Asian Domain registration service in china

A classic scam and one that it is easy for an inexperienced website owner to fall for.  I have seen this one as a written letter and personally torn it up in front of the recipient.  No domain company anywhere EVER looks to see if ANY variation of a domain you want to register has already been registered.  It is none of their business.

There is no client wanting to register all these variations of your domain name.  There is a scammer, hoping you will fall for their story and send them lots of money so that they can register the domains for you.  Ignore these scammers.

This was sent to me by a colleague who initially replied.  You can see the scammers subsequent replies below.

(It’s very urgent, Please transfer this email to your CEO or appropriate person, thanks)
Dear CEO,

We are the department of Asian Domain registration service in china. have something to confirm with you. We formally received an application on December 23, 2010, one company which self-styled “Aoyi Investment Co., Ltd” were applying to register “yourdomainname” as Network Brand and following domain names:
yourdomainname.asia
yourdomainname.cn
yourdomainnameg.co.in
yourdomainname.com.cn
yourdomainname.com.hk
yourdomainname.com.tw
yourdomainname.hk
yourdomainname.in
yourdomainname.net.cn
yourdomainname.org.cn
yourdomainname.tw
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 will finish the registration at once. If you did not authorize, please let us know within 7 workdays, so that we will handle this issue better. Out of the time limit we will unconditionally finish the registration for “Aoyi Investment Co., Ltd”.

Best Regards,

Allen Zhang
Tel: +86-551-5223-174 || Fax: +86-551-5223-175
10/F,Jindi International Building,No.588 MaAnshan South Road,
Baohe District,Heifei,China

My colleague replied that he hadn’t authorised the purchase of these domain names and received this reply

Dear “Your Name Here”,

Thank you very much for your confirmation. If it is the case, I should declare following on behalf of our company:

As soon as receiving the application of Aoyi Investment Co., Ltd, we checked and found “yourdomainname” is your company’s using name. that’s why we sent email to you. we don’t hope the domains will be registered without your awareness. but you should know that the domain names regisration is open in the world, Aoyi Investment Co., Ltd also has the right to apply for the available domain names. you only own the preferential rights to register them.

If you think Aoyi Investment Co., Ltd application will effect your benefit, we can help your company dispute their application and then register them under your own name. pls let us know soon, or else we think it as your waiver. In that time we don’t bear any responsibility, Because we had informed you.
Have a nice day.

Best Regards,
Allen Zhang
Tel: +86-551-5223-174 || Fax: +86-551-5223-175
10/F,Jindi International Building,No.588 MaAnshan South Road,
Baohe District,Heifei,China

When my colleague didn’t reply, he received this email

Dear”Your Name Here”,

Notice: Regarding the Domain name dispute and registration case, we did not receive any of your reply until now. Concerning the mentioned Domains names and Network Brand please confirm whether you need to register those names by yourselves? If need, please let us know in time, we can send an application form to you. If you think the registration of that company or the use of following domain names will not bring any negative effect to your company, I suggest you can give up these domain names, then we will accept that company application unconditionally. Further questions please contact me in time.
Have a nice day.

Best Regards,
Allen Zhang
Tel: +86-551-5223-174 || Fax: +86-551-5223-175
10/F,Jindi International Building,No.588 MaAnshan South Road,
Baohe District,Heifei,China

He still didn’t reply, and then received this email:

Notice: Hi, I am Allen. We had discussed the case about disputing your company’s domain names and Network Brand. You have never registered these domain names and Network Brand, and I had told you that the domain name registration is open. The dispute period will come soon. If your company does not register these domain names and Network Brand, we will finish aforesaid company registration within 2 workdays. that company will become the legal owner of these domain names in the world. We had notified you, so we are not responsible for any dispute question about your intellectual property right and trademark after they succeed in registration. If you have any questions, pls contact us within 2 workdays.

Best Regards,
Allen Zhang
Tel: +86-551-5223-174 || Fax: +86-551-5223-175
10/F,Jindi International Building,No.588 MaAnshan South Road,
Baohe District,Heifei. China