Chinese Domain Name Scams
Too Long; Didn’t Read?
-
- It’s a scam
- Delete it
- There’s no need to register these domain names through your usual registrar
- If you ask your usual registrar they will probably use FUD (fear uncertainty and doubt) to encourage you to spend money with them as most registrars are not much better than these scammers
The Long Version…
Here’s an email I received before Christmas from info@ygnetworksit.com:
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 in China. We received an application from BaoYuan Ltd on December 17, 2012. They want to register ” squelchdesign ” as their internet keyword and China/Asia (CN/ASIA) domain names. But after checking it, we find this name 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
John
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.ygnetworkit.com
An odd email; Lots of broken English and things that don’t entirely make sense if you know anything about my company, but then it could be from a legitimate source that simply hasn’t taken the time to find out more about the company. I figured it had to be suspect, but gave them the benefit of the doubt to see where this was heading:
Hello John,
I’m not 100% sure I am understanding your question fully. BaoYuan are in no way associated with Squelch Design, today is the first time I heard the name.
Yes there would be a conflict if they go ahead and register squelchdesign.cn; Squelch Design does not actively operate in China, but is happy to accept custom from all over the world. I believe registering a company in China with the same name would cause brand confusion and erosion and, given that I went to great lengths to find a name that was not already in use, and having invested a great deal of time and money into Search Engine Optimisation, registering a similarly named website would be very poor etiquette. As far as I can tell BaoYuan are in the chemical/packing materials industry, so it strikes me as odd that they would want to register “squelchdesign” as a domain.
Many thanks,
Matt Lowe
Three days later I got a response. Not from John, but from Lin JianFa – supposedly an employee of BaoYuan – yet using the address jianfa.lin@yahoo.cn:
Dear Sirs,
Our company has submitted the “squelchdesign ” as CN/Asia domain name and Internet Keyword, we are waiting for Mr. John’s approval. We think this name is very important for our products in Chinese and Asian market. Even though Mr. John advises us to change another name, we will persist in this name.
Best regards
Lin JianFa
Immediately I smelt a rat, the style of the speech was absolutely identical to John’s, as was the formatting and with similar incorrect usage of punctuation. I’ve seen this before when I baited a Nigerian 419 scammer a few years back. The fact that this employee of the company was using a Yahoo address was just plain wrong. So far they’d set the scene: They’d heavily implied someone was going to take my company name and start using it, creating brand confusion, but they’d not yet presented a way to get money out of me. So, I carried on playing along:
Lin,
I believe that if you persist in using the name squelchdesign.cn you will only confuse my customers and yours, making it more difficult for my customers to find my website. May I ask what services/business your company would be doing with the name?
Many thanks,
Matt Lowe
That was the last I heard from Lin. John, however, did send me more emails:
Dear Matt ,
Based on your company having no relationship with them, we have suggested they should choose another name to avoid this conflict but they insist on this name as CN/Asia domain names (.asia and .cn and .com.cn and .net.cn and .org.cn) and internet keyword on the internet. In our opinion, maybe they do the similar business as your company and register it to promote his company.
According to the domain name registration principle: The domain names and internet keyword which applied based on the international principle are opened to companies as well as individuals. Any companies or individuals have rights to register any domain name and internet keyword which are unregistered. Because your company haven’t registered this name as CN/ASIA domains and internet keyword on the internet, anyone can obtain them by registration. However, in order to avoid this conflict, the trademark or original name owner has priority to make this registration in our audit period. If your company is the original owner of this name and want to register these CN/ASIA domain names (.asia and .cn and .com.cn and .net.cn and .org.cn) and internet keyword to prevent anybody from using them, please inform us. We can send an application form and the price list to you and help you register these within dispute period.Kind regards
John
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.ygnetworkit.com
Note the good cop/bad cop thing that he has going on with Lin; He’s doing me a favour by telling me they want to encroach on my company’s name.
The guys over at TechRepublic received an incredibly similar email back in 2009. Over at HoaxSlayer other people have reported, pretty much word for word, the exact same emails I have shown here. Even Wikipedia has an article on this scam. But I carried on playing along, curious to see how much he wanted to fleece me for:
Hi John,
How long is the dispute period?
Many thanks,
Matt Lowe
Dear Matt ,
The checking time will be over soon, we have not received your reply about the domain name and internet keyword since our last communication. You must know domain name takes open registration, this is international domain name registration principle. So the company has right to register them. As a domain name registrar, we have no right to refuse their application. We aslo suggest this company should change another name but they stick to this name so if your company want to prevent anybody from using these domains, the only way is to register these CN/ASIA domains and internet keyword. In our checking time, your company has first priority to register them. Could you tell us whether your company want to make this application to prevent anybody from using them or not?
Best Regards
John
Hi John,
Thanks for the reply. How much would it cost?
Many thanks,
Matt Lowe
And now, the moment of truth:
Dear Matt:
Thanks for your reply. If you would like to protect by yourself and according to our checking progress,
we will send an application blank to you. After you fill in it, you need to send it back to us. When we
received you information we will overrule their application and register for you in one day. And the
registration fee for CN domain is 38.8 USD year, ASIA domain is 36.6 USD per year, internet keyword
is 148 USD per year. If you want to protect yourself, I am very glad to help you. Right now, the checking
is going to the end, please reply in two working days.Have a nice day .
Best Regards
John
So back in his first email he suggested BaoYuan wanted to register squelchdesign.asia, squelchdesign.cn, squelchdesign.com.cn, squelchdesign.net.cn, squelchdesign.org.cn, and the internet keyword “squelchdesign”. That’s one .asia, four .cn domains, and one Internet keyword. That comes to a total of $339.80 USD or approximately £214. Update 2017: See below, it gets worse!
The moral of the story is if you get an email from China (or anywhere else for that matter) warning you that someone is trying to muscle in on your business’s name, be very careful. Very very careful indeed. Here’s the registration details for this particular scammer’s company:
pan xiaohong
lichenfang@zjedu.org
tel: 13661529704
fax: 02162961557
shanghaixingqunandanlu
shanghai,shanghai,CN
200010
I’m 99% sure that “John” is a fictitious character and that Pan Xiaohong is in fact the perpetrator. So maybe if you get an email from this John character, maybe try replying with “Hi Mr. Pan”, and see what happens? ;) Take care of your businesses guys. But keep in mind there are probably many “companies” running this scam in China.
Update 28/08/2013
The comments section below is getting pretty long as more and more people find this blog and send in the emails they received. As such I’m going to try and summarise the information in the comments below.
You might get emails from any of the following companies: YIGUAN, YIGUDNS, YIGUTEK, YGITECH or the domain names www.ygnetworkit.com, www.yiguannetwork.com, www.yigudns.com, www.yigutek.com, www.ygitech.com, www.cnygregistry.net, www.ygregistryltd.net, www.ygasia.org, www.ygcompany.org, pxisp.net or des-registry.org.
They might use one of the following names: John, Jim, Terry Tang, Peter Cheng, James Zhang, Simon Cheng, Gary Zhang, Mika Cao, Lan Du, Lex Ren, Jim Ying, Bill Cheng, Mark Wong or Abby Wang.
They might claim that the company attempting to register the domain is: BaoYuan Ltd, Weisheng company, Weisheng Holdings Ltd, Taisheng Limited, PengCheng Trading Co. Ltd, Huasheng Ltd, Huafeng Ltd or Kenpoco Ltd. Note that some, perhaps even all, of these companies are legitimate Asian companies and the scammers are simply using their names to try and give credibility to their claims.
You might be contacted by someone claiming to be from one of the companies above, usually using a Yahoo or Hotmail email address rather than a legitimate business address: Lin JianFa, Warren Chiou, Darren Chiou or Jiang Zhifa.
If you received an email with slightly different wording or from a different company then please feel free to post it in the comments section below so I can update the blog and we can all stay one step ahead of the scam.
Update 06/10/2017
After I posted this blog I never received any more of these scam emails, probably because my website was coming up in first place in Google for any searches related to “Chinese domain name scams”. I even tried replying on behalf of a few customers who’d received scam emails to see if I could further mess with the scammers, but I guess they did their homework because none of them would reply to me. Until the 19th of September that is, when “Charles Xu” contacted me.
(It’s very urgent, please transfer this email to your CEO. Thanks)
We are the domain registration and solution center in China. On Sep 18, 2017, we received an application from Jiatai Ltd requested “squelchdesign” as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names (squelchdesign.cn, squelchdesign.com.cn, squelchdesign.net.cn, squelchdesign.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?
How could I resist playing their game? It’s been 4 years since I was last contacted and asked to pay the ridiculous sum of £214 for domains I neither wanted nor needed. What would this scam look like in 2017?
Hi Charles,
We have no business dealings with Jiatai Ltd and any registration of a name featuring “squelchdesign” would be an infringement of our trading name.
Charles Good-Cop Xu had set the scene and had a bite. Now it was time for Gareth Bad-Cop Ren to do his part:
To whom it concerns,
We will register the China domain names “squelchdesign.cn” “squelchdesign.com.cn” “squelchdesign.net.cn” “squelchdesign.org.cn” and internet keyword “squelchdesign” and have submitted our application. We are waiting for Mr. Charles Xu’s approval and think these CN domains and internet keyword are very important for our business. Even though Mr. Charles Xu advised us to change another name, we will persist in this name.
Kind regards
Gareth Ren
Oh dear, that sounds terrible. I’d better play the worried webmaster part then:
Hello Gareth,
Registration of any domain name or Internet keywords containing “squelchdesign” would clearly water down our brand and would only cause confusion in the marketplace. We ask that you not make any such registration and instead create your own unique name.
Time once again for the good cop routine. Thank goodness Charles Xu was there to save the day.
Dear Matt Lowe,
We have already advised them to choose another name according to your company that have no relationship with them, but they insist on this name as China domain names (squelchdesign.cn, squelchdesign.com.cn, squelchdesign.net.cn, squelchdesign.org.cn) and internet keyword. In our opinion, maybe they do the similar business as your company then register it to promote his company.
As is known to all, domain name registration based on the international principle is opened to company and individual. Any company or individual have the right to register any domain name and internet keyword which are unregistered. Your company haven’t registered this name as China domains and internet keyword, so anyone is able to obtain them by registration. But in order to avoid this conflict, the trademark or original name owner have priority to register China domain name and internet keyword during our dispute period. If your company is the original owner of this name and want to register these China domain names (squelchdesign.cn, squelchdesign.com.cn, squelchdesign.net.cn, squelchdesign.org.cn) and internet keyword to prevent anybody from using them, please inform us. We can send you an application form with price list to help your company register these China domains and internet keyword during our dispute period.
And now I just need to play my final part to get to the end-game, finding out their exorbitant prices:
Hi Charles,
We are indeed the original name owner and cannot have anyone infringing on our name. Please send over the application form.
And what a nice chap, he sent me his price list.
So to register all of the names and keywords that “Charles” suggests would set us back USD $1,476 which is roughly equivalent to £1,124 for registrations that we in no way need. This scam is getting more vicious, the total amount they want to rip people off by has grown from £214 to £1,124 – nearly a thousand pounds in 4 short years…
Don’t fall prey to these scammers! Delete and forget their emails, don’t pay them a penny.
Update 13/10/2017
They’re busy at the moment, I’ve had another one! This time from “TOI IT Service Center”, China Registry (Head Office) || No. 8-8018, Peace Building, Jinghu District, Wuhu City, China. Tel: 0086 5538 366231 || Fax: 0086 5538 366231.
Dear Sir/Madam
About the “squelchdesign”, we have some thing to comfirm with you! We are an agency engaging in registering brand name and domain names, on October 11, 2017, we received an application named “Derlery Company” and they apply to register squelchdesign as their brand name and some top-level asian domain names. But we found the main body of domain names is same as yours. We are not sure about the relationship between you and them.
As the registrar, 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. After the deadline we will unconditionally finish the registration for “Derlery Company” Looking forward to your prompt reply.
(Please kindly foward this email to your CEO or appropriate person. Thanks a lot.)
Best Regards,
Owen Chen
Senior Adviser Manager
Hello Owen,
We have no dealings with Derlery Company and any attempt to register our trading name in China would have a considerable negative impact on our brand.
Dear Matt Lowe,
Thanks for your confirmation. As soon as receiving the application of “Derlery Company”, we checked and found “squelchdesign” is your company’s using name and brand. We are concerned that your brand name might be affected negatively by their applications, this is why we informed you. Following Network Brand and domain names are applied by “Derlery Company”:
Net Brand: squelchdesign
Domain Names:
“squelchdesign.cn
squelchdesign.com.cn
squelchdesign.net.cn
squelchdesign.org.cn
squelchdesign.cn.com
squelchdesign.asia
squelchdesign.in
squelchdesign.co.in
squelchdesign.hk
squelchdesign.com.hk
squelchdesign.tw
squelchdesign.com.tw
squelchdesign.中国
”
You know that the domain names registration is open in the world, “Derlery Company” also has the right to apply for the available domain names, but you have the preferential rights to register them. We also are not very clear about why the company wants to register these domain names, but according to our work experience, if they finish the registration, in internet, your customers must be confused and this registration will bring lots of competition to your company to impact your business soon.At present, we haven’t passed their application, we need your opinion. If your company consider these names of importance to your company’s business and interest, I suggest your company to register these names first so as to avoid confusion or speculation. Of course, If you don’t want to protect your intellectual property rights, then you can give up these names so that we can finish registering for them as per our duty. Please give me your company’s decision as soon as possible in order to handle this issue better.
Have a nice day.
Best Regards,Owen Chen
Senior Adviser Manager
Hi Owen,
Thanks for informing me, I wouldn’t want my customers being confused by this registration. How do I go about registering these domain names?
Dear Matt Lowe,
Thanks for your confirmation, Of course, I can assure you that the best way for you to protect your business is to register these domains under your name, because after you finish the registration, you will become the exclusive owner of them! We, as the China local registrar, if you need to register those domains, we can help you.
Following is the procedure, you can do follow these:
1.You fill in the Registration Contract it via email(scanned) or fax.
2.We will send the Invoice signed & stamped to you, In the meantime We will formally submit the application to register for you and put on records according to you signed Registration Contract.
3.You transfer the payment to us according to the Bank information on the Invoice within 5 workdays and fax the payment proof to us.
4.You will be awarded the certificates of Domains after 10 workdays.Attached the Registration Contract, pls check. About the detailed price, pls refer to the contract.
If no question, please fill the contract and return to us ASAP, we will help you register these domain names as per the information which you will fill in the contract,thanks for your cooperation.Have a nice day.
Best Regards,Owen Chen
Senior Adviser Manager
And the moment of truth:
That works out at a minimum cost of €3,315 … or about £2,980.
Jan 2013: £214 requested
Sept 2017: £1,124 requested
Oct 2017: £2,980 requested
Ignore, delete, and keep your money in your bank where it belongs.
Registrar
Dear CEO,
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. If this email affects you, we are very sorry, please ignore this email. Thanks)
We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in China.
We received an application from Huayi Ltd on March 30, 2017. They want to register ” sydneyroofrestore ” as their Internet Keyword and ” sydneyroofrestore .cn “、” sydneyroofrestore .com.cn ” 、” sydneyroofrestore .net.cn “、” sydneyroofrestore .org.cn ” 、” sydneyroofrestore .asia ” domain names, they are in China and Asia domain names. But after checking it, we find ” sydneyroofrestore ” 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 | Service Manager
Domain Registry Asia (Head Office)
8006, Xinlong Building, No. 415 WuBao Road, Shanghai 201105, China
Tel: +86-2161918696 | Fax: +86-2161918697 | Mob: +86-1582177
‘Huayi ltd’
Dear Sirs,
Our company based in chinese office, our company has submitted the ” sydneyroofrestore ” as CN/ASIA(.asia/.cn/.com.cn/.net.cn/.org.cn) domain name and Internet Keyword, we are waiting for Mr. Jim’s approval. We think these names are very important for our business in Chinese and Asia market. Even though Mr. Jim advises us to change another name, we will persist in this name.
Best regards
Lin jianfeng
Me:
Dear mr. Jianfeng
I understand your desires for benefiting from the name ‘sydneyroofrestore’ but I advise you take Jim’s advise more seriously.
Using another companies name as your meta tag without partnership, permission or any excuse under the fair trade laws (as you are not based in Sydney this does not apply to you) is illegal and can make you subject to law suite as this pulls attention away from said business traffic and can harm the income. I repeat, I francis balfour owner of Sydney roof restore do not give permission to use my name, business name or reputation in any sense for you to use.
Registrar
Dear CEO,
Based on your company having no relationship with them, we have suggested they should choose another name to avoid this conflict but they insist on this name as CN/ASIA domain names ( sydneyroofrestore.asia , sydneyroofrestore.cn, sydneyroofrestore.com.cn, sydneyroofrestore.net.cn, sydneyroofrestore.org.cn) and internet keyword (sydneyroofrestore) on the internet. In our opinion, maybe they do the similar business as your company and register it to promote his company.
According to the domain name registration principle: The domain names and internet keyword which applied based on the international principle are opened to companies as well as individuals. Any companies or individuals have rights to register any domain name and internet keyword which are unregistered.
Because your company haven’t registered this name as CN/ASIA domains and internet keyword on the internet, anyone can obtain them by registration. However, in order to avoid this conflict, the trademark or original name owner has priority to make this registration in our audit period. If your company is the original owner of this name and want to register these CN/ASIA domain names (sydneyroofrestore.asia, sydneyroofrestore.cn, sydneyroofrestore.com.cn, sydneyroofrestore.net.cn, sydneyroofrestore.org.cn) and internet keyword (sydneyroofrestore) to prevent anybody from using them, please inform us. We can send an application form with price list to you and help you register these within dispute period. Look forward to your kind reply!
Kind regards
Jim | Service Manager
Me: come on pan, why are you playing games with me?
The email accounts used were;
jim.wang@domainregistryasia.com
lin-jianfeng@vip.163.com
Thank you for writing this article! I received one on the 1st September 2017.
___________________________________
First Email:
Dear CEO,
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. If this email affects you, we are very sorry, please ignore this email. Thanks)
We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in China.
We received an application from Hua An Ltd on August 28, 2017. They want to register ” jakepascoe ” as their Internet Keyword and ” jakepascoe .cn “、” jakepascoe .com.cn ” 、” jakepascoe .net.cn “、” jakepascoe .org.cn ” 、” jakepascoe .asia ” domain names, they are in China and Asia domain names. But after checking it, we find ” jakepascoe ” 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 | Service Manager
Domain Registry China (Head Office)
8006, Xinlong Building, No. 415 WuBao Road, Shanghai 201105, China
Tel: +86-2161918696 | Fax: +86-2161918697 | Mob: +86-1582177 1823
Web: www(dot)domainregistrychina(dot)net
___________________________________
My Response:
Jim
This business is in no way related to mine, and I would not like this to happen.
Thanks for getting in contact.
Thanks,
Jake
___________________________________
Their 2nd Email:
Dear Sirs,
Our company based in chinese office, our company has submitted the ” jakepascoe ” as CN/ASIA(.asia/.cn/.com.cn/.net.cn/.org.cn) domain name and Internet Keyword, we are waiting for Mr. Jim’s approval. We think these names are very important for our business in Chinese and Asia market. Even though Mr. Jim advises us to change another name, we will persist in this name.
Best regards
Lin jianfeng
___________________________________
Thanks again!
Thank you for your article!
I received the following mail from Charles Yuan, maybe you can help me?
Dear sir or madam,
We are an agency for registering domain names authorized by Chinese government. Today, our center received an application from Amy Lead Int’l Co.,Ltd applying to register XXXXXX as their brand name and some top-level domain names(.CN .HK etc). After our careful investigation, We found the main body of domain names is same as yours. As a professional registrar, We are obligated to inform you of this situation.
We are handling the application and we need to confirm whether or not you authorize them to register them? Let me know your answer ASAP so as to solve this promptly. Thanks for your cooperation.
Best regards,
Charles Yuan
Tel:0086-551-6349-1193
Fax:0086-551-6349-1192
Address:Building 2,Zhidi Square,No.288,Huaining Road,Hefei Anhui
My advice: just ignore it.
So this happened to me today as well. These people just don’t stop. I will just be ignoring them.
Dear Sir/ Ms.
We are a domain name registration service agency. Our center received an application from Nicole Lau International today. They applied to register xxxxxxxxxx as their Brand Name and applied for several top-level domains. However, the main body of these names is same as your company name. We’re not sure about your relationship with this company.
Now we are processing this application. Our center needs to confirm whether the application is authorized by your company. If so, we will proceed with their registration. If not, please inform us as soon as possible in order to take the next step. We await your prompt reply.
Regards,
Sean Lin
Tel: 0086-551-6349-1193
Fax: 0086-551-6349-1192
Building 2,Zhidi Square,No.288,Huaining Road,Hefei Anhui
I’ve been playing around with these scammers for a couple of weeks now. It’s become a little hobby of mine (I don’t get out much).
First I asked them a few questions to keep them busy. Then I asked for a quote for a different period of registration period (might as well make them do a bit of work). I didn’t bother to fill out their application form – I told them my accounts department needed an invoice to pay them. That’s just arrived. If you’re an evil hacker then please feel free to make use of their bank account details:
Account: 1001 7286 0914 8004 261
Name: Shanghai Y G Co., Ltd
Address: 8006, Xinlong Building, No. 415 WuBao Road, Shanghai 201105, China
SWIFT: ICBK CNBJSHI
I think I’ll tell them the payment won’t go through and can they check the details or give us another account.
Such fun!
I got one, too! Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m not going to play along with them, though I am tempted. Anyway, here’s what I got:
“Dear Manager,
Regarding registration of your company name composttealab, hereby send the confirmation letter, please read it carefully.
We are an agency engaging in registering brand name and domain names. Today, Our center received an application from PunRin Company and they apply to register composttealab as their brand name and some top-level domain names(.CN .HK etc). We found the main body of domain names is same as your company name. I am not sure about the relationship between you and them. Please tell me whether or not your company authorizes them to register names.
We are dealing with the application and we need to confirm whether you have authorized them? If you don’t authorize them, please reply me an e-mail. Looking forward to your reply.
Best regards,
Farrah Wan | Service & Operations Manager
Tel:+0086-5538-366231 || Fax:+0086-5538-366231
This e-mail are confidential and may contain information that is exempt from disclosure by law and subject to copyright.
P please consider the environment before printing this e-mail”
Dear Manager,
The confirmation letter of your company name XXXXXXX application for registration:
We are an agency engaging in registering brand name and domain names. Today, Our center received an application from PunLon Company and they apply to register XXXXXXX as their brand name and some top-level domain names(.CN .HK etc). We found the main body of domain names is same as your company name. I am not sure about the relationship between you and them. Please tell me whether or not your company authorizes them to register names.
We are dealing with the application and we need to confirm whether you have authorized them? If you don’t authorize them, please reply me an e-mail. Looking forward to your reply.
Best regards,
Farrah Wan | Service & Operations Manager
Tel:+0086-5538-366231 || Fax:+0086-5538-366231
This e-mail are confidential and may contain information that is exempt from disclosure by law and subject to copyright.
P please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
Got exactly the same thing!
I received this today – 9th Sept 2017
Dear Director,
The AquadecorUK name registration is concerned with your company name,please check it prudently.
This is a letter regarding AquadecorUK brand and some AquadecorUK based domain registrar. We are a Chinese domain registrar. Recently we received the registration application from Shenzhen KING Co. Limited,they want to register the AquadecorUK brand and some domain names. Firstly,we want to confirm if the company is your company’s cooperative partner. Secondly,we need to verify whether you have allowed the company to apply these names.
Looking forward to your reply
Best Regards
Tracy Chen
General Manager of Registration department
Address:No. 178 Changjiang Road,Hefei
230000,China
Tel: (+86) 0739-5215980
FAX: (+86) 0739-5215980
From: joe@cn-nic.asia
Sent: 9/8/2017 6:46:02 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time
Subj: About ” xxxxxxxx ” Nmae International
(Please forward this to your CEO or President, because this is urgent. )
Dear President & CEO,
This email is from China Intellectual Property Office, which mainly deal with InternationalTrademark and Domain Name etc. There are some things to confirm with you: We received an application from RMSQ Investment Co., Ltd. They want to register “xxxxxxx” as their International Trademark and some domain names(.asia/.cn/.jp/.hk/.in/.tw).
We checked and found the keyword is similar to your company’s name. So we inform you to confirm whether this registration will affect and conflict your company in international. If this registration will not affect and conflict your company, then we can finish registering for them as per our duty. If this registration will affect and conflict your company. Please contact us by telephone or email within 7 workdays, so we can better handle the issue. Thanks for your cooperation.
All the best wishes for you!
Joe Ren
International Department/Manager
China Intellectual Property Rights
Add:3/F,1st Building ZongFu Street No.47
Jinjiang District, ChengDu, China.
Post Code: 610000
Tel: +86 2887775008
Fax: +86 2862465008
Web: www . cn-nic . asia
Received the exact same e-mail with minor wording changes (and different investment company).
“We checked and found…” has been changed to “We have completed the audit work and found…”
An extra line was added before the “Thanks for you cooperation.” :
After the deadline we will unconditionally finish the registration for XieMoo Investment Co.,Ltd, They will become the only legal owner of Network Brand and Domains internationally. Looking forward to your prompt reply.
Street address and Phone/Fax numbers haven’t changed.
But the generic “Joe Ren” name has been updated to “Leo Ren” and the web address is now www . cniprr . com
The email came from leo@cniprr.com but there was nothing in the To or CC address fields.
Thanks for posting yours Bishop.
So happy I found your website. Thanks for your help! I too have been getting a chain of emails from Ian Liu, (email address: ian@chinaregistry.org.cn) about the need to dispute another company’s using my domain name with .CN extensions. I replied 2x, objecting to this other company using my website name with .CN extension. I have not yet asked about pricing and will not waste anymore time on this. Latest email today:
From: Ian Liu [mailto:ian@chinaregistry.org.cn]
Sent: Thursday, 7 September, 2017 01:54
To: xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Subject: Re:Ian Liu RE: blockconsulting CN domain and keyword
Dear Patricia Block,
Hope this email finds you well.
The dispute period will be over soon but we have not heard from you since our last comunication. Anyone can obtain CN domains (blockconsulting.cn, blockconsulting.com.cn, blockconsulting.net.cn, blockconsulting.org.cn) and internet keyword by registration because your company haven’t registered this name as CN domains and internet keyword on the internet. You must know the domain names and internet keyword based on the international principle are opened to company as well as individual. Also, we have suggested they should choose another name but they insist on this name. As a domain name registrar, we have no rights to refuse their application if they insist. In this situation, we have told your company have priority to register China domain name and internet keyword during our dispute period. Could you tell us whether or not your company want to register these CN domain names and internet keyword to prevent anyone from using them?
Kind regards
Ian Liu
I got something similar although the company given and email address look to be legit. The wording is almost identical to what other people have received however so it looks like it could be part of the scam. They also did not mention domains other than “.cn” and “.asia” which is a little different. Not knowing this may be a scam until just now I did end up purchasing 3 extra domains for a year from GoDaddy but they were only a $4 dollars a piece so no big deal. This has definitely been a lesson for me and thanks for this article. Some of the details and emails are different but does this look like the same scam to you? What are the odds that all Chinese domain registers copy and paste the same email messages? haha
First Email:
Ann Lin
To xxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
Sep 20 at 3:29 AM
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 in China. We received an application from JIAMEI Co Ltd on September 18th, 2017. They want to register “harlemanglobal” as their internet keyword and China/Asia (CN/ASIA) domain names. But after checking it, we find this name 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,
Ann Lin
General Manager
Anhui Office (Head Office)
Registration Department Manager
Room 1008 Shenhui Building
Haitian Road, Huli Anhui, China
Office: +86 0553 4994789
Fax: +86 0553 4994789
web: www . cacnet . cn
Second Email:
Ye Yun
To harlemanmfg
Sep 20 at 9:13 PM
Dear Sirs,
We are JIAMEI Co Ltd based in Chinese office, our company has submitted the “harlemanglobal” as CN domain name and Internet Keyword, we are waiting for Ms. Ann’s approval. We hope your company will not object our application, because this name is very important for our products in Chinese market. We don’t want your company to use this name in China, we believe our company will become the legal owner of this name in China. Even though Ms. ann advises us to change another name, we will persist in this name and permanent registration of this name.
Best regards
Li Fang
JIAMEI Co Ltd
I did some looking and the IP address of the first email originates from 110.34.163.82 or 110.34.163.82.STATIC.KRYPT.COM is an IPv4 address owned by Krypt-lax10 and located in Khu Khot, Thailand. Compared to some of the other scams it looks like they have stepped up their game a little bit by using better email addresses and registration sites. I should have noticed too that their phone number and fax number are the exact same. I would never have bought anything from a foreign company over an email exchange but I am aggravated at myself for purchasing the domains from GoDaddy, even if they were only a few dollars a piece. Lesson learned.
I will ignore this email ;) Thank you for this post.
From: “Ian Liu”
Datum: 21-09-2017 13:10
Předmět: webovadilna CN domain and keyword
(Please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. Thanks)
We are the domain registration and solution center in China. On Sep 18, 2017, we received an application from Jiatai Ltd requested “webovadilna” as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names (webovadilna.cn, webovadilna.com.cn, webovadilna.net.cn, webovadilna.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 your company have affiliation with this Chinese company or not?
Best Regards,
Ian Liu | Service & Operations Manager
China Registry (Head Office) | 6012, Xingdi Building, No. 1698 Yishan Road, Shanghai 201103, China
Tel: +86-02164193517 | Fax: +86-02161918697 | Mob: +86-13816428671
Email: ian@chinaregistry.org.cn
Web: www . chinaregistry . org . cn
Hi. Today I got a similar email except: the expeditor is Charles Xu – charles@chinaregistry.org.cn and the company name Baohui Ltd.
After a short search I found all these posts and God I’m glad it happend before wasting time to figure it out on my own what is all about. So, I will ignore it.
If someone is interested I read on a site that a file compliant to https://econsumer.gov/#crnt might help.
Take care!
Thanks for your email. We received a similar request this past week by the following person:
Frank Wu
Tel: +86-551-6349-1193
Fax: +86-551- 6349-1192
Address:Room 806,Fortune Square,No.278,Suixi Road,Hefei China
Frank@voiptech.cn
www . voip-clou . org
Strangely the email address contains “voiptech.cn” whilst the company website is “voip-clou.org” which seems to be a legal company. We did note also that the “www.voip-clou.org” link at the bottom of the email is not working. It’s merely a jpg
Received this last week. I hope no one actually falls for this stuff…
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: andsmileortho
From: “Charles Yuan”
Date: Thu, October 05, 2017 8:33 pm
To: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com
Dear Sir or Madam,
Sorry to bother you. We are domain registrar and received the registration request from Hans Investment Company applying to register andsmileortho brand and domain names(cn hk etc). We found those names have same main body as your company’s name. We hereby confirm with your company whether or not your company are affiliated with the applicant. Please let me know your thoughts ASAP so as to let us work this out, Have a nice day.
Best regards,
Charles Yuan
Tel:+86-551-6349-1193
Fax:+86-551-6349-1192
Address:Room 806,Fortune Square,No.278,Suixi Road,Hefei China
Here is another one :)))
Dear Sir or Madam,
Thanks for reading this letter. This is a letter regarding XXXXX brand and domain names(cn hk etc). We are a Chinese domain registrar and received the registration application from Tdca Investment LTD and found the main body of those brand and domain names is same as your company’s name. Therefore, we confirm with your company to verify whether or not you two companies are affiliated. Please reply me ASAP. Thanks for your cooperation.
Brian Wu
Tel:0086-551- 6349-1193
Fax:0086-551-6349-1192
Address:Building 2,Zhidi Square,No.288,Huaining Road,Hefei Anhui
Thanks for the article, we received this on the 9th of October 2017
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 in China. We received an application from Silong Co Ltd on September 28th, 2017. They want to register “bimproject” as their internet keyword and China/Asia (CN/ASIA) domain names. But after checking it, we find this name 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,
Ann Lin
General Manager
Anhui Office (Head Office)
Registration Department Manager
Room 1008 Shenhui Building
Haitian Road, Huli Anhui, China
Office: +86 0553 4994789
Fax: +86 0553 4994789
web: www . cactt . cn
Thank you. I received this and am ignoring it (it was marked as spam):
from Charles Xu
(It’s very urgent, please transfer this email to your CEO. Thanks)
This is a formal email. We are the Domain Registration Service company in China. Here I have something to confirm with you. On Oct 9, 2017, we received an application from Huikai Ltd requested “avifi” as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names (avifi.cn, avifi.com.cn, avifi.net.cn, avifi.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,
Charles Xu | Service & Operations Manager
China Registry (Head Office) | 6012, Xingdi Building, No. 1698 Yishan Road, Shanghai 201103, China
Tel: +86-02164193517 | Fax: +86-02161918697 | Mob: +86-13816428671
Email: charles@chinaregistry.org.cn
Web: www . chinaregistry . org . cn
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.
Here’s mine from Vince Hu (v.h@ttis.org.cn) :
This is Vince Hu—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 October 16, 2017. that a company claimed “Series Ltd” were applying to register “hitpath” as their Network Brand and some “hitpath” 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. 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,
Vince Hu
Senior Consultant Manager
Same story from me:
First I got an email from Scott Zhang (scott@chinaregistry.com.cn) on 14 Oct 2017
This was followed by an email from a “Gareth Jing” insisting that he will use the name despite the advise from the china registry office.
I simply responded that he does not have my authority to use the name.
Hello, nice article.
We received this email on 18th of October 2017.
(Please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. Thanks)
We are the domain registration and solution center in China. On Oct 16, 2017, we received an application from Huikai Ltd requested “xxxxxxxx” as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names (xxxxxxxx.cn, xxxxxxxx.com.cn, xxxxxxxx.net.cn, xxxxxxxx.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?
Best Regards,
Shawn Zhang | Service & Operations Manager
China Registry (Head Office) | 6012, Xingdi Building, No. 1698 Yishan Road, Shanghai 201103, China
Tel: +86-02164193517 | Fax: +86-02161918697 | Mob: +86-13816428671
Email: shawn @ chinaregistry. com.cn
Web: www. chinaregistry. com.cn