I just received this:
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:25:40 +0800 (CST)
From: "karl.kang"
To: "dan"
Subject: About the domain names of dansdataDear sir,
We are SQL Network Information Technology Co., Ltd, a domain name register organization in China.We have something urgent need to confirm with your company. Because we formally received an application from a company named Sai Bo (China) Investment company.They are applying to register and so on as internet brand name"dansdata"and CN domain name"dansdata.cn /.com.cn /.net.cn /.org.cn" through us.Now we are in charge of this matter .In order to keep other party from using these domain names,hope to get your confirmation about these domain names¡¯registration asap.
Please let someone in your company who is responsible for information management contact us as soon as possible.Karl.Kang
Tel: +86-21-51750304
Fax: +86-21-51750301
Email: Karl.kang@govnic.org.cn Karl@govnic.org.cn
Web: www.govnic.org.cnSQL Network Information Technology Co., Ltd
Room A601, Block 2,ShanghaiWithub White-cat Science Park No.641 TianshanRoad ,Shanghai,China
2007-06-20
This message would have been entertaining if all it did was alert me to the fact that there exists in China a place called "Shanghai Withub White-Cat Science Park", but it also provided some wonderful nostalgia.
There is, of course, very probably no actual company trying to register dansdata.cn. Even if there were, I wouldn't care; I don't need to cover every possible variation of my domain name, since everybody knows where Dan's Data is already and dansdata.cn wouldn't fool anybody unless it copied all of my content. Which you could do just as easily with some other domain.
This is a scam, and an old and hoary one. The FTC's been shutting down similar scammers in the States since at least 2001. In the olden days, they at least sent you a paper invoice; what's up with this cheapskate e-mail crap?
Even if I did want to register .cn names, there are plenty of places to do that which're certain to be better than the awfully official-sounding "SQL Network Information Technology" govnic.org.cn site. I note that govnic.org.cn doesn't even tell you what it'll cost to register a domain. The going rate for non-Chinese is actually less than $US30 for a year - and Chinese citizens can apparently register domains for one yuan!
The SQL Etcetera site is also a rich fount of Chinglish, including some magnificently incomprehensible press releases.
The only other mention I can find for SQL on the Web (this SQL, not the real SQL) is on this Indonesian site, where they apparently filled out the Web complaint form with a copy of the come-on they sent to me.
Update: Here's a mention of them from a few years ago, when they were calling themselves "Shanghai Squile Network Information & Technology Co., Ltd".
"Squile"?
WTF?
I'd think about this more, but it's making my brain hurt.
20 June 2007 at 10:54 pm
Paper invoice scams still happen. I get these (and similar) regularly: http://www.geekrant.org/2005/04/12/domain-registry-of-america-scam/
6 July 2007 at 5:27 am
This seems to be an active group.
Dear sir, We are Shanghai IDC Network Information Technology Co., Ltd, a domain name register organization in China.We have something urgent need to confirm with your company. Because we formally received an application from a company named Sai Bo (China) Investment company.They are applying to register and so on as internet brand name"melcomart"and CN domain name"melcomart.cn /.com.cn /.net.cn /.org.cn" through us.Now we are in charge of this matter .In order to keep other party from using these domain names,hope to get your confirmation about these domain names’registration asap. Please let someone in your company who is responsible for information management contact us as soon as possible. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Karl.Kang Tel: +86-21-51750302 Fax: +86-21-51750301 Email: karl.kang@govidc.org.cn Web: http://www.govidc.org.cn Shanghai IDC Network Information & Technology Co.,Ltd Room A601, Block 2,ShanghaiWithub White-cat Science Park No.641 TianshanRoad ,Shanghai,China 2007-07-04
Looks like China may even own our trade names, eventually.
21 August 2007 at 1:54 pm
I just received a similar e-mail about my domain name.
21 August 2007 at 10:50 pm
I have a question-can someone tell me if this is a scam?
17 October 2007 at 9:44 am
And another. Added in its entirety for the sake of Google searches. (apart from actual domain censored)...
--
Dear:
We are Shanghai IDC Network Information & Technology Co.,Ltd,which is the domain name register center in China.We have something need to confirm with you.
We received an application formally, one company named Saibo Co.,Ltd applies for
Domain Name:xxxxxx.cn/.com.cn/.net.cn/.org.cn/.tw/.hk/.biz/.info
Internet Brand:xxxxxx
These days we are dealing with it, hope to get the affirmation of your company because that may relate to your intellectual property on internet. Now we have not finished the registration of Saibo company yet,in order to deal with this issue better, please let someone who is responsible for trademark or domain name contact me as soon as possible.
Awaiting your reply!
Mark
Check Domain Name Commissioner.
Oversea Internet Domains Accredited Registry
Shanghai IDC Network Information&Technology Co., Ltd
Tel: +(86)21-51750302 | Fax: +(86)21-51750301
Web: http://www.govidc.org.cn | Email: mark@govidc.org.cn markqin2008@gmail.com
--
14 November 2007 at 8:37 pm
Here is another!
-------------------------
Dear CEO,
We are the domain name registration organization in China, which mainly deal with international company's in china. We have something important need to confirm with your company.
On the Nov.13, 2007, we received an application formally. One company named "Secondment International Holdings Ltd" wanted to register following Domain names:
cisco.cn
cisco.com.cn
cisco.net.cn
cisco.org.cn
cisco.com.hk
cisco.hk
cisco.cc
cisco.tw
cisco.com.tw
Internet brand keyword:
cisco
through our body.
After our initial examination, we found that the keywords and domain names applied for registration are asa same s 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 Secondment company yet, in order to deal with this issue better, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.
Best Regards,
Tony Ji
14 November 2007 at 8:52 pm
This last example is of course particularly stupid, partly because I'm just going to go out on a limb and guess that "usrhlp" is not actually in charge of buying domain names for Cisco, but mainly because most of the listed domain names already belong to Cisco.
(Oh, and "Internet brand keyword" is a string which appears to only exist because of these scam mails.)
6 May 2008 at 10:02 pm
And another one! It's amazing that "dansdata.cn" is in such great demand!
(See also "Beijing Onvis Network Information Technology Co.,Ltd".)
15 October 2008 at 8:44 pm
And here's another one!
(Note that "www.domainorg.net.cn" is not actually the company responsible for the weird .asia sponsored TLD; that'd be The DotAsia Organisation.)