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“Registration Proclamation” Chinese Domain Scam!

It's been known for a very long time that the world isn't exactly the safest place; it only makes the internet even more dangerous. If you own a website you'll be bombarded with spam, unsolicited `business' requests and who knows what else. One possible venture for the evil script kiddies is to try to steal your domain and/or personal information. There are many MANY ways to go about doing both, though today I'm going to highlight one possible one for you here. It starts of rather innocently, yet urgently (kind of like the nigerian money scams). You receive an e-mail stating that someone in Asia (in China usually) has tried to register domains which are very similar to yours. Being the wonderful angel corporation that they are, they have noticed that YOUR site just happens be `seem' like it's your brand and would like to make sure. By contacting them within seven (7) days they can make sure that the domains stay with you and your brand. Very interesting … interesting indeed. I say so because:

1. I couldn't care less about cheap asian domains which have nothing to do with my market since we already have the important ones.
2. It's a very templated e-mail.
3. They used annoy big bold red letters.
4. Did I mention I'm NOT in asia and (currently) don't care about the asian market?
5. Funny … I got a very similar e-mail only a month before for another domain of mine. Guess what, nothing happened to my hearty domain (and brand).
6. I REALLY dislike unsolicited things
7. I'm more paranoid about security and identity theft than a Canadian squirrel right before winter worrying about it's nuts. So what does this message look like? We got on for Chykalophia.com and she was a bit worried about it. Mostly because China happens to be a stone's throw away from her.

Using the simple theory of:

**research of possible business deal so that you don't end up sleeping with the devil by accident… **I tossed in a few searched into google and found some interesting things. And by `interesting' I do mean bad.

• dis-network.org.cn is blacklisted on several major lists. Also has a VERY bag MyWot rating.
• An abundance of ‘chinese domain scam' articles, posts and stuff in the search engines which relate to this company.
• … you get the picture. One very interesting article on the idea of Chinese domain scams is

The e-mail came from someone named Tina (tina@domainnamesasia.com), with no last name given, nor any company listed, just a postal address in NanTong City, which I later discovered is about 65 miles northwest of Shanghai, China. As the owner of the trademark for Learn the Net, I e-mailed Tina that the name is protected under U.S. and international law and that they should not allow John Wang to register the name. Tina replied: “You would know domain name takes open registration, this is international domain name registration principle. So Mr. John Wang has right to register it. If you think his registration will confuse your clients and harm your profits, we can send an application document to you and help you register these domains within our approving period. This is a better way to prevent domain name dispute.” Of course Tina is wrong about “domain name takes open registration”. Under the protocol established by ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization that approves Internet registrars, if a registrar knows that the registrant of a domain name is infringing on a trademark, it should deny the request. (More on this in a moment.) In fact “Tina” had acknowledged the infringement in her initial e-mail. At this point, I got suspicious. I know that to register a .cn domain suffix, the Chinese government requires that you have a branch office in China or be a wholly owned subsidiary of a Chinese company. I went to the company website to see what I could learn about them. The website says that “NanTong WiFi Network Technology Co.,Ltd is one of the largest and professional Internet consultant for oversea companies, which authorized by ShangHai Industry and Commerce Bureau and China government.” While there are lots of official looking logos on the site, they are just links to organizations like ICANN, not endorsements. WF.Network’s web address, www.domainnamesasia.com is suspiciously similar towww.domainnameasia.com, owned by BrightDomain, a legitimate web hosting and domain name registrar. But unlike BrightDomain, there is no way to register online, the standard way to do business with a registrar. I e-mailed Tina inquiring if her company was certified by ICANN. She answered, “Yes, our company an ICANN authorized registrar.” ICAAN lists approved registrars, but you won’t be surprised to learn that NanTong WiFi Network isn’t on it.Read the article! It's rather interesting on the subject. Which the author of that article is dealing with “Domain Name Asia .com”, the idea is still exactly the same for the e-mail I got.

In conclusion: STAY AWAY. 99% of the time NO ONE is trying to register your domain. These companies are just trying to get you to pay up for THEIR own service. While not technically a scam, it is VERY underhanded especially when they lie 100% of the time. Again: Stay far far away from these people. If you got an e-mail like that. Like us know!