Copycat registrations by Asia/Chinese domains

[offthehandle]

Does anyone have experience with MOIP company? Has anyone received emails from them? I have owned my (non domain name sales oriented) branded company name for over 10 years, and got an unsolicited email from someone at this chinese based registrar company stating that someone other than my company was going to register about 10 exact brand name domains in other chinese and asian extensions. They essentially say they are giving me the first right of refusal to register all those other new or asian tld's to "protect" my name. I find intriguing, it is a micro niche business and it seems like a scam to get me to buy those names. Currently I rank organically on first page, so the visibility has caused this I guess- so the concern is them spamming me or other techniques to penalize my rankings- as they have to pay for ad-words to compete for position. At least that is my expectation of the outcome if this occurs. So "protecting" the name while it is a minor concern, I was thinking just for fun to let it occur and then see what happens... the registrar is MOIP dash Link dot com dot cn and moip dot org dot cn

 

[Asfas1000]

scam.

 

[offthehandle]

Thanks, I did a brief G search and found nothing, then went again to see if I used the combined keywords "scam" and "moip" and "cn" words together still got no results... however one funny thing- and wow, surprisingly discovered G already indexed this post/thread! within minutes. Evidently the owners have done a good job here, impressive.

 

[Dynadot]

We get those all the time at Dynadot. We mark them as spam.

 

[Domains - Wanted]

It's a convoluted "offer" to whet your appetite to buy the corresponding name in those .CN and other Asian extensions

 

[RJ]

It's a trap! The letter you received is entirely fictional. There is no company out there trying to register your brand in Asian tlds.

 

[barcher]

Scam!! This particular scam has been going for at least 5 years now. If you Google '.cn domain registration scams' you'll find articles back to at least 2008.

How To Spot A Chinese Domain Name Scam

LINK​

Beware of Chinese Domain Scams

LINK​

Chinese domain name registration scams

LINK​

WARNING: Chinese Registrar Scam - "Notice of Internet Intellectual Property" email

LINK​

 

[barcher]

A different type of scam.

I find this one far more dangerous. Very easy to slip past mid and large size companies, direct to the accounts dept. I think these guys are defrauding thousands of dollars a month.

In fact, I was hesitant about posting it as didn't want to give the 1% nefarious minded, that just may lurk here, any ideas.

WARNING: Domain registration scam from Domain Register Pty Ltd

LINK​

 

[todaygold]

A different type of scam.

I find this one far more dangerous. Very easy to slip past mid and large size companies, direct to the accounts dept. I think these guys are defrauding thousands of dollars a month.

First, this has been going on for years, nothing really new here. 'Domain Registry of America' is well known for doing this.
Second, although it's sleazy, it's kind of hard to say they are defrauding companies...if you do pay the (exorbitant) price, they will do as promised and transfer/renew the domain for how ever many years you paid for. So while it's a bad practice, I wouldn't really call it fraud because they do deliver what they promise if you pay.

 

[offthehandle]

We get those all the time at Dynadot. We mark them as spam.

First, this has been going on for years, nothing really new here..

A different type of scam.

I find this one far more dangerous. Very easy to slip past mid and large size companies, direct to the accounts dept. I think these guys are defrauding thousands of dollars a month.

In fact, I was hesitant about posting it as didn't want to give the 1% nefarious minded, that just may lurk here, any ideas.

WARNING: Domain registration scam from Domain Register Pty Ltd

LINK​

Thanks for the input everyone, much appreciated. Yes, certainly if an accounting department or marketing department in a corporation get's this sort of email, they will run off and take action and potentially enrich the registrar unnecessarily. I think it was good that I posted this then, so G picks it up and indexes it too. I am hesitant to post the actual a href tag though from the origin.

 

[barcher]

Second, although it's sleazy, it's kind of hard to say they are defrauding companies...if you do pay the (exorbitant) price, they will do as promised and transfer/renew the domain for how ever many years you paid for. So while it's a bad practice, I wouldn't really call it fraud because they do deliver what they promise if you pay.

Actually, no it is fraud. The scammers send in an invoice to make it look like they are the business that the company has always done business with, with a urgent call to action of losing domain/service. To get business to act in haste and pay the invoice which then instigates the first steps in moving their domain. At a rip off price of many multiples of what they would of paid yearly.

A similar situation in the offline business environment, would be if a lawn maintenance company sent in an invoice to a business they were not working with for the coming months lawncare together with a warning that the city was enforcing a well kept lawn ordinance and the property needed an urgent mowing to comply. Making sure there was no business introduction letter with the invoice in order to not raise a flag with accounts that this was a lawncare company new to them, and wanting to replace their existing lawncare service company. And in fact doing all they could to emulate a common monthly invoice to make the business believe that they were dealing with their lawncare service provider. Then using sense of urgency of the ordinance they then defraud the business by charging multiples of the usual monthly lawncare charge. When discovered this could easily be brought to police attention as attempt to defraud.

Any business owner paying the extra money for the domain invoice and then discovers later how it had occured, will have no problem saying it was someone getting that money by defrauding them. Only people who haven't been stung by this scam can be pedantic and say "its not actually fraud"

 

[todaygold]

Yes, certainly if an accounting department or marketing department in a corporation get's this sort of email, they will run off and take action and potentially enrich the registrar unnecessarily.

A similar situation in the offline business environment, would be if a lawn maintenance company sent in an invoice to a business they were not working with for the coming months lawncare together with a warning that the city was enforcing a well kept lawn ordinance and the property needed an urgent mowing to comply.

Having worked in a number of large corporation over the years, I will say if anyone in the billing department (or any department for that matter) simply goes and pays any random 'bill' they are emailed, that person needs to be fired immediately. Sorry, but in any major company, that's not the way it works...otherwise people would be sending in fake bills all the time to make some money. Any major company has accounts setup with their vendors/suppliers...they don't just start mailing out checks based on a random email. Likewise, if your company contracts with a lawn care company, you (and anyone responsible to pay for it) knows about it. Anyone with half a working brain would understand a letter like that is if you wish for the service they are offering, you can then call and setup a time for them to come mow your lawn. If you already have lawn care service, you simply ignore it.

 

[offthehandle]

Actually, no it is fraud. The scammers send in an invoice to make it look like they are the business that the company has always done business with

For all the years I have been in business sorting my own mail and receiving unsolicited stuff in the mail- like some similar fake invoices you mention so never think about it, just put them in the trash- especially for yellow page listings in some copycat yellow page or industrial directory. I do recall being sent "about to expire", or protect your name registration snail mail for an alternate company startups around the time NSL was no longer the only registrar. But I could see it was an offer disguised as an invoice, in fact I believe in the fine print they put that on the paperwork so as to not commit mail fraud, but with an email now which isn't regulated and the dynamic nature of all these new or international TLD's- it concerned me a bit. It took me many years to rank organically to first page. So now come the attacks. lol.

FYI: to document this scam- here is the exact "follow up" email I received: I took out my company name and replaced it with "removed".

Here is the second email they sent:
------------------
Thanks for your confirmation. As soon as receiving the application of that company, we checked and found "removed" is your company's using name. We are concerned that your name might be affected negatively by their applications, this is why we informed you. Following brand name and domain names are applied by that company:
Brand Name:
Removed
Domain Names:
removed.asia
removed.us
removed.in
removed.cn
removed.org.cn
removed.com.cn
removed.tw
removed.hk
removed.com.hk
removed.kr
removed.jp
You know that the domain names registration is open in the world, that company also has the right to apply for the available domain names. You only have the preferential rights to register them.
At present, we haven't passed their application, we need your opinion. If your company consider these names of importance to your company's business or interest, i suggest that your company register these names first so as to avoid confusion or speculation. Of course, each company has their own idea. If you don't think their application will affect your company in the future, then my suggestion is your company give up these names so that we can finish registering for them as per our duty. Please give me your company's decision as soon as possible in order to handle this issue better.
---------------------

 

[offthehandle]

Scam!!
How To Spot A Chinese Domain Name Scam

LINK​

Thanks, good link. This was a nice investigation that he did, well done. The whole thing to me does seem to be easier to disguise than say the decades long "found money"- nigerian scam, I have had hundreds of those come in snail mail.... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_scam I didn't know that this scam goes back to the 18th century though, that's interesting.

 

[barcher]

Anyone with half a working brain would understand a letter like that is if you wish for the service they are offering, you can then call and setup a time for them to come mow your lawn.

@todaygold And so it starts. I'm not playing your game. I replied to your first post as a courtesy. To see where you would take things. As I have seen your posts previously on NamePros. I have seen that you try to rile and prod til you get a irate response. Then you just continue prodding. You are closest I have seen here to being a troll. I won't be replying to your posts from now on.

If needed I will simply mute you. You serve no purpose with your prodding. In life I have found the truth for people who do what you do is - is 'Hurt people hurt people.' So I am not engaging with you. Either deal with your past hurt that is causing you to constantly act this way with others, or go use it in a career as a criminal defense lawyer. There are enough great people on NamePros to offset the life sour people like you. You are Namepros very own 'ray of sunshine'.

I wont be spending another thought on you. G'Bye. ..and mute!! You are Ignored from now.

 

[todaygold]

@todaygold And so it starts. I'm not playing your game. I replied to your first post as a courtesy.

As a courtesy? You really didn't need to respond at all if you felt it was an imposition. I was simply correcting your mistake and clarifying.

 

[barcher]

For all the years I have been in business sorting my own mail and receiving unsolicited stuff in the mail- like some similar fake invoices you mention so never think about it, just put them in the trash- especially for yellow page listings in some copycat yellow page or industrial directory. I do recall being sent "about to expire", or protect your name registration snail mail for an alternate company startups around the time NSL was no longer the only registrar. But I could see it was an offer disguised as an invoice, in fact I believe in the fine print they put that on the paperwork so as to not commit mail fraud

Thanks for posting this. Shows many people are receiving these and what businessmen think of them. Good on you for ranking on first page against it too.