www.scam.cn

By: Adam Brookman

You receive an email message from a kindly Chinese domain name registrar who warns you that a company has applied to register your name (or trademark) with various Asian suffixes (e.g., .cn, .tw, .asia). The email is in broken English giving it instant credibility:

Dear CEO,

We are the domain name registration organization in Asia, which mainly deal with international company’s in Asia. We have something important need to confirm with your company.

On September 18, 2010, we received an application formally, one company named “Longhua International Holdings Ltd” wanted to applied for the domain names boylefredrickson.asia, boylefredrickson.cc, boylefredrickson.cn, and boylefredrickson.tw.

During our preliminary investigation, we found that these domain names’ keyword and internet trademark is identical with your trademark. I wonder whether you consigned Longhua International Holdings Ltd to register these domain names through us or not? Or is Longhua International Holdings Ltd your business partner or distributor in Asia? Currently, we have postponed this application of this company temporarily already. In order to deal with this issue better, please let the principal make a confirmation with me by telephone or email ASAP

Best regards,
Nicholas Chen
IT Director

Before you pick up the phone to call China or start typing a reply, there is one thing you need to know. This is a scam! There is no Longhua International that is trying to register your domain name in China. And there is no benevolent Chinese registrar who is looking out for your interests. There is, however, a Chinese registrar who would be happy to charge you a vast sum of money for a domain or three you probably don’t need and could get for far less. If you do want to own these domain names for your own use or to prevent someone else from getting them, you can easily register them yourself or ask Boyle Fredrickson for assistance. Most of these domain names are available at reasonable prices through the larger registrars such as GoDaddy. com and Register.com. There is no need to spend the exorbitant fees that this not so benevolent registrar will charge you to obtain these domain names.

Read more about patent protection in China.