February 5, 2008
Remember that old scam where that lancashire based company calls up bed and breakfast owners, preferably elderly ones and tells them that someone is about to register their domain name, but if they pay immediately they can get in there first and secure the domain names themselves? They then proceed to sell the hapless business owner a raft of useless and overpriced domain names.
Well the Chinese have caught onto this one, and are practicing it worldwide now, targetting businesses of all sizes.
Of course there is nothing really illegal in this scam. Like many scams, it justs targets the foolish and the inexperienced. If you believe that Liza represents some official domain name registration body in China then you will probably believe that Liza is really Liza too.
I don't know if this one will turn out like some of the 419 scams, where replying to one email just starts their processes rolling and before you know it, heavies are at your door looking for your chequebook.
But don't be tempted to reply. Just delete them, don't be daft. If anyone wants to buy your domain name in China, do you really think they'd ask you first?
Here's an example one of our customers received recently.
Name: Liza Ding
Company: Asia Domain Name Registration Limited
E-mail: Liza@asiadns.net.cn
Telephone: 00852 3059 3057
Message:
Dear CEO,
We are the domain name registration organization in Asia, deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally. Now we have something important need to confirm with your company.
On the Feb 4, 2008, we received an application formally. One company named "Mic-firstone International Holdings Ltd " wanted to register following
Domain names:
yourdomain.cn
yourdomain.com.cn
yourdomain.net.cn
yourdomain.org.cn
yourdomain.com.hk
yourdomain.hk
yourdomain.cc
yourdomain.tw
yourdomain.com.tw
yourdomain.mobi
yourdomain.asia
Internet brand keyword:
yourdomain
through our body.
After our initial examination, we found that the keywords and domain names applied for registration are as same as your company's name and trademark. We don't know whether you have any relation with them. These days we are dealing with it. Now we have not finished the registration of Mic-firstone International Holdings Ltd yet, in order to deal with this issue better, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.
Best Regards,
Liza Ding
_______________________________
Asia Domain Name Registration Limited
Tel:00852 3059 3057
Fax:00852 3059 3080
Email:Liza@asiadns.net.cn
Web:www.asiadnr.net www.domaininasia.org
Continuation
wokkie - Feb 05, 2008 2:04 PM
Here's a continuation of the same story, pinched from another website.
"I asked them to send the “dispute application form,” and got this in reply:
Dear David,
Attached dispute application form, pls check. We just could help you to dispute these domain name when we get you application form .pls note, all of the registration procedure are all in the application form, pls progress our work follow it. So please fill in and return to us ASAP.Thank’s
Best Regards,
Liza Ding
____________________________
As you can probably guess, the “Domain name&Internet brand keyword Disputed Applicication form” is not a dispute form at all, but an order form, with exorbitant rates to register domains. Here’s the price list:
★ Single registration fee:
(.cn/.com.cn/.net.cn/.org.cn) Domain name:160USD/ 5 Years Per Name
(.hk/.tw) Domain name:405USD/ 5 Years Per Name
(.mobi) Domain name:320USD/ 5 Years Per Name
(.cc) Domain name:340USD/ 5 Years Per Name
(.asia) Domain name:840USD/ 5 Years Per Name
.Internet brand keyword: 705EUR/ 5 Years Per Name
And of course that gave it away right there.
I don’t think these scammers will score too many hits because they are just too greedy. They’d probably make more money by charging a “dispute resolution processing fee” or some other kind of innocuous service charge rather than going for the big score.
"
And More ....
Ramsey Martin - Feb 18, 2008 2:03 PM
Dear Web Int,
just FYI...... if interested you can add Jacky Wong to Liza Ding on your ever widening Scambase (http://www.webintegrations.co.uk/index/news-app/story.131/title.the-scambase-widens
Incidentally we are getting bucket fulls of scam spam originating from China, about 75% of our current 419ers are from there, but they give themselves away with differences in phrase style compared with West Africa / Carribean. (before we even bother to check the IP trail, a good game is "guess the origin" before doing the backcheck)
cheers
Ramsey Martin
Not just from China though
wokkie - Feb 28, 2008 1:45 PM
In case anyone thinks this particular scam only comes from China though, it doesn't. Here are some UK setups involved in it at present
New World Formations - 0870 716 9938 - Domain Name Scammers
Company Name: New World Formations
Telephone: 0870 716 9938
Website: www.newworld-formations.com
Status: Active
Last Updated: 18th February 2008
Known Staff:
(could be aliases) Nadia Dumbar
We now suspect that all the following companies are in fact one and the same as New World Formations.
eWorld Formations
Business Identity Registry
New Design Solutions
IT 4 Business
The following company is also under suspicion of operating this scam
http://uk-businessformations.com
More to come..
More Names
wokkie - Feb 28, 2008 1:51 PM
Here are some more known scammers to feed the search engines.
Asia Domain Name Registration Limited +852 30593099 or +852 30759838 or +852 30593057 Active www.asiadnr.org
Business Identity Registry 0870 716 9928 or 0845 782667 Active www.biz-reg.com
Domain Registry of America USA: (866) 434-0212 Active www.droa.com
eWorld Formations 0870 067 0337 Active www.eworldformations.com
IT 4 Business 0870 716 9522 Active www.it-4business.com
London Office of Verifications and Registrations (Loovar) 0870 850 2388 Active www.loovar.co.uk
Mainstream Tech Ltd 0870 850 2820 Ceased Trading www.mainstreamtech.co.uk
New Design Solutions 0870 716 9895 Active www.new-designsolutions.com
New World Formations 0870 716 9938 Active www.newworld-formations.com
Shanghai Lailisi Domain Name Service Provider +(86)21-6136-0405 Active www.cndomains.org.cn
Shanghai MP Network Solutions Co Ltd +(86)21-5271-5980 Unconfirmed www.mp-china.org.cn
Streamline Ltd 0870 850 2388 Active www.streamlineltd.co.uk