This week I was busy going through my emails and while doing so I received a message from a domain registration company based in China. See email below:
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward to the right person/ department, as this is urgent, thank you.)
Dear Director,
We are the department of registration service in Asia. Currently, we have a urgent issue needing to confirm with your company.
On Aug 12, 2014, we received an application formally. One company named “MOMT Management Group” wanted to apply for the Brand Name “binarymeans” and some domain names through our body.
After our initial checking, we found the Brand name and domain names being applied are as same as your company! So we have to confirm with you at two points:
1. If the aforementioned company is your business partner or your subsidiary, please DO NOT reply us, we will approve the application automatically.
2. If your company have nothing to do with the aforementioned company, they maybe have other purposes to register the Brand name and domain names.
Currently, we have postponed this application of this company temporarily already. In order to deal with this issue better, please let the responsible officer contact us as soon as possible.
(If you are not the person who is in charge of this, please forward to the right person/ department, as this is urgent, thank you.)
Best Regards,
Xxxx xxxx
Auditing Department
When I saw this email, my first impression was “why will you be registering a brand name/domain name someone has already taken unless you are up to no good?” CYBER SQUATTING!!
I kept my cool, replied and strongly advised him to weigh his options and choose another brand name. His reply gave me more suspicion. See his reply afterwards:
Dear Dan,
Many thanks for your confirmation. If you don’t have any relationship with “MOMT Management Group”. According to our working experience, maybe they are investing domain names, and then get high reward, or they do the same business as you, so to confuse your customers and get profit.
We knew you have registered the domain name “binarymeans.com”, this is why we informed you. But now they wanted to apply for other domain names and Brand Name.
Brand Name:
BinaryMeans
Domain Names:
binarymeans.cn China
binarymeans.com.cn China
binarymeans.hk Hong Kong
binarymeans.tw Taiwan
binarymeans.asia Asia
binarymeans.co.uk United Kingdom
binarymeans.eu European Union
binarymeans.net World
binarymeans.org World
binarymeans.info World
binarymeans.biz World
As a domain name registry service organization, we have no right to reject any individual or entity to register these domain names through our body, Because domain name registry is open all over the world, that means “who register first, who own first”. But we should perform responsibility to avoid this cyber squatting. We also don’t hope any infringement violated to the interests of your company in future. If you think their registration will confuse your clients and harm your profits, you are supposed to secure your company’s benefit by registering them preferentially. If you confirmed to do so, please inform me to send a dispute application form to you and we will help you register these within the dispute period. If you don’t think their application will affect your company, you can give up, and we will follow up their registration.
Due to limited time, hope get your decision ASAP, if you have any question, pls contact me in time. Thanks for your cooperation.
Best Regards,
Xxxx xxx
Auditing Department
“If you think their registration will confuse your clients and harm your profits, you are supposed to secure your company’s benefit by registering them preferentially. If you confirmed to do so, please inform me to send a dispute application form to you and we will help you register these within the dispute period.”
“Help me register these??? Is this some kind of a new sales pitch method or what?” I thought. It became quite obvious to me that this guy is trying to force me into registering all the above mentioned domain names for fear of being taken by a company that may not even exist.
First of all, there are hundreds of domain name possibilities that can involve my brand name. I might as well register all those possibilities.
Secondly, there are so many Top-Level Domains – TLDs and more are being added from time to time, so I must register them as well? How insane is that?
I do not believe even big businesses do this unless it is absolutely necessary.
My advice: Do not fall for this kind of emails. Hit the delete button and block this person from ever sending you such ridiculous messages.
