Domain Name Scam

The email that is pasted below was forwarded by another motel.

I have seen many different variations, however this email seems to follow the usual modus operandi of a well worn scam that plays on ignorance and fear.

These emails seem to mostly be sourced from China and pretend to be act in your favour, but are merely phishing to generate more business.

They contact businesses on the pretense that a foreign company is trying to purchase websites using your domain and trademark names. However , posing as a responsible and caring Domain Name Registration Service, they first contact you the owner of the existing domain and will give you the amazing opportunity to get these website names first and therefore protect your brand.

There should be no trademark dispute over your domain name for your accommodation website. What they don’t disclose is that their goal is to frighten a business person into “protecting” their trademark by purchasing the overpriced .cn and .com.cn Chinese extensions of your domain.

If you own a .nz, .com, .net domain but are not planning to set up a Chinese office or not even doing any business in China you have no reason to spend money on a domain registration with a Chinese registrar. Also, trademarks and domains are largely separate issues. You don’t become a trademark owner merely by registering a domain and vice versa. So don’t fall for it.

It’s a scam, it’s dodgy, unsolicited and any emails such as this shouyld be ignored. Save yourself a headache and don’t respond.

From: mike.yang [mailto:mike.yang@hongkongnet.hk]
Sent: Friday, 13 February 2009 8:43 p.m.
To: info
Subject: Registration Notice

Dear [ name of motel ]

This is Hong Kong Network Service Company Limited which is the domain name register center in Asia... We received a formal application from a company who is applying to register ‘ [ name of motel ] ’ as their domain name and Internet keyword on Feb 12, 2009. Because this involves your company name or trade mark, so we inform you in no time. We would like to confirm if this company is your partner, subsection or some one you authorized, if it is not, pls inform us if these domain names and internet keyword are important to you and it is necessary to protect them by registering them first or not, thanks for your cooperation, looking forward to your reply.

Kind Regards,

Mike.Yang
Tel:+ 852 31757930 (ext):8011
Fax: +852 31757932
Email: mike.yang@hongkongnet.hk
Hong Kong Network Service Company Limited
Website: http://www.hknsc.hk/