Asian Domain Name Fraud Warning
We have had a number of emails forwarded to us from our customers regarding an email that they have received from an apparent Asian domain name registrar. The email is very polite and sounds official and professional. It starts out informing the recipient that the Asian registrar has received a request from another company asking to register a list of domain names that include the company name of the recipient. They claim that they are protecting the recipient from having another company register these domain names and that they are offering the recipient an opportunity to register the domains.
The email is a fraud. If you want to see a sample of one of these emails, check the footer of this blog post.
We had so many of our customer complain about this, we decided to do some investigations ourselves, along with our US and NZ based lawyers. As a test, we opened the lines of communication with the sender of the email to see what would happen next. When we initiated contact with them, they proceeded to quote us on how much it would cost to have the domain names registered. They then provided us with the necessary order forms to complete the transaction - and it wasn’t cheap! Our lawyers performed some investigations and spoke with ICANN and NZs DNC- neither recognised the “registrar” as valid.
When we informed the “registrar” that SAFI Technologies would be taking action against them, the registrar responded as though we had hurt their feelings! The “registrar” also kept in contact via phone with us, which makes it seem more valid since they are willing to make voice contact - don’t be fooled.
The “registrar” ceased contact with us once they realised lawyers were chasing them from the US and from NZ.
So, if you have been contacted by these people, I suggest you simply don’t respond to them. Though it might be a good idea to check whether some of the domain names are worth registering! Just don’t register them through this fraudulent “registrar”, because you’ll never get them!
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. A sample of the email is as follows:
Dear CEO,
We are Asia Domain Name Registration Limited, which mainly deal with domain name registration and dispute
internationally. We have something important need to confirm with your company.On the Jan 31, 2008, we received an application formally. One company named ” Creation International Holdings Ltd ” wanted to register following Domain names:
yourcompany.com.cn
yourcompany.net.cn
yourcompany.org.cn
yourcompany.com.hk
yourcompany.hk
yourcompany.tw
yourcompany.com.tw
yourcompany.asiaInternet brand keyword: yourcompany
through our body.After our initial examination, we found that the keywords and domain names applied for registration are as same as your company’s name and trademark. These days we are dealing with it. If you do not know this company, we doubt that they have other aims to buy these domain names. Now we have not finished the registration of Creation International Holdings Ltd company yet, in order to deal with this issue better, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible
Best Regards,
Tony Liang
________________________________________Asia Domain Name Registration Limited
Tel:00852-3059-3057
Fax:00852-3059-3080
Email: tony.liang@ytym.org
Web: http://www.asiadnr.org
January 10th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Thanks for your help. Received the following this morning. Just as polite as your example, but not as professionally prepared:
Dear CEO,
We are the department of Asian Domain dispute registration service in china. we have something need to confirm with you. We formally received an application. One company which called ‘Abilitey corp’ are applying to register “xxxxx” as internet brand and following domain names
“www.xxxx.asia Asia
http://www.xxxx.hk Hong Kong
http://www.xxxx.in India
http://www.xxxx.kr Korea
http://www.xxxx.sg Singapore
http://www.xxxx.tw Taiwan” on JANUARY 8, 2009. After our initial examination, we found that the internet brand applied for registration are as same as your company’s name and trademark.These days we are dealing with it, hope to get the affirmation from your company. If your company has not authorized the aforesaid company to register these, Please contact us as soon as possible.
In addition, we hereby affirm that our time limit for dissent application is 7 days. If your company files no dissent within the time limit, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by Abilitey corp.
Best Regards,
Jeff Chen
Senior consultant
Phone:+86-21-5271 5980
Fax:+86-21-5271 5978
Website: http://www.xud-china.org.cn
Address?11/F, Building A, Oasis Plaza, 137 Bailan Road, Putuo District, Shanghai, China
February 20th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Received the same thing. It looks like they are using slight permutations of the same text. I was clad to see your posting. Here’s my text to add to the keyword density:
Dear CEO,
We are the department of Asian Domain dispute registration service in china. we have something need to confirm with you. We formally received an application. One company which called ‘Banitak Corp’ are applying to register “xxxxxxx” as internet brand and following domain names
“xxxxxxx.asia Asia
xxxxxxxx.hk Hong Kong
xxxxxxxx.in India
xxxxxxxx.kr Korea
xxxxxxxx.sg Singapore
xxxxxxxx.tw Taiwan” on February 18, 2009. After our initial examination, we found that the internet brand applied for registration are as same as your company’s name and trademark.These days we are dealing with it, hope to get the affirmation from your company. If your company has not authorized the aforesaid company to register these, Please contact us as soon as possible.
In addition, we hereby affirm that our time limit for dissent application is 7 days. If your company files no dissent within the time limit, we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by Banitak Corp.
Best Regards,
Jeff Chen
Senior consultant
Phone:+86-21-3752 9318
Fax:+86-21-3752 9316
Website: http://www.xud-china.org
Address?Room515-516, No.885 Green Ark Building, East Huancheng Road,Shanghai, China
March 10th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
We have had one of these emails regarding double glazing shop. 1st of people won’t type that in in asia or china as they call it differently. Secondly as long as the trade mark is registered you can always get the domains back.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:29 am
Thanks for blog entry. This scam is still alive and kicking. CEO just asked me about this email he received:
Dear Manager,
We are a professional internet consultant organization in Asia, which mainly deal with the global companies’ domain name registration and internet intellectual property right protection. Currently, we have a pretty important issue needing to confirm with your company.
On the Mar.26th, 2009,we received an application formally.One company named “Luoyang International Investment Co.”who applied for the Wireless Keyword: ” xxxxxxxxx” and some domain names relevant to this trademark from our organization.
After our initial examination, we found that the keywords and domain names applied for registration are as same as your company’s name and trademark. Because this involved your company name or trade marks,we take this application as one by bad purpose and inform you in no time. Now we have not finished the registration of Luoyang company yet, If you considered these domain names and Wireless Keyword are important to your company, in order to deal with this issue better, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible. If you are not in charge of this please transfer this email to appropriate dept or CEO.
Best Regards,
Gordon Li
Auditing Manager
Sponsoring Registrar: Sk Holdings Company Ltd
Tel: +852-95660496, +852-95660205
Fax: +852-31875699
Email: gordon.li@netnic.asia
Website:http://www.setl.hk.cn
May 28th, 2009 at 4:12 am
Hi,
I’ve been very silly! Had the email above sent to me althought a different address its the same text, website & numbers. I’ve not received one of these before & so stupidly responded thinking it was the best thing to do. I had a response which said I should contact them immediately for more information which made me stop and think, I’ve since found this and other sites relating to the scam. The question I have is now that I have responded, they know my email address active etc is anything likely to happen with the domain names or am I just wide open as a target to other spammers?
Very embarrassed but grateful for any advice!
May 28th, 2009 at 7:30 am
Hi Emma,
Believe me, you are not the only one - so many people have fallen into this scam! You have not really opened yourself up in any way, granted, they know your email account is active, but spamming is not really their business - scamming is, and now you know they’re a scam they will probably stop contacting you. If you have revealed any account details, passwords, credit card details, etc, etc, then you should have the details changed immediately or the accounts cancelled.
If you’re genuinely concerned about losing those domains to someone else, then I suggest you have them registered through a reputable registrar. But really, the scammers are highly unlikely to spend the money to register those domains - they’re in the business of taking peoples money, not spending it
Let me know if there is anything else you are concerned about!
Regards,
Tim
May 28th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Hi Tim,
Thanks so much for the response, its really reassuring. I do not think there is much need of me to register these domains as they are all .hk .cn and I have the major domains registered for my site already. I’ve not provided any details thankfully. I have forward the email to the Intellectual Property Office in the UK in anycase and will ignore any future emails they may send through.
If only I’d read the email a few more times before responding, it is now very obvious as the text is polite but not professional and unlike an official email from a reputable company. Forums like this are great way to alert these scams, so for others the contact details from the scam email are as below.
Thanks again!
Relieved! Emma
Yamini.Yang
International Registration(Auditing) Dept.
——————————————————————————–
Tel: +852-95660496, +852-95660205
Fax: +852-30197872
Email:yamini.yang@skbyte.com
Web:http://www.setl.hk.cn
Confidentiality Notice:This is a letter for confirmation. If the mentioned third party is your business partner or distributor in China please DO NOT reply. We will automatically confirm application from your business partner after this audit procedure.we have to notify you,and our registration organization are not responsible for any dispute questions about trade mark,intellectual property nor patent after they succeed in registration.hope you can understand.thank you.
June 21st, 2009 at 8:28 am
[...] The article I refer to is located here: http://tim.safitech.com/2008/07/asian-domain-name-fraud-warning/ [...]
August 30th, 2009 at 9:35 am
[...] Asian Domain Name Fraud Warning - Tim Johnson’s Blog tim.safitech.com/2008/07/asian-domain-name-fraud-warning – view page – cached We have had a number of emails forwarded to us from our customers regarding an email that they have received from an apparent Asian domain name registrar. The email is very polite and sounds official and professional. — From the page [...]
October 9th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Dear President&CEO,
We are an organization specified at dealing with domain name dispute and registration in asia. We have something important on intellectual property right need to confirm with your company.
On October 7, 2009, we received an application formally, one company named “Gjkis Holdings Ltd” applied for the brand keyword “kaiyuanmould” and some domain names (such as,kaiyuanmould.asia / kaiyuanmould.cn…etc.) with our organization. After our initial examination, we found that they have no trademark, Intellectual property, nor patent.But the keyword and domain names they applied for registration are the same with your company’s name and trademark.
These days we are dealing with it. If you do not know this company, we doubt that they have other purposes to buy these domain names.If they are your business partner or distributor in Asia,we will automatically confirm application from your business partner after this audit procedure. Now we have not finished the registration of Gjkis Holdings Ltd yet, in order to deal with this issue better, please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.
Best Regards!
Eric Chen
Manager
——————————————————————————–
Web: http://www.wtl.hk.cn
Tel: ++852-95660205
++852-95660496
Fax: ++852-30197872
Mail: eric@dnrcenter.hk
eric@west-idc.org
eric@sc-domain.org
2009-10-08