Today I received an email forwarded by one of my co-workers. In this email, the sender said he is from a China-based domain name register company, and basically he asked for a confirmation whether they should dispute a registration of some domain names similar as our TLD name.
First of all, our Post master told me that it looks like a phish asking for the confirmation so that they can sell our email addresses. But I called the phone number listed in this email, surprised I got an answer and confirmed that this is a real company and doing real domain name business. Later on, with Google search, we found out this is an old scam on the INTERNET. So I post the original email here and hope it can help you if you receive the similar email too. (I edited some information with xxxx to protect the privacy)
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From: Terry.wang[SMTP:xxxx@GOVNIC.ORG.CN]
Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 11:13:42 PM
To: xxx; xxx; xxx
Cc: xxx
Subject: The dispute of xxx(my company website)Dear Sir or Madam:
We are Shanghai SQL Network Information Technology Co., Ltd, which is the domain name registrar centre in China. We have something need to confirm with you. On the May 16, 2007, we received an application formally. One company named “Kunda(China) Investment Co., Ltd” applied for the Internet keyword(xxx) and the domain name (www.xxx.cn, www.xxx.com.cn, www.xxx.net.cn,www.xxx.org.cn).Today we are dealing with it, hope to get the affirmation of your company because that may relate to your intellectual property on internet.
Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.
Best regards,
Terry wang
Register Department:
Shanghai SQL Network Information Technology Co.，Ltd
Address：601A/F Baimao High-tech Mansion, NO.641
Tianshan road, Shanghai
Website: http://www.govnic.org.cn
Tel: 86-21-51750318*xxxx
Fax: 86-21-51750301
Email: xxxx@govnic.org.cn————————- end of email —————————-
Something help you to determine whether it is a scam or not.
- First of all, look at the recipients addresses. Since my company has the particular contact us page and we published the special email address for such correspondence. And the scam is using any email address they can harvest from the internet.
- No spelling-check.
- Domain name “intellectual property” protection from China-based company, come on, give us a break. Even in any other countries, I do not believe they will send out email to confirm the similar domain name registration.
- Research on the Internet if you have any suspicious before you reply.
Technorati : domain scam
Del.icio.us : domain scam
Hello, very nice site, keep up good job!
Admin good, very good.
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Friends, please don’t be cheated by the company Citronid.
I sent money by Paypal for my first order of 20 pcs MP4 players with Citronid on July 2nd,2008. The Citronid order number is 19890. But 15 days later, I didn’t receive any MP4 players, only 5 pcs paper boxes. I wrote several E-mails to Citronid but onbody replied me. And I tried to call them at +86-20-34387171, +86-20-34386664, Those telephone number are not exsited.
So I have to claimed with Paypal, but Paypal closed my case without any compensation. Because they offered the tracking number and my signature on the paper.
I lost over USD1000 with them.
Please don’t send any payment to the account by any payment method - Paypal, Western Union, Wire Transfer, Moneybookers:
Account holder: He Xiao Fu
First name: Xiao Fu
Last name: He
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John Harrison is not ture !
My name is Gary He (Chinese Name: He Xiao Fu) - Citronid the only Shareholder. Formerly Citronid have two Shareholder, but we are dissolution of partnership due to disagreement. We are suspension our business in order to count out the merchandise inventory, so we closed Citronid.com since July 30, 2008 and re-open it on October 29, 2008, in the meantime we do not accept new orders, we sent all the parcels to the customer if the customer already paid. We moved our office to now this address and the phone number is change (because moved office), but all these were for company development needs.
Why say ‘John Harrison is not ture’?
1. We have not a client name is ‘John Harrison’ and from ‘Miami, Florida, United States’ - Of course, I can not provide proof of valid
2. Until November 4, 2008, our newest order number is 14454. But ‘John Harrison’ said his order number 19890!
3. Citronid.com operating for 4 years, if we are Scam wholesale company, why just ‘John Harrison’ complaints? In general, The scam website quotation is very low so that you can not believe that, and the scope will be not big. So everybody, Citronid feel like a scam website?
4. ‘John Harrison’ said he paid US1000 by PayPal with Citronid on July 2nd, 2008. Here is our PayPal account (paypal#citronid.com) history from Jul. 1, 2008 to Jul. 7, 2008, there is not a US$1000 payment record here. [http://www.citronid.com/images/Citronid_paypal_history_Jul_1_2008_to_Jul_7_2008.jpg]
We guess ‘John Harrison’ is from China - a Citronid’s competiter. Webmaster can prove that if webmaster can check member IP.
I hope that any way to prove Citronid’s innocence, but except the above, I don’t know what else I can do.
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