A Chinese company has written to ghanabusinessnews.com seeking to scam its operators with fictitious claims over the domain name.
The company which calls itself Network Technologies with the domain name dot.net.com.cn wrote to inform the managers that “We formally received an application on June 14, 2013 that a company claimed “Mickey Investment Group” were applying to register “ghanabusinessnews” as their Brand Name and some “ghanabusinessnews” Asian countries top-level domain names through our firm.”
According to the scammers, “we found the name were similar to your company’s, so we need to check with you whether your company has authorized that company to register these names. If you authorized this, we would finish the registration at once. If you did not authorize, please let us know within 7 workdays, so that we could handle this issue better. After the deadline we will unconditionally finish the registration for Mickey Investment Group”.
When management replied to tell them no company has been authorized to register the domain, they sent a mail indicating the domains that the fictitious ‘Mickey Investment Group’ was applying to register with them.
They sent the following email: “Thanks for your confirmation. As soon as receiving the application of that company, we checked and found “ghanabusinessnews” is your company’s using name and brand. We are concerned that your brand 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:
ghanabusinessnews
Domain Names:
ghanabusinessnews.asia
ghanabusinessnews.co.in
ghanabusinessnews.com.cn
ghanabusinessnews.com.hk
ghanabusinessnews.com.tw
ghanabusinessnews.hk
ghanabusinessnews.in
ghanabusinessnews.net.cn
ghanabusinessnews.org.cn
ghanabusinessnews.tw
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, If you don’t want to protect your intellectual property rights, 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.”
At this point publishers of ghanabusinessnews.com, Creative Imaginations Publicity decided to goad the scammers on and asked them how much it would cost to register the domains.
Believing that they have fallen for the scam, the scammers wrote back indicating exorbitant rates for the domain names.
They sent this mail:
“Thanks for your prompt reply. Following is the procedure, you can do follow it, 1. We will send the dispute application form to you.
2. Please fill out the form and return it via email(scanned) or fax.
3. We will dispute these domains for your company, In the meantime, we will send the Invoice signed & stamped to you.
4. Please remit the payment to us according to the bank information on the Invoice and send the payment proof to us.
5. We will register the domain names for you within 2 workdays after receiving the remittance.
6. You will be awarded the certificates of Brand Name.
Following is price list, for your reference：
ghanabusinessnews.asia 35 USD/Per Year
ghanabusinessnews.in 35 USD/Per Year
ghanabusinessnews.co.in 35 USD/Per Year
ghanabusinessnews.com.cn 45 USD/Per Year
ghanabusinessnews.net.cn 45 USD/Per Year
ghanabusinessnews.org.cn 45 USD/Per Year
ghanabusinessnews.hk 55 USD/Per Year
ghanabusinessnews.com.hk 55 USD/Per Year
ghanabusinessnews.com.tw 55 USD/Per Year
ghanabusinessnews.tw 55 USD/Per Year
Brand Name:
Ghanabusinessnews 180 USD/Per Year
If you decide to register those domain names, please let us know in order to transfer the Application Form to you. Any question, please contact us in time.
Thanks for your cooperation.
The mails were signed by one Alston Yang.
After the exorbitant prices, management sent them this mail:
Dear Alston,
With these unrealistic charges for domain names, shouldn’t I suspect that this is a scam?
And since then, Alston has not replied to the mail.
A search on Google shows that these guys have been in the business of domain name protection or intellectual rights protection scams for a long time and when they were found out they changed the strategy to ‘Brand Name’ protection, but they use the same address, except that they change the names of the writers of the mail.
They use these same address and telephone numbers: Tel: +86.7395266069 Fax:+86.7395266169; Address: 166 Huangshan Road Hefei 230001 Anhui, China.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi
it is truly a scam i have once received such mail. No one should fall for such trick, anytime you receive this kind of email, just ignore or forward it to your hosting company support.
Thanks
We got the same offer from this scam company.