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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)

WOW - thank you so much for posting this information and for all the people who have contributed as well - I too was hit with the bogus email today (copied in below)..... I nearly responded because I thought when I copied the web address into my browser (I didn't click on it as a link) that it looked like such a professional website and that it was a great service they were providing - I was just about to reply when I thought that maybe I should just check what type of business Huayuan Ltd was in case it was in conflict with my business and that is when I came across this post and the responses - I was very nearly suckered into that one. A BIG THANK YOU Alan Winstanley and contributors. (Email address supplied - you're welcome :o)

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 21, 2014. They want to register " va2u " as their Internet Keyword and " va2u .cn "、" va2u .com.cn " 、" va2u .net.cn "、" va2u .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find "va2u " 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.com

April 24, 2014 at 11:44 | Unregistered CommenterKym Hanna

I received the same message. I almost got suckered until I saw this site when I researched the name of the Chinese co. I told them to go find another dope: (Email address supplied)

From: Jim Bing [mailto:jim.bing@ygregistry.org.cn]
Sent: Friday, April 25, 2014 8:53 AM
To: info@mygen-global.com
Subject: "mygen-global"

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 21, 2014. They want to register " mygen-global " as their Internet Keyword and " mygen-global .cn "、" mygen-global .com.cn " 、" mygen-global .net.cn "、" mygen-global .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " mygen-global " 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.org.cn

April 25, 2014 at 14:28 | Unregistered CommenterJW Pesante

Thx a lot, I have a german domain and they scammed me today with the following. Great that people share knowlege here! Really helpful !!!

Dear CEO/Principal,

This is Nicholas Lee---Senior Consultant of domain name registration and solution center in China. Here I have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on April 25, 2014. that a company claimed "RANTRANCE LTD" were applying to register "..." as their Network Brand and some "..." Asian countries top-level domain names(in/hk/tw/etc) and China (CN) 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 "RANTRANCE LTD". Looking forward to your prompt reply.

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

Best Regards,

Nicholas Lee

Senior Consultant Manager

April 25, 2014 at 16:29 | Unregistered CommenterTom

Just received an Email like this. It still happens...

April 28, 2014 at 14:54 | Unregistered CommenterWoodoo

I received an identical email a few days ago regarding "Huayuan Ltd" applying to use my Australian business name for their Chinese domain names, got irate and somewhat concerned and replied, and then was told that I as original holder of that site name would have first preference to purchase those urls and Keyword but that I only had 3 days in which to act or "Huanyuan Ltd" could buy them. The prices asked were very high too, also the minimum period allowed to purchase was 10 years. In the meantime I had received an email from "Huanyuan Ltd" telling me that they were going ahead with these domain purchases as it was "very important for their products in Chinese Market".

So I finally went searching and found this article. THANKS for this, you have definitely given me peace of mind that my suspicions were correct. (Email address supplied.)

April 30, 2014 at 10:48 | Unregistered CommenterMaureen

I too have received similar kind of mails from JIM...world should boycott this guy. Why Chinese Govt is not stopping this kind of actions which will take away their reputation.

God bless this Guy JIM

Thanks you all guys for sharing me information.

May 5, 2014 at 9:33 | Unregistered CommenterBalaji

I just got one from Huayuan Ltd 28/4/14.
Thanks for the info. : )

May 6, 2014 at 3:52 | Unregistered CommenterL Moss

Thank you for posting this - I've also received it - 30.4.14


(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 29th, 2014 that a company claimed "CarkyProt Company" were applying to register "safety-locks" as their Net Brand and some "safety-locks" 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 "CarkyProt Company" Looking forward to your prompt reply.

Best Regards,

Neil Dong

Senior Consultant Manager

May 7, 2014 at 8:52 | Unregistered CommenterAlan Stanley

From : Jim Zhang <jim.zhang@yg-registry.com>
To : <---------@--------->
Subject : "********"
Date : Tue, 06 May 2014 16:34:26 +0530

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 May 5, 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.yg-registry.com

May 8, 2014 at 14:50 | Unregistered CommenterRameesh T

Ha! Just got this (May 9th 2014)!
I do actually have a business in China so I was a bit alarmed. Before I realised/had it confirmed by this website that it was a scam, I phoned "Jim" and called him out on it.
He had nothing to say. Very poor English and no rehearsed answers. (Email address supplied.)

May 9, 2014 at 8:15 | Unregistered CommenterBec

Thanks for all your informations.
Today I received just the same "warning" message from Mr. Jim Wang:

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 May 5, 2014. They want to register " termo-kamera " as their Internet Keyword and " termo-kamera .cn "、" termo-kamera .com.cn " 、" termo-kamera .net.cn "、" termo-kamera .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " termo-kamera " 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

May 10, 2014 at 6:44 | Unregistered CommenterMiki

have just been receiving emails from Jim same as all these others and have also received an email from the susposed company. decided to look into this further and what do find but this infomation here, a scam just as i thougth thanks for confirming and everyone beware. this is in New zealand

May 14, 2014 at 9:11 | Unregistered CommenterBryan

I´ve also the same mailmessage, above.

--
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 May 12, 2014. They want to register " b----n " as their Internet Keyword and " b----n.cn "、" b----n.com.cn " 、" b----n.net.cn "、" b----n.org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " b----n" 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.org.cn
---

Can I ignore this mailmessage from this person? I recieve this afternoon this mail. When I search it on google, your website pop-up. I´m glad with this warning-message about ¨Huayuan Ltd¨ and about ¨www.ygregistry.org.cn¨-e-mailmessage from Jim out of China on your website - so I can´t be worried about the e-mailmessage. It´s a scam mail.

Many thanks!!

Best regards,
Bas

May 16, 2014 at 13:27 | Unregistered CommenterBas

got one today....

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 May 12, 2014. They want to register " k------i " as their Internet Keyword and " k------i.cn "、" k------i.com.cn " 、" k------i.net.cn "、" k------i.org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find "k------i" 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

May 17, 2014 at 14:46 | Unregistered CommenterKat

I just received this scam email from Jim & Co,

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 May 12, 2014. They want to register " at********** " as their Internet Keyword and " at**********.cn "、" at**********.com.cn " 、" at**********.net.cn "、" at**********.org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find "at**********" 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

May 20, 2014 at 10:06 | Unregistered CommenterSammy

2014 may 21st they are still at it.
Thanks for confirming my suspicion
Regards,
Gijs Buis

May 21, 2014 at 8:16 | Unregistered CommenterGijs Buis

This just arrived in my inbox- May 21,2014. Found this article in my Google search thank you!

May 21, 2014 at 20:40 | Unregistered CommenterEdward Domain

Thank you for posting this, i already thought something fishy was going on but i could not get a grip on it. Now i know i just have to follow my instinct and ignore this kind of emails in the future. I was so foolish to reply to this email so i am curious wether i get an offer to buy this domainnames. I already found it odd because our name is typically dutch so what was a Chinese company doing with that name? At least i know now what to answer them: You can stick it where the sun do'nt shine. They do not get a penny out of my pocket.

May 22, 2014 at 14:54 | Unregistered CommenterWilma Stehouwer

May 2014 these chinese are still active. See below the email I received today

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 May 20, 2014. They want to register " assem**********ect " as their Internet Keyword and " assem**********ect .cn "、" assem**********ect .com.cn " 、" assem**********ect .net.cn "、" assem**********ect .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " assem**********ect " 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-registryltd.com

May 23, 2014 at 7:31 | Unregistered Commenterpeter de dreu

Thanks for this website and postings...
I'm having great fun with Jim at the moment... I want the full 30 year, .org., .cn., com.cn., (that doesn't exist) etc, coverage. But 10 years at 158 euro for the Keyword? Any discount?
Plus the application form they sent me did supply me details on how to pay. Anxiously waiting their reply..
Play these guys, it's just like placing unsolicited phone calls on Hold.
"Can I talk to some one that manages your print supplies?"
"Sure, I'll just get him for you!"

10 minutes later I put the phone back on the hook.

Take Control!

June 5, 2014 at 11:57 | Unregistered CommenterYande

Yeah they are still trying!
See below the mail I got:
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 May 20, 2014. They want to register " tech**** " as their Internet Keyword and " tech**** .cn "、" tech**** .com.cn " 、" tech**** .net.cn "、" tech**** .org.cn " domain names etc.., they are in China domain names. But after checking it, we find " tech**** " 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.net

June 10, 2014 at 10:05 | Unregistered Commenterpeter

Thanks so much for the helpful info! I received the following e-mail today:

Dear CEO/Principal,
This is Andy Zhang---Senior Consultant of domain name registration and solution center in China. Here I have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on June 12, 2014. that a company claimed "RANLBACE LTD" were applying to register "bro***** as their Network Brand and some "bro*****" Asian countries top-level domain names(in/hk/tw/etc) and China (CN) 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 "RANLBACE LTD". Looking forward to your prompt reply.
(This is a very important case, so please transfer this email to your CEO or Principal. Thanks a lot.)
Best Regards,
Andy Zhang
Senior Consultant Manager
NS NowDigital Online Co
Tel: +86-553-4228271 Fax: +86-553-4228028
Web: www.nowdigital.org.cn
Adress: No.8-3 New Time Business Street, Wuhu City, China

June 12, 2014 at 15:50 | Unregistered Commentermichaela

I receive the same scam here. Our company is based in The Netherlands. Thanks for posting this scam. I almost believed this scam. Thx ;)

June 16, 2014 at 10:53 | Unregistered CommenterRené

Also posted in the Nederlands


Dear CEO/Principal,
This is Andy Zhang---Senior Consultant of domain name registration and solution center in China. Here I have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on June 16, 2014. that a company claimed "RANLBACE LTD" were applying to register "co******-***-**" as their Network Brand and some "co******-***-**" Asian countries top-level domain names(in/hk/tw/etc) and China (CN) 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 "RANLBACE LTD". Looking forward to your prompt reply.
(This is a very important case, so please transfer this email to your CEO or Principal. Thanks a lot.)
Best Regards,
Andy Zhang
Senior Consultant Manager

June 16, 2014 at 15:55 | Unregistered CommenterTon

Thanks for posting it, my email smelled and you confirmed my gut feel. cheers Tim

June 17, 2014 at 8:36 | Unregistered CommenterTim

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