We Interrupt Your Usual Crazy Day to Bring You Something Truly Sneaky and Evil…
Have you ever received one of those weird emails from overseas, claiming someone you never heard of died and left you millions?
They’re at it again.
I just received an email with an ominous subject line:
Internet copyright of TheConfidentCopywriter (To Principal)
The email stated:
Dear Victoria Ipri,
We are an organization specified at dealing with domain name dispute and registration in Asia. We have something important on intellectual property right need to confirm with your company.
Today we received a formal application from a company called B2bmarketplace International, who applied to register ” TheConfidentCopywriter ” as their domain name in some countries and Network Trademark. During our preliminary investigation, we found that these domain names’ keyword is identical with your trademark. I wonder whether you consigned B2bmarketplace International to register these domain names with us? Or is B2bmarketplace International your business partner or distributor in Asia?
Currently, we have already postponed this application of this company temporarily. Therefore please let the relevant person make a confirmation with me by telephone or email ASAP.
Best Regards,
Wanda Peng
Auditing Department(HK Office)
Tel:00852 95 66 0205
FAX:00852-3071-7730
Email:wanda@skasiadnr.net
wanda.peng@dnrcenter.hk
Web:www.asiadm.hk.cn
I immediately freaked out and began writing back to “Wanda”, proclaiming my ownership of this domain, the legalities of my business…I mean, the nerve of this B2bmarketplace, whoever they were!
BEWARE of online FRAUD
And I did. And guess what I found?
You’re gonna love this one.
I found a blog, www.miproconsulting.com, and the wonderful Jeff Ventura, who suffered the exact same fate and wrote about it back in June 2008:
“This approach is obviously personalized to the owner/manager of a commercial Internet brand and hints at risk to our online trademark due to a foreign application being made for our trademark name in country-specific flavors (.asia, .biz, .cc, .cn, .com. cn., .hk, etc.). Being the nice foreign domain registrar they are, the sender of this message, SK Holdings, is asking us if we want to do business with them and secure all of the miproconsulting variants listed below so that we can protect our Internet brand from this foreign applicant. Isn’t it nice that someone halfway across the globe is looking out for our best interests? Makes me want to do business with them right away.”
Wow, people. This is a new one on me. I quickly erased my email to ‘Wanda’ and stashed her email in my FRAUD folder for future reference.
Thank you, Jeff! I see you have 111 responses to this email. So apparently, the tactic isn’t new; just new to me.
If it’s new to me, it might be new to you. So, to my readers who own domain names, watch out!
This is a sneak attack we all need to be aware of.
OK…you can go back to whatever you were doing now…
9 Responses to “We Interrupt Your Usual Crazy Day to Bring You Something Truly Sneaky and Evil…”
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Yep, Victoria, that’s sneaky and evil. My radar is on!
While we’re playing the name game, I’ll offer a similar cautionary tale: When I applied for a U.S. federal trademark for my company name, I received quite a few (perfectly legal and quite sneaky, though maybe not evil) direct-mail letters offering various services to “secure” the mark. They were very official, using an intimidating IRS-style typeface. I ignored them, knowing that the Patent and Trade Office is the organization that controlled my fate.
By the way, the reason I applied for the registration was because I’d previously had to cease and desist on a trade name I’d been using since 1999. I blogged the full story here. It wasn’t cheap (about $1400 between federal and legal fees), but I sleep better at night knowing that I “own” Boomvang Creative.
Great cautionary tale, Jake! Thanks for sharing
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ‘0 which is not a hashcash value.
Thanks for posting this Victoria!
You’re welcome, Marvin! Thanks for appreciating it!
Hi,
I just received the same kind of email re. my website 3e energy; thanks for the info, thought it was a scam, most helpful.
kind regards,
Mark
Glad I could help, Mark! That was exactly my intention.
This is my story from Spain.
Thanks Victoria for your post and your help.
I’m sending now an email to parents, friends, customers and suppliers to prevent the fraud that is this.
Thanks at all people who have care of FRAUDS around the world.
Dear Sirs,
I am Henry,this is the last time I inform you,we had discussed the case about your company’s domain names,we really want to help you ,And I have protection your domain names until now. The dispute period will pass soon,We did not receive your reply until now,so, we will think you have given up these domain names.Because I will give a reply to the third party simultaneously.Please give me your decision within dispute period, if you want to register these domain names or several of these domain names, we can send a dispute application form and price list to you, I am looking forward to hearing from you ASAP.
Best Regards
Henry Luo
Internet Copyright (Auditing) Dept.
From： Asporc
Date： 2010-04-10 03:10:39
To： henry@dnrcenter.hk
Subject： Internet Copyright–Regarding grupap (TO CEO)
Dear Sir
We DO NOT HAVE ANY CONTACT WITH THE COMPANY NAMED BELOW.
We have registered and copyrighted our “grupap.com” internet domain, and do not have licence for anybody out of our company.
If we detect that our domain is used without our approval, we take contact with our law gabinet to demand at the company or person who is working or using our domain.
Thanks for your advise.
We will in agreement with you to clarify any situation about it.
Best regards
Jaume Pelegri
General Manager
GRUPAP.COM
—–Mensaje original—–
De: henry [mailto:henry.luo@skasiadnr.net]
Enviado el: jueves, 08 de abril de 2010 5:01
Para: asporc
Asunto: Internet Copyright–Regarding grupap (TO CEO)
Importancia: Alta
Dear Principal,
We are a domain name disputed registration service company in HongKong, which mainly deal with international company’s in Asia,We have something important need to confirm with your company.
On the Apr. 7, 2010, we received an application formally. One company named J.E & Being Holding Limited applied for the internet keyword “grupap” and some domain names relevant to this trademark from our organization..
According to our procedures and in order to protect your intellectual property rights, we need to send this email to the original company for confirming the actual relationship with this company. because that may relate to your intellectual property on internet. Now we have not finished the registration of J.E & Being Holding Limited yet, in order to deal with this issue better and not to confuse registering these domain names, please let someone who is responsible for trademark or domain name contact me as soon as possible.
In addition, we hereby affirm that our time is limited for dissent application . If your company files no dissent within the time limit,we will unconditionally approve the application submitted by J.E & Being Holding Limited.
(PS:If you are not in charge of this matter,please transfer this email to appropriate dept.)
Best Regards
Henry Luo
Internet Copyright (Auditing) Dept.
——————————————————————————–
Tel: OO852-9566-O2O5 Fax: OO852-3O69-694O
Email:henry.luo@skasiadnr.net Web:http://www.asiadm.org
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The information contained in this communication is intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed and others authorized to receive it. It may contain confidential or legally privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful
Jaume,
Thank you for sharing your story.
I just received the exact same email today. I search the company’s name and found this website. Thank you for posting!