, but in any case ask yourself what would it matter if Indian, Chinese and Taiwanese variants of your name were bought by someone else?

In my experience the so-called 'disputed' domains were left un-registered afterwards anyway. Personally I would simply disregard it and not allow them to worry you.

Have a look at someone like Namecheap.com if you want to register your own domains.

AW

October 9, 2013 at 13:47 | Unregistered CommenterAlanW

I got this kind of email. Please be careful with this kind of scam. Here the mail I received.

(This is a very important case, so please transfer this email to your CEO or appropriate person. Thanks a lot.)

Dear CEO/Principal,

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 January 2,2014 that a company claimed "Engther Investment Co" were applying to register "aman=======" as their Net Brand and some "aman=======" Asian countries top-level domain names through our firm.

Now we are handling this registration, and after our initial checking, we found the name were 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. 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 "Engther Investment Co" Looking forward to your prompt reply.

Best Regards,

Scott Ma
Senior Consultant Manager

January 6, 2014 at 4:24 | Unregistered CommenterFachim

I almost fell for it, but when I received this e-mail this morning, I knew that there was something fishy about it:

Dear Sirs,

Our company based in chinese office, our company has submitted the " solydxk " as CN(.cn/.com.cn/.net.cn/.org.cn) domain name and Internet Keyword, we are waiting for Mr. Jim's approval. We think this name is very important for our products in Chinese market. Even though Mr. Jim advises us to change another name, we will persist in this name.


Best regards

Jiang zhifa

I really feel sorry for Mr. Jim

January 11, 2014 at 11:59 | Unregistered CommenterSchoelje

I just got the same scam......

Dear Manager,

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)

This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China.
We received an application from Huayuan Ltd on March 10, 2014. They want to register " p+++++ " as their Internet Keyword and " p+++++ .cn "、" p+++++.com.cn " 、" p+++++.net.cn "、" p+++++.org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find "p++++++" conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?

Best Regards,


Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.yg-registry.org

March 10, 2014 at 13:37 | Unregistered CommenterWM

They are doing it again, this is the second email sent to me high priority..

Notice: Regarding the Domain name dispute and registration case, we did not receive any of your reply until now. Concerning the mentioned Domains names and Network Brand please confirm whether you need to register those names by yourselves? If need, please let us know in time, we can send an application form to you. If you think the registration of that company or the use of following domain names will not bring any negative effect to your company, I suggest you can give up these domain names, then we will accept that company application unconditionally. Further questions please contact me in time.

Best Regards,

Ade Li
Senior Consultant Manager

March 12, 2014 at 16:31 | Unregistered CommenterMike

This one looks familiar.

From: "Jim Gong" <jim.gong@cnygregistry.org>
Date: March 1, 2014 at 4:41:59 AM CST
To: <daxxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com>
Subject: "---------------"

Dear Manager,
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)
This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China.
We received an application from Huayuan Ltd on February 26, 2014. They want to register " cu***********s " as their Internet Keyword and " cu***********s .cn "、" cu***********s .com.cn " 、" cu***********s .net.cn "、" cu***********s .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " cu***********s " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?
Best Regards,
Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.cnygregistry.org

March 20, 2014 at 14:49 | Unregistered CommenterDave

Folks -

I received this on March 22, 2014. Sound familiar?

Best,
W. G. Zane

----- Original Message -----
From: Jim Wang
To: fuelwood@powerphyll.com
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2014 5:36 AM
Subject: "powerphyll"


Dear Manager,

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)

This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China.
We received an application from Huayuan Ltd on March 17, 2014. They want to register " powerphyll " as their Internet Keyword and " powerphyll .cn "、" powerphyll .com.cn " 、" powerphyll .net.cn "、" powerphyll .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " powerphyll " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?


Best Regards,

Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.cnygregistry.org

March 24, 2014 at 0:07 | Unregistered CommenterW. G. Zane

Got this from NAAS-IT company


"Dear Sir or Madam,

This is a formal email. 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 March 27, 2014 that a company claimed Flyour Investment Co were applying to register "themainebrewbus" as their Brand Name and some "themainebrewbus" Asian countries top-level domain names through our firm.

Now we are handling this registration, and after our initial checking, we found the name were 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. 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 Flyour Investment Co. Looking Forward to your prompt reply.

Best Regards,

Cherry Zhang

Senior Consultant Manager"

March 27, 2014 at 12:05 | Unregistered CommenterZach

This was received from the infamous Jim...

From: Jim Wang [mailto:jim.wang@ygregistry.com]
Sent: 02 April 2014 03:07
To: info@*************.co.uk
Subject: "***********"

Dear Manager,
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)
This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China.
We received an application from Huayuan Ltd on March 31, 2014. They want to register " ********** " as their Internet Keyword and " *********** .cn "、" ************** .com.cn " 、" ************* .net.cn "、" *********** .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " ********** " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?

Best Regards,

Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.ygregistry.com

April 2, 2014 at 9:08 | Unregistered CommenterKate

Thanks for the post and the info. I got the following mail today and was close to answer but checked the "Huayuan Ltd" and found your site. Saved me some work and time. Thanks! (email address supplied)
Dear Manager,
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)
This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China.
We received an application from Huayuan Ltd on March 31, 2014. They want to register " silvahealing " as their Internet Keyword and " silvahealing .cn "、" silvahealing .com.cn " 、" silvahealing .net.cn "、" silvahealing .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " silvahealing " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?
Best Regards,
Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.ygregistryltd.cn

April 5, 2014 at 20:02 | Unregistered CommenterHans Bodingbauer

I have a client who received the exact email as Kate show's in her post. This alert has provided valuable information and I am grateful for that. I've told my client not to respond at all. Is that the best way to handle this? THANK YOU (email address supplied)

April 6, 2014 at 18:44 | Unregistered CommenterSusan

Susan, thanks for your post. Yes, your client should totally ignore the Chinese email. It is entirely bogus and they are just trying it on. Follow-up emails (if any) should also be ignored. Your client could buy their own domain(s) themselves if they were that worried, e.g. namecheap.com is reputable but has tortuous comms. at times. Even GoDaddy.com would be OK.

I have now christened him 'The Infamous Jim' after Kate's post above :-)

Stay vigilant everybody!

AW

April 6, 2014 at 21:40 | Registered CommenterAlan W

Got a similar e-mail today. Googled Huayuan Ltd. and landed here. Was not going to bite on their scam offer...but nice to know someone is keeping an eye out for these internet con-artists.
Thanks for your help. (Email address supplied.)

April 7, 2014 at 18:52 | Unregistered CommenterJay Ritchie

And again... Today! Ah well... I guess us people are bright enough to smell a rat and check it out!

Nial (UK .com website with US hosting - Bluehost) (Email address supplied.)

April 10, 2014 at 23:33 | Unregistered CommenterNial

They tried to pull this on my owner. It smelled funny so I googled it and found this article. I posted on Facebook and will be telling my owner to do the same on Linked In. Pass the word. Those sneaky Chinese Criminals. (Email address supplied.)

April 11, 2014 at 16:37 | Unregistered CommenterTed

Even I got the same email related to Huayuan Ltd .From Jim for domain registration amtellms. If its a scam The government should take serious action against the culprits. (Email address supplied.)

April 12, 2014 at 12:28 | Unregistered Commenterseema khan

So, they tries this on me in 2013 and I said that I was not interested. They had three attempts at me before they gave up!
They have come back with an identical email again,(14/04/14) text as all the other recipients.
Caveat emptor

April 14, 2014 at 8:55 | Unregistered CommenterJohn Head

Dear Manager,
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)
This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China.
We received an application from Huayuan Ltd on April 14, 2014. They want to register " abcdxyz " as their Internet Keyword and " abcdxyz .cn "、" abcdxyz .com.cn " 、" abcdxyz .net.cn "、" abcdxyz .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find "abcdxyz " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?
Best Regards,
Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697

Web: ygregistry.cn

April 15, 2014 at 7:42 | Unregistered CommenterMDS

Got an almost identical email today. Thought it a bit odd, so googled and found you, THANK YOU! I now know to ignore it. Thanks again!!

April 17, 2014 at 8:35 | Unregistered CommenterLucy

We got one too, from "Jim" at ygregistry.cn. Thanks for the alert!

Dear Manager,

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)

This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China.
We received an application from Huayuan Ltd on April 14, 2014. They want to register " stellar-micro " as their Internet Keyword and " stellar-micro .cn "、" stellar-micro .com.cn " 、" stellar-micro .net.cn "、" stellar-micro .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find "stellar-micro " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?

Best Regards,

Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: ygregistry.cn

April 18, 2014 at 0:22 | Unregistered CommenterMark

They are back, just received the same e-mail. Many thanks for the heads-up on this scam.

April 18, 2014 at 13:54 | Unregistered CommenterMadeline Daryadel

It's still going on. We received this today:

(This is a very important case, so please transfer this email to your CEO or appropriate person. Thanks a lot.)

Dear CEO/Principal,
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 April 18, 2014 that a company claimed "Plrenting Company" were applying to register "rejuvenationspt" as their Net Brand and some "rejuvenationspt" Asian countries top-level domain names through our firm.
Now we are handling this registration, and after our initial checking, we found the name were 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. 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 "Plrenting Company" Looking forward to your prompt reply.
Best Regards,
Lena Zhang
Senior Consultant Manager

April 18, 2014 at 21:03 | Unregistered CommenterCandie

Jim has struck again.

Dear Manager,

(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO,Thanks)

This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China.
We received an application from Huayuan Ltd on April 7, 2014. They want to register " animalfarmworld " as their Internet Keyword and " animalfarmworld .cn "、" animalfarmworld .com.cn " 、" animalfarmworld .net.cn "、" animalfarmworld .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find "animalfarmworld " conflicts with your company. In order to deal with this matter better, so we send you email and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China or not?

Best Regards,


Jim
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
3002, Nanhai Building, No. 854 Nandan Road,
Xuhui District, Shanghai 200070, China
Tel: +86 216191 8696
Mobile: +86 1870199 4951
Fax: +86 216191 8697
Web: www.yg-registry.cn


I responded stating I have no dealings with their "client". I then received an email from said "client".

Dear Sirs,

Our company based in chinese office, our company has submitted the "animalfarmworld " as CN(.cn/.com.cn/.net.cn/.org.cn) domain name and Internet Keyword, we are waiting for Mr. Jim's approval. We think this name is very important for our products in Chinese market. Even though Mr. Jim advises us to change another name, we will persist in this name.


Best regards

Jiang zhihai


I was then hit up by Jim to purchase the cn domains. I have just now responded stating prior to proceeding that I am open to negotiations with their client in selling my domain to them. The response will be interesting.

Thanks for revealing these scoundrels.

Chris (email address supplied)

April 23, 2014 at 4:15 | Unregistered CommenterChris Rushworth

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