Domain scam pirates strike again

They’re singing a familiar tune… this must be the 20th time this year that someone has gone after these particular domains. (I have substituted the word brand for the actual domain cited in the letter below.)

Be alert for these scams — and yes, they are scams. If you reply, they will try to sell you expensive (and unnecessary) services to “protect” your brands and domains. If you do not reply, they will not do anything at all. Don’t be scammed, don’t be fooled!

Subject: brand-Intellectual property rights (TO Principal) Urgent

Dear Principal,

We are a professional internet consultant organization in Asia, we have a pretty important issue needing to confirm with your company.

On the Apr. 22, 2009, we received an application formally. One company named Countsaltep Investment Co.,Ltd.wanted to register following

1.Domain names:
brand.asia
brand.hk
brand.info
brand.name
brand.net.cn
brand.org
brand.tw

2.Internet Keyword:
brand

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. These days we are dealing with it. If you do not know this company, we doubt that they have other aims to buy these domain names. Now we have not finished the registration of Countsaltep Investment Co., Ltd.yet, in order to deal with this issue better, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.

Best Regards,
Colin Lau
Hkitos Hong Kong IT Oursourcing Service