We have received a great deal of feedback on this post. I am thankful that this information has helped a lot of people and protected people from being taken advantage of by these scammers.
Christopher Laursen with European Domain Centre sent me this link and asked me to share it. It has additional information about this particular scam, including a list of senders.
Please feel free to continue to leave comments with your updates on this post. We have the comments set to be approved before they show up because of the high volume of spam this particular post receives (most of it originating from the People's Republic of China...coincidence?)
We've all heard of Internet scams to steal your identity, your credit card number, bank account information, etc. There appears to be a scam that has been occuring at least for the past several months that was brought to my attention today when a local business forwarded us the e-mail I have pasted below.
The concerned business owner did not know whether or not this e-mail was legitimate, which if you are not living and breathing the Internet industry everyday like we do here at Insercorp it can oftentimes be difficult to distinguish what's real and what's not, especially as scam artists get better and better.
The manager of the local business who contacted us did the right thing by asking.
The e-mail copied below is basically telling the business owner or manager that their "international identity" is in jeopardy because "Company X" has "attempted" to register their domain name with .cn, com.cn, .asia, etc. extensions. In reality they are just trying to resell domain names with Chinese/Asia extensions.
Unless you intend to do business in Asia or China, there is no reason to have a domain name outside of your US domain name (.com, .net, .org, .co., .us, .gov, etc).
The business' name was replaced with [domainname] to protect their confidentiality.
From: John [mailto:john.xu@ygnetwork.org.cn]
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 7:50 AM
To: info@[domainname]
Subject: Internet domain name & keywordDear Manager:
This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China and Asia.
On December.8th,2010, We received HAITONG company's application that they are registering the name " [domainname] " as their Internet Keyword and " [domainname] .cn "" [domainname] .com.cn " " [domainname] .asia "domain names etc..,It is China and ASIA domain names.But after auditing we found the brand name been used by your company. As the domain name registrar in China, it is our duty to notice you, so I am sending you this Email to check.According to the principle in China,your company is the owner of the trademark,In our auditing time we can keep the domain names safe for you firstly, but our audit period is limited, if you object the third party application these domain names and need to protect the brand in china and Asia by yourself, please let the responsible officer contact us as soon as possible. Thank you!Best regards,
John
Oversea marketing manager
Tel:+86(0)21 6191 8696
Fax:+86(0)21 6191 8697
web:www.ygnetwork.com.cn
To whom it concerns,
We will register the China domain names "[domainname].cn" "[domainname].com.cn" "[domainname].net.cn" "[domainname].org.cn" and internet keyword "sitemee" and have submitted our application. We are waiting for Mr. Nick Liu's approval. These CN domains and internet keyword are very important for us to promote our business in China. Although Mr. Nick Liu advised us to change another name, we will persist in this name.
Kind regards
Zhihai Ning
Here's another one:
Dear Manager,
(Please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. Thanks!)
This is Walker Liu, Operating Manager of a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in Shanghai, China.
On July 4, 2022, we received an application from Beien Holdings Ltd requested ““auk2000” as their internet keyword and
China (CN) domain names( auk2000.cn/ auk2000.com.cn/ auk2000.net.cn/ auk2000.org.cn). But after checking it, we find
this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it’s necessary to send email to you
and confirm whether this company is associated with your company or not?
Kind regards
Walker Liu
Operating Manager
NETCHINA Headquarters
ww w[dot]netc hina[dot]org
8008, Tianan Building, No. 1399 Jinqiao Road,
Shanghai 200120, China
Tel: 0086-21-6191-8696
Fax: 0086-21-6191-8697
Mobi: 0086-134-8281-9147
We also received this scam in California today
------- Original message --------
From: Steve Liu <steve@chinadomainname.net>
Date: 6/27/22 1:35 PM (GMT-08:00)
To: RRINI
Subject: OUR BRAND NAME
(It's very urgent, therefore we kindly ask you to forward this email to your CEO. If you believe this has been sent to you in error, please ignore it. Thanks)
Dear CEO,
We are the domain name registration service company in China. On June 28, 2022, we received an application from Hongmei Ltd requested "xxxxxxxxxx" as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names (xxxxx.cn, xxxxx.com.cn, xxxx.net.cn, gracianna.org.cn). But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it's necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your business partner in China?
Best Regards
Steve Liu | Service & Operations Manager
China Registry (Head Office)
Tel: +86-2161918696
Fax: +86-2161918697
Mob: +86-13816428671
6012, Xingdi Building, No. 1698 Yishan Road, Shanghai 201103, China
*****************************************
This email contains privileged and confidential information intended for the addressee only. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy this email and inform the sender immediately. We appreciate you respecting the confidentiality of this information by not disclosing or using the information in this email.
My web developer just emailed me this article because I am being bombarded with emails from China which reads just like the form communication mentioned above. I was in the process of trying to locate an International attorney because my company name have a trademark and several of the products have a patent. Even though the article is dated, it is prevalent today. 06062022.
Hello, I received an email from these and I replied, what can I do?
I have just received the same email from Nick Liu! Definitely a family business
Received same type of e-mail as follows:May 06, 2022
(Please kindly forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. If you believe this has been sent to you in error, please ignore it. Thanks)
Dear CEO,
We are the domain registration and solution center in China. On May 6, 2022, we received an application from Hongmei Ltd requested "custone" as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names (custone.cn, custone.com.cn, custone.net.cn, custone.org.cn). But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it's necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your business partner in China?
Best Regards
Albert Liu | Service & Operations Manager
China Registry (Head Office)
Tel: +86-2161918696
Fax: +86-2161918697
Mob: +86-13816428671
6012, Xingdi Building, No. 1698 Yishan Road, Shanghai 201103, China
*****************************************
This email contains privileged and confidential information intended for the addressee only. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy this email and inform the sender immediately. We appreciate you respecting the confidentiality of this information by not disclosing or using the information in this email.
Still active email SCAM (received May 7th 2022)
I'm lucky, my sender is Nick Liu ! Thriving family business supporting the Scammer Bros inc.!
here's what i received:
(If you are NOT CEO, please kindly forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. If you believe this has been sent to you in error, please ignore it. Thanks)
Dear CEO,
This email is from China domain name registration center. On May 7, 2022, we received an application from Hongmei Ltd requested "copticom" as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names (copticom.cn, copticom.com.cn, copticom.net.cn, copticom.org.cn). But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it's necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your business partner in China?
Best Regards
Nick Liu | Service & Operations Manager
China Registry (Head Office)
Tel: +86-2161918696
Fax: +86-2161918697
Mob: +86-13816428671
6012, Xingdi Building, No. 1698 Yishan Road, Shanghai 201103, China
*****************************************
thanks for your post ! I was surprised
Same mail for us on 18/04/2022. Thank you for the posts and information, We just ignore then!
Simon Liu | Service & Operations Manager
China Registry (Head Office)
Tel: +86-2161918696
Fax: +86-2161918697
Mob: +86-13816428671
6012, Xingdi Building, No. 1698 Yishan Road, Shanghai 201103, China
Dear Manager,
(Please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. Thanks!) We are the domain registration and solution center in China. On September 26, 2022, we received an application from WeiRong Holdings Ltd requested “keithwillardevents” as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names( keithwillardevents/ keithwillardevents.com.cn/ keithwillardevents.net.cn/ keithwillardevents). But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it's necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your distributor in China or not?
Kind regards
Kenny