Hello all,
A client of mine got an email (I'm assuming a scam). Could you guys look at this and let me know what you think. It makes no sense to me.

------

Dear Manager,
We are Shanghai Huibai Internet Service Co., Ltd,which is an Internet Keyword register company authorized by China Internet Network Information Center（CNNIC）. There is something need to be confirmed by your company. A company which calls itself Yinli Co.,LTD wanted to apply "My Clients company name here" for the brands keywords on the 19th of June 2006 . We have received an application of this company.

Today we are dealing with it, but we found that this
brand belongs to your company. We do not want it affects your company . So we hope to get the affirmation from your company. If your company do not block their application, we will let them register.

If you have any questions, please contact me as soon as
possible . The information was held by Yinli company ,is in the attachment (Word File) pls check up.

Kind regards,

Na-Mei Wu

Register Department

CNNIC Accredited Registrars :HuiBai Internet Service Co.,Ltd
Tel:86-21-5118 5008

One of the oldest scams on the web

Really? Never heard of this one.

[ Message was edited by: kaulbr 08/02/2006 12:15 pm ]

What do they get out of it though? They are not asking for anything? I'm guessing maybe once you follow up with them they try and sell you on regsitering something??

Yes, it's an old scam that's been around for at least four or five years, as I recall.

What they're trying to do is to scare you into buying/registering your domain name on other TLDs. You probably own the .com and they want you to register the .cc, the .tk, etc etc.

Since they're also mentioning keywords they may also be involved in selling you keyword advertising where they say that you can "purchase" a keyword. When someone enters that keyword into the address bar instead of a URL then supposedly your site will come up. That only works if someone has some of their spyware installed on their PC. That, too, is a scam that's been around for a long long time.

We've talked about the Keywords LLC issue a while back.

Thanks so much for all the info.

...and if that e-mail had an attachment (it mentioned the attached word doc), it could also contain a virus...

...and as mentioned, this is an old, old scam...

I just got a derivative of this one. Now they are claiming to be the CNNIC's admin center.

Dear Manager,

We are Shanghai Huibai Internet Service Co.,Ltd, the administration center of domain name registration accredited by China Internet Network Information Center. We have something important to confirm with your company.
Our organization has received an application submitted by YinLy Co.,Ltd today. They applied to register

Internet keyword “****””****””****””****””****””****”

Chinese Domain name” ****.中国/.公司/.网络”” ****.中国/.公司/.网络”

CN Domain name” ****.cc "” ****.cc”” ****.net.cn”

And during the course of checking, we found these brand keywords were the same as your company‘s name and brands.,which involve the intellectual property right of your company.Now we are dealing with it,hope to get affirmation of your company . If your company has no despute of theirs application we will let them register these names，If you have any questions, pls contact us as soon as possible.Thank you.


Best Regards

Paul xin
Tel: +86-21-5118 5118-5132
Fax: +86-21-5118 5117
CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center)
Website: www.cnnic.cn

I just received 3 copies of this message, one had a virus attached. They're doing their homework to some degree. They mentioned the right keywords however they failed to check that I already registered all of these domains more than a year ago.

The sad thing is that this company appears in the list of CNNIC Accredited Domestic Registrars (cnnic.net.cn/html/Dir/2003/11/27/1523.htm). I wonder whether reporting these practices to CNNIC will have any effect...

[ Message was edited by: Dinkar 07/14/2008 10:05 pm ... Reason: link edited ]

We have received absolutely the same email from the same Shanghai Huibai Internet Service Co., only the name of the applicant is different. What's funny, they invited us to dispute the application of that another party (an investment co.), but when we responded that we do dispute, they advised that the most effective step for us would be to apply for registration of the name of that investment company, as a counter-measure.

Our research shows that those "internet keywords" don't have any meaning or use anywhere - much like AOL keywords. To be on the safe side though, we faxed a complaint to CNNIC (they have a complaint form on their website)

I would be interested to know where to find this complaint form on the CNNIC website. I was unable to locate one on the English site. Is there something on the Chinese side? I would love to report this company.

I received yet another variant of this scam:

Dear Sir,

This is Shanghai Huibai Internet Service Co. Ltd. We are a General Internet Address Register Company authorized by China Internet Network Information Center（CNNIC）.There are something need to check up or clarify. One company which called YinLi Co.,LTD wanted to apply "...." "...." "...." "...." Internet Keyword on Jan 5, 2007 as we have received an application from this company. During the time of handling with this matter we found that "...." "...." "...." "...." belongs to your company. We wonder if it affects your company's future development or other interests. So we want to get the affirmation by your company. Anyway please connect with us as soon as possible. If you have any questions you can call us, we are glad to help you.


Our Add:No.33 Leshan Rd.200030, Shanghai,P.R.China

Tel:00 86-21-5118 5151

Fax: 00 86-21-5118 5090

E-mail:sfq@huibai.cn

China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) website: www.cnnic.cn
CNNIC --- Administrative Center of Domain Name Registration

Yours Sincerely
Mathing Chen

The scam continues...
It looks like they have a new template that they are using:

Dear Manager，
I am CNNIC Accredited Internet Keyword Registrar---Shanghai Huibai Internet Service Co., Ltd. we have a domain name case to confirm with your company. we get a applicant today. We want to make clear whether you have entrusted a person named Chen Qingyang to submit an applicant for your company to register your company's trademark or name. Because the Internet he connected with is KSI (USA) Co. Ltd's domain name economic website, which has nothing to do with your company, therefore we deeply doubt it. Since it is closely related to disentitlement in intellectual property in future, as the affiliated registration mechanism of
1.Chinese domain name: xxxGroup.cn中国/公司/网络
xxxGroup.cn中国/公司/网络
xxx.cn中国/公司/网络
xxx.cn中国/公司/网络
xxx.cn中国/公司/网络
xxx.cn中国/公司/网络
xxx.cn中国/公司/网络
2.Internet Keyword: xxxGroup
xxx xxxGroup
... ... ...
... ... ...
we have the obligation to inform to you. If you did really entrust him, we’ll register it for him; otherwise, we would like to confirm with you firstly .And if you give up and not think it matter, we’ll make a copy. when you make claim about the property, we are not responsible for that. If you want to keep the property, you 'll have to send my proof materials such as the business license or administration code. We’ll apply for the authority to keep it temporally to the international Internet Center., and probably the deadline is seven working days. The value reminder is that the Net Registration is open to any company and privates person, once the trademark is registered, it's difficult to say how serious the result would be, and I think you know that better than us and it's too hard to get it back since it is unique. Many trademarks of foreign companies were registered by others’ after they got to China not too long. Such as CN domain name or Chinese domain name so much so that Internet Keyword were registered by others . Only though law come back. I think you have known about that .As we know that you didn't make any protection to your trademark in the Internet.You can ask any questions by calling us or sending E-mails to us, and than we'll provide sincere service and try our best to satisfy your questions.If you need further materials,please consult us by faxing or calling or lodging the website:www.cnnic.cn
TEL:0086-021-5118 5119　021-5118 5120
NAME: Goldy Guo
FAX:0086-021-5118 5099
COMPANY: Shanghai Huibai Internet Service Co., Ltd.
The relative data are in the attachment.

we have a similar problem but with a twist:

we got the letter from "Shanghai Huibai Internet Service Co"
and we started negotiating with them on purchasing the domain.

after all they do give a low price (around $12 per year)

Yesterday we found out that the domain for our company was just registered in China by:

"Shanghai Wai 100 Network Services Ltd"

The name of this company (Shanghai Wai…) in Chinese is:
上海慧百网络服务有限公司

When searching on Google.com for the name in Chinese, the first result you get is:

www.huibai.cn - Shanghai Huibai Internet Service Co


we do want to buy this domain, but right now it seems that the only way to buy it is through this company:

Shanghai Huibai Internet Service Co


any suggestions ?

I found an entirely new one called "Shanghai Squile Network Information & Technology Co., Ltd" that are using the same tactic:

Dear Xxxx xxxx Co.,

We are Shanghai Squile Network Information Technology Co., Ltd, which is the domain name register center in China.I have something need to confirm with you.We have received an application formally,one company named "StarMax Investment&consultation Ltd" applies for the domain names------xxxx.net.cn, xxxx.org.cn and the internet Brand Name ------XXXX that is a convenient way to realize the visitation of the browser by establishing a corresponding relationship between the Internet Keyword and URL in internet on March 12, 2007.

We need to know the opinion of your company, because the domain names and internet keyword may relate to the usufruct of brand name on internet.we would like to get advice of your company,please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible!

Please let someone in your company who is responsible for trademark or intellectual right contact me freely!


Kind Regards,

Harrison

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
China Overseas Registration Gateway
Shanghai Squile Network Information & Technology Co.,Ltd
Add: 601A, Building No.2, No.641, Tianshan Rd, Shanghai
Tel : +86-21- 5175 0344
Fax: +86-21-5175 0301
Email: harrison@govnic.org.cn
Website: www.govnic.org.cn

Yep - domain name registrar scams are old - still going on, and folks should see them for what they are.

Avoid making contact with these "companies".

...in fact, delete the e-mails.

They will probably sell your email address to yet more spammers if you confirm it as being live - by replying.

I've never received this email, personally.

Sad thing is these maggots are frightening a lot of small business from overseas these days. They have never heard about them, start panicking, and buy the domain names for an unreasonable amount of money.

What happened is that the CNNIC (the official Chinese domain name registration office) started selling domain names for 1 Chinese Yuan (RMB) and the maggots started to buy every domain they could get. Unfortunately domain grabbing is not illegal in China, yet.

If a company has a registered brand name in China it will get its domain name back, even though it is registered by a maggot. The law is quite clear in this point, practically it just takes too much time to get a lawyer in China and enforce your right.

Hint: Sometimes it helps to get in contact with an official trade organization, like a national chamber. They have the contacts, to get the maggot with the law or to negotiate a fair price and often do this for free.

Just the spelling and grammar wouldn't do it for me! You'd think the person sending this message would consider, at the least, using spell check!

It's interesting about GOOGLE


"Gmail.cn", the domain name for Gmail in China, has been registered by a Beijing-based company instead. Gmail is a key product of Google.

In fact, almost all the CN domain names for Google's such products have been registered by others.

Launching Gmail in April 2004, Google registered "gmail.com.cn". However, gmail.cn was registered by a Beijing-based company as early as in August 2003.

Experts say, the time of the registration of "gmail.cn" was far earlier than the debut of Google's Gmail, so the possibility for the CN domain name to be recovered is rather slim unless the registration was vicious.

Months ago, Google recovered two domain names, i.e. "google.com.cn" and "google.cn" at high prices, but its troubles are far from this. It is shown at China Internet Network Information Center that the CN domain names for GoogleTalk, Google Earth, Googlelocal, etc. have all been registered by others.

Among the investor registers, there is the far-sighted such as a Guangdong-based company, who registered "googlelocal.cn" and "googlelocal.com.cn" in March 2004, far earlier than the one-week old GoogleLocal.

There are also others who did it after the news on Google's redeeming the domain names with one million yuan was released. They registered "googlemap.cn" and "googleearth.cn". The time of the registration of "googletalk.cn" and "googletalk.com.cn" was along side with the official appearance of GoogleTalk. It is really surprising that the registers could be so precise and fast.

shanghai squile help me !

where can i buy cheap expired domain name with PR and good backlink...?

A good business for me

This is what I got sent today. Stupidly I replied to it informing the company we already had registered .co. and .com domain names. I'm a bit confused about this forum. Mixed messages. So should I ignore it or do something about it?

We are Beijing Inwis Networks Science and Technology Co., Ltd, which is the authorized domain name service center in China. We received a formal application from a company who is called Bicheng Investment(China) Co.,Ltd are applying to register " XXXXXXXXXXXXXX " as their domain names and Internet keyord on July 27th 2007. Because this involved your company name or trade marks even the Intellectual property rights so we inform you in no time. If you considered these domain names and internet keywords are important to you and there was necessary to protect them by registering them first. Please note that our center will absolutely not undertake the responsibility of your domain name or trademark be sold or reused for the third party, which be caused by your neglect, delays or misses the notification that from our center, contact us to confirm this issue as soon as possible. please,
Kind Regards,
Charlie. Ji

This is what I got sent today. Stupidly I replied to it informing the company we already had registered .co. and .com domain names. I'm a bit confused about this forum. Mixed messages. So should I ignore it or do something about it?

We are Beijing Inwis Networks Science and Technology Co., Ltd, which is the authorized domain name service center in China. We received a formal application from a company who is called Bicheng Investment(China) Co.,Ltd are applying to register " XXXXXXXXXXXXXX " as their domain names and Internet keyord on July 27th 2007. Because this involved your company name or trade marks even the Intellectual property rights so we inform you in no time. If you considered these domain names and internet keywords are important to you and there was necessary to protect them by registering them first. Please note that our center will absolutely not undertake the responsibility of your domain name or trademark be sold or reused for the third party, which be caused by your neglect, delays or misses the notification that from our center, contact us to confirm this issue as soon as possible. please,
Kind Regards,
Charlie. Ji

This is what I got sent today. Stupidly I replied to it informing the company we already had registered .co. and .com domain names. I'm a bit confused about this forum. Mixed messages. So should I ignore it or do something about it?

We are Beijing Inwis Networks Science and Technology Co., Ltd, which is the authorized domain name service center in China. We received a formal application from a company who is called Bicheng Investment(China) Co.,Ltd are applying to register " XXXXXXXXXXXXXX " as their domain names and Internet keyord on July 27th 2007. Because this involved your company name or trade marks even the Intellectual property rights so we inform you in no time. If you considered these domain names and internet keywords are important to you and there was necessary to protect them by registering them first. Please note that our center will absolutely not undertake the responsibility of your domain name or trademark be sold or reused for the third party, which be caused by your neglect, delays or misses the notification that from our center, contact us to confirm this issue as soon as possible. please,
Kind Regards,
Charlie. Ji

Ignore it. It's garbage.

I have received this email today - can someone please make head or tail of this and let me know what i should do. Is this a scam

Dear Oven Sheen.:
We are Beijing Inwis Networks Science and Technology Co., Ltd, which is the authorized domain name service center in China. We received a formal application from a company who is called Bicheng Investment(China) Co.,Ltd are applying to register " ovensheen " as their domain names and Internet keyword on August 7th 2007. Because this involved your company name or trade marks even the Intellectual property rights so we inform you in no time. If you considered these domain names and internet keywords are important to you and there was necessary to protect them by registering them first. Please note that our center will absolutely not undertake the responsibility of your domain name or trademark be sold or reused for the third party, which be caused by your neglect, delays or misses the notification that from our center, contact us to confirm this issue as soon as possible. please, Kind Regards,

just ignore it.

This is a scam.

Do not be confused about the message.

They use WhoIs to find you. They visit your website and pull a few keywords to use in their mail. Then they send you a "very convincing" e-mail that would appeal to any domain administrator. ("Oh no, someone in China is after our trademark/brand name!" )

If you reply to them they will register these names and charge you exorbitant rates to register them via their service...all the while pretending that they saved you from some non-existent domain predator. Even if they charged you reasonable rates you should NEVER USE a registrar that contacts you via unsolicited mail (read SPAM mail). EVER!

If you're concerned about the domains go to the CNNIC website and check their WhoIs: ewhois.cnnic.net.cn
If the name isn't registered and you want the name, then find an accredited domain registrar on the CNNIC English site: h*ttp://cnnic.net.cn/en/index/
If for some reason the offending registrar can be found on the list DO NOT USE THEM! Find one you know or at least one with a respectable level of English and use them.

[ Message was edited by: bill_ 08/19/2007 09:03 am ]


[ Message was edited by: Dinkar 07/14/2008 10:09 pm ... Reason: link edited ]

Here's another example of this scam that I just received:

Dear Manager

We are the ShanghHai LongYu Information Technology Co.Ltd.which is a professional domain name registration and service company in China.On,10th Sept.,our company receive the DiLong International Ltd company's application that they want to register the "name of company" as their Internet Brand and CC domain name,but after our confirmation,we found this name will conflict with your company's name, so we send you email and want to confirm with you whether you have authorized the DiLong International company to register. According to the Internet domain name register principle that the domain name is "openly registration" and "first register,first obtain". We need to get your company's confirmation within the following 5 days.For any question, please let your company's charger contact us in time.Thanks! Looking forward to hearing from you .

Yours sincerely Bray

Bray Wu
Chinese Internet Service company:
ShanghHai LongYu Information Technology Co.Ltd
Tel:+86(0)21-6427 8367
Fax:+86(0)21-6427 1117
Email:Bray@longyu.org.cn

If you don't want to get the similar mail,please send your E-mail to the this mail address web@longyu.org.cn and notify "the rescission",thanks!

Another scam example from China Net Technology Limited:

Dear CEO,

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

On the Oct 11, 2007, we received an application formally. One company named "Microinfo International Holdings Ltd" wanted to register following Domain names:

example.cc
example.hk
example.mobi
example.tw
example.sh

Internet brand keyword:

example

through our body.

After our initial examination, we found that the keywords and domain names applied for registration are as same as your company's name and trademark. These days we are dealing with it. If you do not know this company, we doubt that they have other aims to buy these domain names. Now we have not finished the registration of Microinfo company yet, in order to deal with this issue better, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.

Best Regards,

Scott Liu
_________________________________________________________________________

Sponsoring Registrar: China Net Technology Limited
Tel:+852-3059 3057
Fax:+852-3059 3089
Email: scott@netinchina.hk
Website: www.netinchina.hk

I am so glad I found this forum. You have confirmed for me what I felt in my gut, but I still felt a bit uneasy about what they were saying. Unfortunately, I did respond to their email so I guess they we will selling off our email address soon as another poster pointed out.

Apparently, they have also changed up their letter too. I have provided it below.

I have been scammed before with other things so I'm pretty skeptical now, but they did get the best of me at first. Their website www.mergov.cn looks professional enough and there is indeed a FEID Investment Company website at: www.25ok.com.cn/index.htm. Of course I couldn't say whether either were real and I did find it odd that FEID didn't have FEID.com.cn or cn. (which both are for sale)

I also found it odd that their letter said they had an application "pending", yet when I went to godaddy.com to check out the two domains in question, it said they were available. So I figured it must be some kind of scam, but couldn't figure out the "catch". I didn't see them getting rich on the domain names, but I thought maybe they were after our company credit card number.

We don't ever plan to expand into China and we have Trademarked our Trade name...... does anyone see any reason why we would need these china domains? If someone were trying to infringe on our trademark, they could simply register any other variation as they would be endless....

If I'm not mistaken....(please correct me if I'm wrong), Google has a form that you can submit to advise them on Trademark infringement for registered trademarks so they can review and possibly ban offending websites????

Anyway, thanks so much for this forum. This person (aka Leo Wang) has literally contacted us about 10 times, each time my confidence rising that it was a scam and now you have solidified it for me! THANKS AGAIN!

Best Regards,
Lynn

--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------


Dear Sir or Madam:

Please forward this email to the person who is responsible for trademark. This is auditing department of China Network domain name registration ,a branch of Merit Technology Ltd.We are the professional organization for network service. On 5th Mar .2008,we received an online registration application for www.spasentiments.cn&.com.cn&.asia domain names and internet keyword from an investment company named FEID.
However,after our audit department checking,we found that this is conflict with your company`s domain name www.spasentiments.com and internet keyword spa ,you are the original owner , so I send you this E-mail to confirm if you have any objection to FEID`s application.The auditing period is limited,so please ask the responsible person to contact us as soon as possible.

Best regards
Leo Wang
leo@mergov.cn

Did anyone else find it midly amusing that their name China Internet Network Information Center（CNNIC) should actually have the accronym CINIC?

From one midly amused cynic.

Q.

An amusing scam from Beijing HKZC Networks Science and Technology Co., Ltd. Notice the new Confidentiality Statement they add to the end to dissuade people publicizing their fraud... LOL

Dear EXAMPLE CO,

We received a formal application from a company who is called Meiao Investment Co.,Ltd(http://www.meiaoinv.cn) are applying to register "EXAMPLE KEYWORD/TRADEMARK" as their domain name and Internet keyword in China and also in Asia on Apr 21th 2008. During our auditing procedure we find out that the alleged Meiao Investment Co.,Ltd has no trade mark, brand nor patent even similar to that word. As authorized anti-cybersquatting organization we hereby suspect the alleged Meiao Investment Co.,Ltd to be a domain grabber. Hence we need you confirmation for two things.

First of all, whether this alleged Meiao Investment Co.,Ltd is your business partner or distributor in China.

Secondly, whether you are interested in registering these domains. (The alleged Meiao Investment Co.,Ltd will be entitled to obtain a domain not needed by original trademark owner.)

If you are not in charge of this please transfer this email to appr opriate dept.

This is a letter for confirmation. If the mentioned third party is your business partner or distributor in China please DO NOT reply. We will automatically confirm application from your business partner after this audit procedure.



Bst Rgs

Adam Wu

Auditing Commissioner

Beijing HKZC Networks Science and Technology Co., Ltd

Tel: +0086-10-82771675-602 +0086-10-82772510-602

Fax: +0086-10-82771640

Email:adam@bj-hkzc.com.cn

[link]

http://www.bj-hk.asia/



Confidentiality Statement:

The information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not an intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or other action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error please be advised of your obligation to immediately notify sender of the error in transmission, and to destroy all associated documentation.

Quick answer is, ignore these emails in ANY case. Even (and even) IF you plan to do business in China, then you would have thought about registering your domain there already anyway. And in that case you will do it through a proper agency not this way... If there is a dispute or the domain is registered, you can ask the proper company to negotiate for you. Just don't do anything where somebody you don't know is asking you to do. This is a typical email spam and has many variations, from phishing email blocked paypal accounts to nigerian type of offers (not depicting Nigerian as a nation, just a type of scam that originated there, no hard feelings please gentlemen from Nigeria reading this post)....

So here is another one... but they changed it now. They now include "internet keywords". Now, since this has been some time around and there is controversy behind it, this might look like real. But this is just another form of old scam. There is nothing like internet keywords. There is some activity around non-asci domain names and internet keywords. They don't mean the same. It is considered that domain names in the future could be written in non-asci characters. Some languages with non-ASCI characters (Chinese) would allow this. Since the non-asci characters could be consfused with asci characters in case of internet keywords, this is pretty controversial. Anyway, whether you plan to look at this or nor, just do it on your own and don't respond to this scam emails.

Another version:

--------------------

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are Beijing Anwins Network Service Co., Ltd which is the domain name register center in China. We received a formal application from a company who is applying to register “******” as their domain name and Internet keyword on July12, 2008. Because this involves 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.

Kind Regards,

Amy Yang

Tel:+86-10- 62961631(ext 8014)

FAX :+86-10-62968871

Email:amy.yang@beijing-anwins.com.cn amy.yang@beijing-anwins.cn

Beijing Anwins Network Service Co.,Ltd

Website: www.anwins.com

They now include "internet keywords". Now, since this has been some time around and there is controversy behind it, this might look like real. But this is just another form of old scam. There is nothing like internet keywords.

Actually in China there are Internet keywords available for registration. It's setup like the old RealNames system was. You buy certain keywords and when people enter those in their browser it resolves to your site. Check the CNNIC site for more info: cnnic.cn/en/index/index.htm

[ Message was edited by: Dinkar 07/14/2008 10:03 pm ... Reason: link edited ]