Is this some kind of con?

[ebonybailey]

Got this email this morning. Don't want to reply just in case he is getting a name from us so that he can do something.

Dear Principal,

We are professional IT outsourcing service company in HongKong, we have a pretty important issue needing to confirm with your company.

On the 21, July 2009, we received an application formally. One company named Hot New-tech Holdings Ltd. wanted to apply for the Internet Keyword "Ebonybailey" and some domain names through our body.

During our auditing procedure we find out that the alleged Hot New-tech Holdings Ltd. has no trade mark, Intellectual property, nor patent even similar to that word. we found that the keywords and domain names applied for registration are as same as your company's name and trademark. one point need you to confirm: whether this alleged Hot New-tech Holdings Ltd. is your business partner or distributor in ASIA. if so, we will complete their registration. These days we are dealing with it.

If you are not in charge of this please transfer this email to appropriate dept. in order to deal with this issue better, please let someone who is responsible for trademark or domain name contact me as soon as possible.

Have a nice working day !

Best Regards,
Aaron Wong


HongKong Net Center
TEL :+ 852 - 307 239 48
FAX :+ 852 - 307 239 49
Email: aaron.w@hkito.com
WEB : www.hkitos.com

[GRDCredit]

Yes!

Someone cleverer than me will need to explain what the con is however!

Hot New-tech Holdings Ltd is not a UK registered company

Geoff

[CrispyUK]

I think the general idea behind the scam is that once you tell them this company has no asssociation with you they'll encourage you and offer the chance to outbid this other company and register the domain names yourself for a silly high price.

[Ndi-mi]

Unfortunately, at this point it is neither a scam nor illegal, but it is a cheap and nasty way of making easy cash.

How it works is this:
Many major companies, such as Google and Coca-Cola, register all possible variations and spellings and .suffixes of their trade/company names to avoid any possible clash/theft etc. So, using Coca-Cola as an example, they have coke.com and coke.co.uk and coke.net and coke.biz and coca-cola.com and cocacola.com and cokacola.com etc.

Some "enterprising" individuals picked up on this and started emailing companies with the veiled threat that their businesses would be at risk if they did not purchase the alternative domain names (Google.com has also registered goggle.com for example). Businesses would buy the other domains to protect their integrity. There was no threat, imminent or otherwise, but they were lead to believe by the tone of the email that it was dire.

Now, folks are actually claiming that somebody is trying to register a domain name that is similar to yours. It is a false claim purely designed to make money. Consider this: if someone did try to register a domain name legitimately, would the registering company actually send you an email? If you go to godaddy.com and enter a possible domain name that is already taken, they will actually give you a list of alternatives!

Don't bother to reply, they'll only know they have you and start sending other spam.

[Steve Kay]

It's a con.

Ndi-mi is 100% correct.

Ignore it and do not reply.

My former employer receives these several times a year, always for the same domains and 'keywords'.

I hope that clarifies :)

Steve

[GRDCredit]

I sort of get that but taking the Coca Cola example why are they bothered that someone else might take, for example the Cokacola.com domain?

In my own field if someone else registered www.grdcreditcontrol.biz (http://www.grdcreditcontrol.biz) (for example) and were in the same line as me I can understand the problem.

Ah - might have just answered my own question. If Pepsi got hold of the Cokacola.com domain Coca Cola might be a bit concerned.


Geoff

[OldWelshGuy]

yep, it is high pressure domain name sales,nothing more than that. One of my clients had one, he asked what to do, so we registered the domains in question via 123 reg :)

the fact is that if anyone unconnected with EB used your name, you could have them dealt with for passing off etc.

[Dawg]

But who makes the money?

I had one of these a couple of years ago and decided that I would buy an array of dawg-ish names. There was no indication from the sender of the email as to where I had to buy from, all the domains they mentioned were available normally, and I bought them from my usual supplier.

So who makes the loolah? Is it a vast conspiracy by Godaddy, 1&1 etc to blindly promote domain name sales? Is it how David Icke and The Freemasons fund the fight against The Lizard People, (oops wrong thread...)?

I have never worked out who makes the money.

[Steve Kay]

Geoff -

That's right - it's not just what if Pepsico got hold of Coke.biz, it's also the risk from someone either sticking something outright offensive or defamatory, or from a prank.

The most infamous instance of the latter is when PWC attempted a rebrand to call themselves `Monday`. They registered introducingmonday dot com but didn't register introducingmonday dot co dot uk. Japesters from b3ta (see their newsletter #44) got hold of the UK version and stuck a silly animation there. It's said that this was one of the nails in `Monday's` coffin, about a month later.

S

[nickpp]

its a cone, there are a few uk companies doing it also.

Overpriced domain names, directors think they are loosing out to some one else and pay the bill.... Until they get rumbled.

Like the european domain registry. Very official looking letter and renewal forms.

[GRDCredit]

its a cone, .

Beats a 'pyramid' scam I suppose :)

[djwellis]

Beats a 'pyramid' scam I suppose :)


i thought cone that was the posh pronunciation of con :rolleyes:

[nickpp]

lol

ok :eek:

[eventdomain]

Yeah, it's high pressure selling - no doubt. We get this all the time and just delete the mails.

I would suggest, getting your domain names trademarked, then contact the domain name spammers and threaten them by pointing out that the words are trademarked and thus the domain they hold cannot be used by law as it would be passing themselves off as a company they aren't.

I guarantee they will back off, and if they don't, get a solicitor involved and send them a letter.

[penguin-chrissie]

Sounds like a con to me - I bet there are sufficient numbers of people who respond and inturn register the domains with them to make it worthwhile!

[bdw]

This has been going on for years.

Unfortunately, at this point it is neither a scam nor illegal,

I am not so sure about that. Making false claims to sell anything is illegal. A scam is depriving someone of something by deceit. That is what they are doing because they are falsely claiming that someone is trying to buy your domain name equivalents so IMHO this is a scam.

I get one of these emails every other week. I had some fun with one of them when I told them that I was extremely concerned about it and that "someone from our Hong Kong branch" would come in to talk to them about it. I asked them for an appointment. I kept it going for a few days and their squirming excuses for not being able to make the appointment were quite amusing. When I got fed up with it I just told them to shove it where the sun don't shine. :p

[sjr4x4]

I've never seen this approach before, was feeling left out reading this thread, then got one this morning!

If you read it out loud in the style of Yoda its actually quite funny. God bless Babelfish...

Hello! Sorry to trouble you!
We are internet trademark registration organization in Asia... We have something important need to confirm with your company.

On the Jul .27.2009, we received an application formally.

One company named "Eurosarts Inc" applied for the " Mylocalservices" as their trademark for the promotion of their product on the internet.

...we found that the Internet trademark applied for registration are as same as your company's name and trademark. These days we are dealing with it. Currently we stop their application, in order to deal with this issue better, we hope to get your confirmation.

[Integral]

We have had the same

Theres plenty of posts on the Internet about this.

Its just an opening to get you to purchase domain names in other countries.

Google "Chinese Domain Name Scam" for further info

Move it to the delete box and forget about it, you will not here from them again.

[lucy*tenable]

Beats a 'pyramid' scam I suppose :)

Very witty for you Geoff :p

[GRDCredit]

Very witty for you Geoff :p


Harsh but true.

[lucy*tenable]

I have to say it did make me smile though :p


(yes, i have a simple sense of humour)