Chinese and the Dot-Com Illusion

[homebuyer]

I thought that I had seen every trick in the book to exploit someone else's good Dot-Com. Cybersquatting, typosquatting, redirecting, hijacking, reverse hijacking, and now the Chinese's .com.cn.

Imagine that you see www.yourdomain.com.cn. At first blush, it looks like it is yours, and it is a Dot-Com. But upon closer examination you notice that following the .com is a "." and not a "/" Then it hits you, your domain is not yours, but a .cn with a sub domain of .com, preceded by your domain name. Clever. The Chinese Dot-Com is a trap for the unwary.

I reported this problem to ICANN and the FBI's Cybercrimes Unit. I would think that with all of the cybercrime coming out of China nowadays that someone over here ought to do something to head off a possible new wave of piracy.

I am still waiting to hear from ICANN. They should be able to do something about this because they did something about the clever people who were briefly registering a hyphen after domain names but before the actual Dot-Coms, like www.loans-.com. ICANN held that such domains were misleading. Using their logic, it follows that the dot.com.cn is also misleading because the only distinction between it and a real .com is the "/" .

Anyone have any thoughts on this issue? I would ask that a lot of you send ICANN a complaint letter. If enough of you do so then perhaps ICANN will withdraw the .com.cn.

One final thought. Quickly look at ebay.com.cn/register/names/credit.htm and ebay.com/cn/register/names/credit.htm Do you see how the .com.cn is a scammers horn-o-plenty of opportunity? By the way, the preceding two domain addresses are fictional and used for illustrative purposes only.

 

[suthra]

i dont think this will create problems. First many of the trademarked companies would get back the domain if its scammed. The same think may happen in .com.my also and icann should withdraw that tld also

 

[armstrong]

homebuyer, I suggest you do some more research. A lot of countries use COM.countrycode , and it really isn't a scam or a problem at all. Some of the TLDs that look like COM.CN are:

CO.UK - UK
COM.AU - Australia
COM.MX - Mexico
COM.PH - Philippines

... for people in these countries, these domains are what they are used to. Google, for example, uses these domains for in-country branding. If you were scammed by someone selling domain.com but delivering domain.com.cn, then I imagine that you could go after the individual who scammed you.

But at this point I don't think you can do anything about domains like COM.CN as these domains are a STANDARD part of the internet's domain naming system.

 

[freak]

homebuyer, I suggest you do some more research. A lot of countries use COM.countrycode , and it really isn't a scam or a problem at all. Some of the TLDs that look like COM.CN are:

CO.UK - UK
COM.AU - Australia
COM.MX - Mexico
COM.PH - Philippines

... for people in these countries, these domains are what they are used to. Google, for example, uses these domains for in-country branding. If you were scammed by someone selling domain.com but delivering domain.com.cn, then I imagine that you could go after the individual who scammed you.

But at this point I don't think you can do anything about domains like COM.CN as these domains are a STANDARD part of the internet's domain naming system.

I believe homebuyer meant that the domain is actually www.com.cn. Something like www.something.tk.

i dont think this will create problems. First many of the trademarked companies would get back the domain if its scammed. The same think may happen in .com.my also and icann should withdraw that tld also

It can happen with .com.my?

 

[homebuyer]

I am aware of the other .com dot-countrycode domains. I just visited www.loans.com.mx and found a casino site. I would still argue that allowing the sub domain .com with the country code can be misleading to the unwary. I think think that the person(s) who authorized such a TLD should have foreseen this issue.

Approving the sub domain .com was stupid, and an exercise in poor judgment. Such a TLD dilutes the worth of the real Dot-Com. The problem lies in having a country code being the same as a sub domain. I am sure that the Chinese wouldn't like us to have www.china.cn.info . Think of the potential to mislead here.

 

[armstrong]

Approving the sub domain .com was stupid, and an exercise in poor judgment.

These COM.?? "subdomains" are run by the registrars themselves, as true primary extension used in their respective countries.

I am sure that the Chinese wouldn't like us to have www.china.cn.info

2-letter domains are not allowed in .info, so that domain's not possible. But how about cn.com? Would you find that confusing? Try:

http://www.loans.cn.com/

also for sale are subdomains like *.us.com and *.de.com , but the difference is that these are not run by the registries, unlike the cited COM.?? which are.

I reported this problem to ICANN and the FBI's Cybercrimes Unit. I would think that with all of the cybercrime coming out of China nowadays that someone over here ought to do something to head off a possible new wave of piracy.

I just feel it a bit odd that you focused on COM.CN and the Chinese. Would you feel the same about reporting COM.AU and COM.MX to ICANN and the FBI?

There are a lot of websites that use domains like COM.?? legitemately, so I don't think you can do anything at this point. Its basically too late to put the genie back in the bottle, so to speak.

I'm curious - we're you actually scammed along these lines?

 

[suthra]

I believe homebuyer meant that the domain is actually www.com.cn. Something like www.something.tk.



It can happen with .com.my?

no way!.

 

[primacomputer]

Believe it or not, odd coloured people in strange and far away lands actually have COMpanies, ORGanisations, NETworks, and EDUcational institutes. I suppose we could end all this "confusion" by forcing all US companies to register a .COM.US name instead of a .COM!

Someone in the J. Edgar Hoover building must be pissing himself with laughter.

 

[Anthony]

Armstrong brings up several good points, countering this argument. Do you also find loans.us.com misleading? Someone who wants to get to loans.us might think that is the site they want, too.

I've seen scammers use .com domains with .com to scam people, most commonly in emails (like a link to ebay.com.1sq.com, which leads me to think that using .com.cn isn't a common way to scam people.

 

[homebuyer]

Playing the race card.

I should have known that people such as primacomputer and armstrong would eventually play the race card. (Believe it or not, odd coloured people..." and " just feel it a bit odd that you focused on COM.CN and the Chinese. Would you feel the same about reporting COM.AU and...").

I am sure that these two characters feel comfortable with not letting the facts get in the way of their reasoning abilities. No where in my posts did I raise race as an issue, but somehow they extrapolated from nothing a race issue.

 

[armstrong]

This thread is a non-issue, based on your misunderstanding of how the internet naming convention works. Nothing at all to do with race.

 

[redhippo]

i think armstrong is right....race is totally a non issue in this thread

but watch out for the chinaman! he is one sly and tricky fella.hehehe

 

[primacomputer]

Sorry if I came off as “playing the race card” homebuyer, it was not my intention.
My intention was to take the piss.

Armstrong has been very helpful. If you'd calm down and listen to what he's saying you might learn something.

I don't know exactly when the first .com.ccTLD came about, but I reckon it could be as early as the mid 80s when the ccTLDs were first introduced. Certainly by 1994 this naming convention was in place in many countries.

Basically the only real problem here is your inexperience with naming conventions that are at least a decade old.