AsiaDNR and the domain name scam

1. thanks for this – got this scam mail today. couldn’t figure out why someone was trying to register the same name as my brother’s oil and gas services company lol.

2. Glad I could help!

   If you get any more of these and can pass on the fake company name used in the email, I can add it to this list and hopefully keep someone else from falling for this scam.

   Thanks!
   Mark

3. Many thanks.

   I receive a similar message today and could not make sense of it. It comes from a company naming itself Martink International Holdings Ltd, which you can add to your list.

   Keep up the good work.

   Michelin

4. Forgot to add that the above scam message came from a certain nicholas@bestweb-service.org

   michelin

5. I received this email, thanks to this blog I did not respond. Thought it sounded weird! :o) Here is their current email:

   Dear Principal,

   We are a domain name registration center in HongKong,and in charge of the registeration in Asia. We have something important need to confirm with your company. on the Oct 29,2008, We received a formal application from a company called “Bronks Investment Corporation” applying to register

   Internet trademark : {my domain name}
   Domain names:
   {my domain name}.asia
   {my domain name}.cn
   {my domain name}.com.cn
   {my domain name}.com.hk
   {my domain name}.com.tw
   {my domain name}.hk
   {my domain name}.in
   {my domain name}.tw

   During our auditing process we find that the keyword and domain names applied for registration are as same as your company’s name and trademark. These days we have been dealing with it. If you do not know this company, we doubt that they have other purposes to purchase these domain names. Now we have not finished the registration of Bronks Investment Corporation yet, in order to deal with this issue better, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.

   Lance Chen
   Auditing Director
   Hong Kong Office
   Tel: 00852-95660496 / 00852-95660489
   Fax: 00852-82261011
   Email: lance.chen@bestweb-service.org
   Web: http://www.bestweb-service.net

6. I made the mistake of responding to this one with my contact details in the footer. The guy called twice to “warn” me that Martink was taking the domain names – meanwhile, they forwarded their registration for the domains and they state that they have a first come first serve policy. And the international trademark registration certainly stopped me in my tracks. Here’s what he sent me:

   Thanks for your timely reply.

   We are domain names registrar in Asia. Now I want to check:

   1. The relationship between your company and Martink company.
   2. If you ask Martink company to register domain names from us, then we’ll help you to finish the registration in these days.
   3. If you have no relationship with Martink International Holdings Ltd, according to our working experience, Martink International Holdings Ltd is a domain names grabber. They want to grab your domain names and sell to you when you need in future or Martink International Holdings Ltd are the biggest competitor of you in China or Asia district, who want to invade your asian market and confuse your clients as well as to disturb your website and bring harm to the profit of your company.

   According the auditing of our arbitration dept, we knew you have registered the domain name “XYZ.org”, this is why we informed you. But now Martink International Holdings Ltd wanted to apply for other domain names and internet trademark you have not registered yet. Because domain name takes open registration, the domain name stays available, who registers it first, who owns it. this is international domain name registration principle.So Martink company or every other third party all has right to register it. As a domain name registrar, we have no right to dispute their application. So required by China government to inform your company to protect your interest, And as the owner of the brand of ” Spiraldynamics”, you will get the priority to register these domain names and internet trademark.

   If you think their registration will confuse your clients and harm your intellectual property rights & trademark, we can send an disputed application form to you and help you register these within dispute period, this is the best and only way to stop these domains and internet trademark from being grabbed. If you don’t think their application will affect your company, you can give up, we will finish their registration.

   Please get your decision ASAP, so that we can handle the next step.

   If you have some other questions,please contact us as soon as possible.

   ______________________

   Best regards,
   Nicholas Chen
   IT Director
   ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
   Auditing Department
   Tel: 00852-9566-0496 00852-9566-0489
   Fax: 00852-8226-1011
   Email:nicholas@bestweb-service.org
   Web: http://www.bestweb-service.net

   And this followed when I declined the offer:

   Good morning !

   1>: I tried to call you but there was no one take the call.

   2>: Now time for the dispute application is limited and it is urgent here.

   3>: Now Martink submitted their application to us repeatedly and ask us to quicken up and as you know,we have no right to dispute this application.Only getting your application form, we can dispute these names and register them for you. So please fill the form and return it ASAP.

   If you have some other questions,please contact us as soon as possible.

   ______________________

   Best regards,
   Nicholas Chen
   IT Director
   ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
   Auditing Department
   Tel: 00852-9566-0496 00852-9566-0489
   Fax: 00852-8226-1011
   Email:nicholas@bestweb-service.org
   Web: http://www.bestweb-service.net
   ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

   ——————————————————————————–

   Nicholas
   2008-10-29

7. hi thanks for this post. I received the same email today, mine was a bit different so i will paste it here:

   Nov 20, 2008
   crea7ive
   Domain name & Internet keyword

   Dear Sir/Madam,
   We are Hong Kong Network Service Company Limited which is the domain name register center in China. We received a formal application from a company who is applying to register ” crea7ive” as their domain name and Internet keyword on Nov 19, 2008.Since after our investigation we found that this word has been in use by your company, and this may involve your company name or trade mark, so we inform you in no time. If you consider these domain names and internet keyword are important to you and it is necessary to protect them by registering them first, contact us soon. Thanks for your co-operation and support.
   Kind Regards,

   Elma wu

   Tel:+ 852-31757931 (8039)
   + 852-31757930 (8039)
   Fax: +852-31757932
   Email: elma.wu@hknsc.hk elma.wu@hknsc.cn
   Hong Kong Network Service Company Limited
   Website: http://www.hknsc.hk

   ———

   Again thanks a lot, i may have replied if i didnt find tis post. It sounded fishy!

   Maria Pia Celestino
   Director of Project Management
   Phone: 1-866-920-1657
   http://www.crea7ive.com

8. There’s more to add to the story. After sending this note:

   “Thank you for the offer. After discussing it with my partner, we foresee no business in the Asian market. There are simply too many permutations of our domain name in far too any countries to worry about it. People who know our work know the legitimate website(s) to visit. That will have to do. Thanks!”

   Nicholas [Nicholas@bestweb-service.org] answered with this bizarre statement:

   “natasha, As for your actions,you should be regretful. I did this just to make a living but what you did put everything out of my life. Now I am without any economic income and can not live which is caused by you. What you did not only hurt me but also my family was on the edge of collapse. My children have no milk powder now as I do not have the money. Your actions hurt one once-happy family and we can not afford the mortgage and are forced to live on the street. You should feel sorry for what you did”

   Not only is it fishy, but the whole thing is rotten … the website looked potentially credible but this response is really something – makes me wonder what’s going on in their minds.

9. Oh, that’s too funny, Natasha! “Milk powder, indeed!”

   Thanks for sharing!

Comments are closed.