The China Domain Name Scam Redux

By Dan Harris on August 1, 2017

China domain name scam

Every so often there seems to be an uptick in what our China lawyers call the China domain name scam and now is one of those times. Our lawyers have lately been getting a slew. of emails from companies asking what they should do about an email they just received (usually in badly written English) telling them they must register their domain name in China right away or lose it forever.

These emails usually look something like this and they are complete fakes and should be ignored:

We are China’s internet domain services company and last week, we received an application from a Chinese company that has requested “[NAME OF U.S. COMPANY”] as their internet name and China (CN) domain name. But after checking into it, we learned that this name conflicts with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it’s necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China and to confirm that you authorized this domain registration Please respond soonest.

Or something like this one, which went to an international attorney friend of mine who sought our advice on behalf of one of her clients:

This is about the registration of your company name “______________.” Please forward it to your companys leader. Thanks!

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am grateful for you checking this letter out. We are a Chinese domain registrar. Recently, we received the registration request from “__________ Technology Ltd” applying to register __________ brand and domain names(cn hk etc), which have same main body as your company’s name. We send this letter to confirm with your company whether or not you authorize them to register those names. Please give me your thoughts ASAP so as to let us carry on, Thanks.

I first wrote about this scam back in 2009, in China Domain Name Scams. Just Move Along, [link no longer exists] with this to say:

If your company has done anything in China (even just sending someone there to meet with a supplier), you have probably received a somewhat official email offering, at a steep price, to “help” you stop someone from taking your domain name.

DO NOT RESPOND.

Near as I can tell, every single one of these that I have seen (and I have seen at least fifty of them because clients are always sending them to me) are a scam.

You also may get emails from someone claiming to have already registered some iteration of your company name (or one of your product names) and seeking to sell it to you. For example, if your company is called “xyz” and you already own the xyz.com domain name, your email may come from someone who has purchased and now wants to sell you the xyz.cn domain.

What to do?

First off, as soon as possible, register whatever domains necessary to protect yourself. Determine now what domain names you care about so you do not need to make this determination with a gun to your head. Right now is the time to think about Chinese character domain names.

Secondly, if someone has taken a domain name that is important to you and they are now offering to sell it to you, you essentially have three choices. One, let the domain name go. Two, buy it from the company that “took” it from you. And, three, pursue legal action against the company that took it from you.

Preemption by registration is your best and least expensive protection.

Nothing has changed since then.

If you get one of these, you should also ask yourself whether you even care that someone is registering your domain name in China. And if you do, you should then determine whether you have a China trademark that would stop it? And if you care about China, are there other countries where you should be registering your domain name also?

Anyway, just be careful out there.