Hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear from a client with questions about a spam email that they have received regarding their domain registration(s). We appreciate hearing about these as it gives us the chance to reiterate with individual clients what to look out for in these emails, and to learn about new scams as they arise or determine that the old ones are still running.
One old one looks like the following:
From: Charles Zhang [mailto:charles@yiguandns.com]
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2015 6:01 AM
To:
Subject: yourdomain CN domain and keyword(Please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. Thanks)
We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in Shanghai, China. On Oct 8, 2015, we received an application from Huamei Holdings Ltd requested “yourdomain” as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names. 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 distributor or business partner in China?
Kind regards
Charles Zhang
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
B06, Yujing Building, No.1 Jihe Road,
Shanghai 201107, China
Tel: +86 21 6191 8696
Mobile: +86 138 1642 8671
Fax: +86 21 6191 8697
Web: www.yiguandns.com
Note that “yourdomain” in the email above is the client’s actual domain, without the TLD — top-level domain, the part to the right of the dot. For example, if your domain is example.com, the subject of this email would be “example CN domain and keyword”. Of course, the actual wording of the subjects and bodies of these scam emails can and do vary, as well as the senders.
These emails are nothing but unsolicited solicitations to register (in this case) the same domain as your existing domain in the dot-cn (China) ccTLD (country code top-level domain) — e.g., example.cn if you already own example.com. There are other variations on these attempts to scare you into registering domains you almost certainly don’t need, usually, we have noticed, in TLDs in East Asia. However, scams like this can and do originate from all over the world. Also, remember that there is no such thing as an “internet keyword”; you cannot buy such a thing, it’s just a general description of a concept.
As always, if an unsolicited email (or, for that matter, phone call, postal letter, fax, smoke signal, etc.) tries to scare you into taking some sort of action — especially if it involves getting you to spend money — it is certainly a scam. Whether it involves domains or anything else, check with a trusted and knowledgeable advisor in whatever industry is involved before you take any action. Don’t even reply to these people, and certainly don’t send them any money.
As always, if you have any questions about emails you have received regarding your domains or hosting, we’ll be happy to address them.
