NEED ADVICE URGENT! IS This A Scam?!

by 19 replies
23
Fellow warrior, I need some advice and information please.

I've just received an email from someone I have no contact with, which seems very strange.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had something similar.
My gut feeling tells me it is a domain company touting for business but it makes sense to know for sure.

This Is The Email Message:

=======================================

2010/10/29 Maxime Wei <maxime@netdrc.org>
(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 CEO,

We are the department of registration service in China. we have something which needs to confirm with you. We formally received an application on Oct., 28th, 2010, One company called "Soloun Trading Limited" is applying to register " honest-homebusiness" as brand name and domain names as below :


honest-homebusiness.asia
honest-homebusiness.cn
honest-homebusiness.com.cn
honest-homebusiness.com.hk
honest-homebusiness.com.tw
honest-homebusiness.hk
honest-homebusiness.in
honest-homebusiness.tw

After our initial checking, we found the brand name and domain names being applied are as same as your company! So we need confirmation with your company. If the aforementioned company is your business partner or your subsidiary, please DO NOT reply us, we will approve the application automatically. If you don't have any relationship with this company, please contact us within 7 workdays. If over the deadline, we will approve the application submitted by "Soloun Trading Limited" unconditionally.

Best Regards,

Maxime Wei

Senior Consultant

====================================

I've done the obvious search for the name of the company and no real information available.

What do you think warrior. Seen anything like this before?

Any advice or information you may have that can shine some light on this would be good please.

My return email basically said that it's nothing to do with me, and that at the end of the day there just domain names, and of no real concern to me.

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have.
Sincerely,
John Adams
#off topic forum
  • May be this person make you fool so don't waste your time to read that type of mails and i also got that type of mails every day.
  • I received a similar message before and replied. They replied just stating what they said in the letter again. They did not ask for any money and I have not heard from them since then.

    I think the reason for their letter is that you have registered the .com version and they want to assess whether you may take legal action against them later on.

    Derek
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • [DELETED]
  • The initial email came from China.
    Maybe the registration laws are different out there?

    I was never concerned. The .com site I own couldn't be over taken by anyone. It pretty much dominates for the main 10 keywords.

    But it always makes sense to check and confirm with fellow professionals.
    Thanks

    John
    • [1] reply
    • Yes, is it, but I did not yet receive such email.
  • China, and the culture, is NOTORIOUS for ******NOT****** caring about such things. That ALONE makes the email suspicious!

    Steve
    • [1] reply
    • Anyone who is online for some time knows that this is not legal. They get my mass deletion.

      Orkhan
      • [1] reply
  • I got a few of those. My solution was to just email back to them saying "thank you for the notification - I have forwarded it to the proper authorities."

    Never heard back from them, LOL.
    • [1] reply
    • Ok - if you aren't living in China....that's a clue.

      It's a scam attempt to get you to register domains through them. A/K/A - "spam"

      kay
  • Some great feed back, and some not so great!

    Thanks for all the feed back and ideas:

    Originally Posted by Orkhan Azer
    Anyone who is online for some time knows that this is not legal. They get my mass deletion.
    Orkhan

    Reply to Orkhan
    ****HOW**** do you figure!?!?!? Technically, it is ILLEGAL to trademark such a term, common words. ALSO, registering does NOT instantly convey a trademark. ALSO, it is NOT their job to check trademarks and, to the best of my knowledge, there is NO way to do so! AND, even if it WERE a KNOWN trademark, CHINA ****DOES NOT CARE****! So I don't get the meaning of your statement.

    Steve

    ============

    I agree with you Steve. We are on the same thinking level. Thank you for that.

    Orkhan. I've been online since 2003 and if there is one thing I've learnt is that nothing is obvious. For me, this is the first type of email to arrive at my inbox.

    I knew it was not right and some kind of scam (trying to get me to purchase something), which is exactly what I said in my very brief return email to them.

    Ask a stupid question once... comes to mind with this one!

    Thank's also to HeySal. Great advice.

    Always good to share the things you are not sure about.

    John
    • [1] reply
    • I mean if you think something is too good to be true, then delete it.

      Steve,

      BTW, I didn't even understand the meaning of your statement either. It seems we are talking different things.

      Orkhan

  • Its Obviously a scam
  • Hello John. Yes, it probably is a scam. Your instincts are right. Don't reply back.

    To Your Success,
    Brad Marcus
    • [1] reply
    • John, I haven't gotten that email, however, I keep getting letters (snail mail) from a company called "Domain Registry of America" that tell me my domains are about to expire and to pay them $50 and they will renew them for me. Anyone that has been around a little while knows that you can renew you own domain names through the registrar that you purchased them with for $8 to $12 dollars.
      I guess that some people just try to make a fast buck from unknowing people.
      Sad...
      Phil
      • [1] reply
  • i received 4 to 5 this type of mail regularly
  • Hi brother,

    There are two possible reasons behind the email.

    One that has been pointed out many times in previous replies that the company might be wanting you to purchase their mentioned domains.

    But there is yet another possible reason behind. There are many people out there who harvest emails for a particular niche. Once collected, they use such tactics to confirm those email address. Once confirmed, they are used for marketing purposes.

    Which of the two be the reasons; one way is there to avoid. That is simply ignore and do not even reply.

    Hope the whole situation is clear now.
  • Don't feel bad or concerned. It's definitely a scam.

    I get those. I am a massage therapist and my email address is online for that as well. I also get emails from people claiming to be massage therapists in other countries. They tell me they have clients visiting the USA and they've been referred to me by (usually someone I don't know). They want to make arrangements for their clients to see me while they're in the country. Usually from there it'll turn into them wanting to send me a money order... can I give her part back in cash... etc, etc.

    Fun on the web.
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