in Meddling, Rant, X-Geek

AsiaDNR and the domain name scam

The same domain name scam as the one I mentioned previously is still happening. This morning I got an email at $WORK from a company called AsiaDNR. An email from steven@scdomain.org tried to say all of $WORK’s Asia domain names were being registered:

Dear CEO,

We are the domain name registration organization in HongKong, which is the domain name registrar centre in Asia. We have something important need to confirm with your company.

we formally received an application on October 19 2008.One company who called Carnelian Investment Company are applying for following:

Domain Names:
$WORK.kr
$WORK.jp
$WORK.my
$WORK.ph
$WORK.net.cn
$WORK.org.cn
$WORK.com.hk
$WORK.com.tw

Internet Brand Name:
$WORK

These days we are dealing with it, After our initial examination, we found that the internet brand name and domain names applied for registration are as same as your company’s name and trademark. hope to get the affirmation of your company because that may relate to your intellectual property on internet. Now we have not finished the registration of Carnelian Investment Company yet, in order to deal with this issue better, please let someone who is responsible for trademark or domain name contact me as soon as possible.

Best Regards,

Steven
————————————————————————————————————————

Domain Name Auditing and Registration Manager.
Hong Kong Office:
Tel:00852 9566 0103
00852 9566 0205

Fax:00852-82261055
Email:steven@scdomain.org

Website: http://www.domaininasia.com
————————————————————————————————————————
————————————————————————————————————————
Confidentiality Notice. This is a letter for confirmation. If the mentioned third party is your business partner or distributor in ASIA please DO NOT reply. We will automatically confirm application from your business partner after this audit procedure. we have to notify you, and our registration organization are not responsible for any dispute questions about trade mark, intellectual property nor patent after they succeed in registration.hope you can understand.thank you.

Be forewarned: if you take them up on their “offer,” you’ll be buying and endless number of domain names!

For the sake of the search engines, here’s a list of fake company names used in the scam that I’ve been able to track down (humans might want to just quit reading here):

Viva International Holdings, Carnelian Investment Company, Secondment International Holdings Ltd, Mic-firstone International Holdings Ltd, Huaxin Holdings Limited, MieDac Holdings Limited, Please International Holdings Ltd, FuGuang International Holdings Ltd, Heriye International Holdings Ltd, Microkim International Holdings Ltd, Xingye Company, Xinei international ltd, Creation International Holdings Ltd, Xinyu Holdings Limited, SanYang International Holdings Ltd, RuiLian Investment (China) Co., Ltd, Tip-ken International Holdings Ltd, Hkadtod Holdings Limited, Xiayang Holdings Limited Company, Getsrich International Holdings Ltd, HuaYang Holdings Limited, Shidai Company, Ocean Holdings Limited Company, Honlres Holdings Limited, Varletry International Holdings Ltd, Ardagh International Holdings Ltd, Jufeng Holdings Limited, Fenghua network services inc, Huaxing International Venture Capital Holdings Ltd, Huaxing International Venture Capital Holdings Ltd, Universe Limited Company, Hkdod Holdings Limited, HengTong International Holdings Ltd, Microinfo International Holdings Ltd, Tinya Holdings Limited, Viva International Holdings Ltd, Mobackre International Holdings Ltd, Martink International Holdings Ltd, Getriches International Holdings Ltd, Hipsen International Holdings Ltd, WuXing Investments Ltd., daxin Investment (China) Co., Ltd, HengTong International Holdings Ltd, Greenstars International Holdings Ltd, Lunyu AP Company, Jonsee Holdings Limited, Overlade Group, Rabbit cat Limited liability company, Nanstart International Holdings Ltd, Poipu AP company, OMS Investment Corp, Gestinvest International Holdings Ltd, Goodwood Holdings Limited Company, MNIDERPY Holdings Limited, Kola Armi Company, WANAN INTL (HK) CO LTD, Yinli Investment(China) Co.,Ltd, Runkesi International Holdings Ltd, Chesterton Holdings LLC, Sunban Investment(China) Co.,Ltd, Goodwood Holdings Limited Company, Xianhou Limited Company, Kola Armi Company, Albigens International Holdings Ltd, Ciser International Holdings Ltd, Alance Holdings Limited, Makerc International Holdings Ltd, Hutmyt Holdings Limited, Kunda(China) Investment Co., Ltd, JingHong network services inc., Saibo Investment(China) Co.,Ltd, JinRun International Holdings Ltd, StomFant International Holdings Ltd, Starmerry Investment co.,Ltd, CM&XY Investment Corp, Serenation International Holdings Ltd, MacArthur Holdings Limited, Jo-Jo international Holdings Ltd, Xinye International Holdings Ltd, Kitcod Holdings Limited, Spachoice International Holdings Ltd, Fenghua network services inc, Makere International Holdings Ltd, Wan Sheng Holdings Limited, Lee Balanced Ltd, Arrogant day Limited liability company, Taxation International Holdings Ltd, Haoodle Investment Corp, gangfeng Investment (beijing) Co., Ltd, Hugu Holdings Limited, xingyu Holdings Limited, R-power International Holdings Ltd, Kislu International Holdings Ltd, Stershire International Holdings Ltd., Bronks Investment Corporation

  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. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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.

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