Dear [customer],

we are a professional domain name registration center in asia, mainly dealing with the domain name registration and internet intellectual property rights protection, We received a formal application from a company who is applying to register “[domain]” as their domain name and Internet keyword on April 09 2009. 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

Kind Regards,

Robin.Yang

Tel:+ 852 31757930 (ext):8019
Fax: +852 31757932
Email: robin.yang@hk-net.org.cn
Hong Kong Network Service Company Limited
Website: www.hknsc.hk

We had received a similar letter:

Dear Manager,

We are a professional Internet consultant organization in Asia, which mainly deal with the global companies’domain name registration and internet intellectual property right protection. Currently, we have a pretty important issue needing to confirm with your company.

On 2009-02-12, we received an application formally, one person named “Jacques Tits” wanted to applied for the Internet brand “studiokraft” and some domain names through our body.

During our preliminary investigation,we found that these domain names’ keyword and internet brand is identical with your trademark. I wonder whether you consigned “Jacques Tits” to register these domain names through us or not? Or is “Jacques Tits” your business partner or distributor in Asia? Currently, we have postponed this application of this company temporarily already. In order to deal with this issue better, please let the principal make a confirmation with me by telephone or email ASAP.

In addition, I must state that we have time limited for one person or one company’s registration. It is just 15 days. If your company files doesn’t resent within the time limited. We will unconditionally authorized the application of ” Jacques Tits”.

Thank you for your cooperate.

Best Regards,

Heather Lau
Mail:heather@worldwidenetwork.asia
Web:www.worldwidenetwork.asia

The name of the supposed registrant “Jacques Tits” was sort of a tip-off that this mail was not legitimate.

The “companies” who send these mailings will register the domain in question at an inflated price if you respond positively to these mails.

These companies are attempting to scam people into purchasing domain registrations at ridiculous prices by pretending that there is some third party interested in registering the domain.

These mailings prey on small business owners who know the importance of protecting their brand, even if they do not do business worldwide. Businesses who are not internet-savvy or who do not have an IT consultant on staff may fall for these scams.

StudioKraft warns their clients of these and other internet scams, and asks anyone to ignore any e-mail received that resembles the examples above (the exact wording changes often), particularly if they are sent from any of the following domains:

http://www.anwins.com

http://www.asiaao.cn

http://www.asiadm.org

http://www.asiadnr.hk.cn

http://www.asiadnr.net

http://www.asiadnr.org

http://www.asiaip.org

http://www.asianetwork.ws

http://www.asianetworkonline.com

http://www.asiaregistrar.org

http://www.beijing-anwins.com.cn

http://www.bj-hk.asia

http://www.bj-hkzc.com.cn

http://www.bjhknet.cn

http://www.china-domainsolution.org.cn

http://www.china-net.hk.cn

http://www.china-net.hk

http://www.chinasps.net.cn

http://www.chinasps.org.cn

http://www.chooke.com.cn

http://www.chuk.com.cn

http://www.cnbcgov.org.cn

http://www.cntl.hk.cn

http://www.dnrnic.net

http://www.domainaudit.org.cn

http://www.domaininasia.com

http://www.domaininasia.org

http://www.erimut.com

http://www.europaregistry.net.cn

http://www.europaregistry.org

http://www.europatech.com.cn

http://www.europetech.com.cn

http://www.fexon.hk

http://www.firetrust.org.cn

http://www.govisp.cn

http://www.ha-zd.com.cn

http://www.ha-zd.com

http://www.ha-zd.org

http://www.hkstareast.com

http://www.hkstareast.net

http://www.idci.org.cn

http://www.inveis.com.cn

http://www.inveis.com

http://www.inwis.cn

http://www.netinasia.com

http://www.netinchina.hk

http://www.shanghainic.org.cn

http://www.shnetnic.cn

http://www.shundajishu.com.cn

http://www.shundajishu.net.cn

http://www.shundakeji.net

http://www.star-east.hk

http://www.ujane.cn

http://www.ujanegroup.cn

http://www.westtechnology.asia

http://www.worldregistry.com.cn

http://www.ytym.org

The FBI offers the following tips for Internet users:

·If you encounter an unsolicited e-mail that asks you, either directly, or through a web site, for personal financial or identity information, such as Social Security number, passwords, or other identifiers, exercise extreme caution.

·If you need to update your information online, use the normal process you’ve used before, or open a new browser window and type in the website address of the legitimate company’s account maintenance page.

·If a website address is unfamiliar, it’s probably not real. Only use the address that you have used before, or start at your normal homepage.

·Always report fraudulent or suspicious e-mail to your ISP. Reporting instances of spoof web sites will help get these bogus web sites shut down before they can do any more harm.

·Most companies require you to log in to a secure site. Look for the lock at the bottom of your browser and “https” in front of the website address.

·Take note of the header address on the web site. Most legitimate sites will have a relatively short internet address that usually depicts the business name followed by “.com,” or possibly “.org.” Spoof sites are more likely to have an excessively long string of characters in the header, with the legitimate business name somewhere in the string, or possibly not at all.

·If you have any doubts about an e-mail or website, contact the legitimate company directly. Make a copy of the questionable web site’s URL address, send it to the legitimate business and ask if the request is legitimate.

·If you’ve been victimized by a spoofed e-mail or web site, you should contact your local police or sheriff’s department, and file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center at www.IFCCFBI.gov.

How to protect yourself against scams:

You can reduce your chances of being swindled by knowing whom it is you are dealing with. This will help to protect you against getting involved with scam operators who set up companies, rack up debts then close up shop leaving their debts behind.

Keep these points in mind:

·Ask for the name of the person you are speaking to and whom they represent.

·Take notes of conversations, including dates, times, names and important points.

·Ask for an explanation of anything you don’t understand.

·Read letters carefully and seek professional help (e.g. an accountant or a solicitor) if significant money, time or responsibilities are involved.

·If you want to check out the bona fides of a company, contact [Companies House or the Financial Services Authority].

·Find out whom you are dealing with. Independently verify any claims made by a sales person, investment adviser or advertisement.

·Make sure that any company you deal with complies with the applicable legislation. (In the UK, all companies must be registered with Companies House).

·Only do business with companies you know and trust.

·Make sure you fully understand all the terms and conditions of any offer made to you.

·Take your time before you make any decision.

·Don’t provide any financial or other personal information before you establish whether the company is legitimate.

·Understand and monitor your investments and ask frequent questions and map out your financial goals before you meet with a financial planner.

·Don’t judge the credibility of a company or sales person by how ‘professional’ they or their promotional material or web site seems.

·Don’t fall for high-pressure sales tactics.

·Don’t let embarrassment or fear keep you from reporting fraud or abuse to the appropriate authorities.

·Don’t ever be afraid to ask questions. In fact, the more questions you ask, the better.
In all situations, the old maxim applies,
“If it sounds too good to be true – it probably is”!

Top Five Signs That a Message is a Hoax

The next time that you receive an alarming e-mail calling you to action, look for any one of these five telltale characteristics before even thinking about sending it along to anybody else.

Urgent
The e-mail will have a great sense of urgency! You’ll usually see a lot of exclamation points and capitalization. The subject line will typically be something like:

URGENT!!!!!!
WARNING!!!!!!
IMPORTANT!!!!!!
VIRUS ALERT!!!!!!

Tell all of your friends
There will always be a request that you share this “important” warning by forwarding the message to everybody in your e-mail address book or to as many people as you possibly can. This is a surefire sign that the message is a hoax.

This isn’t a hoax
The body of the e-mail will contain some form of corroboration, such as a pseudoquote from an executive of a major corporation or from a government agency official.

Sometimes the message will include a sincere-sounding premise. For example:

My neighbor, who works for Microsoft, just received this warning so I know it’s true. He asked me to pass this along to as many people as I can.

It’s all a bunch of baloney. Don’t believe it for a second.

Watch for e-mails containing a subtle form of self-corroboration. Statements such as “This is serious!” or “This is not a hoax!” can be deceiving. Just because somebody says it’s not a hoax doesn’t make it so.

Dire Consequences
The e-mail text will predict dire consequence if you don’t act immediately. The message may inform you that the virus will destroy your hard drive, kill your houseplants, or cause green fuzzy things to grow in your refrigerator.

History
Look for a lot of >>>> marks in the left margin. These marks indicate that people suckered by the hoax have forwarded the message countless times before it has reached you.

Even more great information can be found here.