There’s a new internet domain name scam going around and its perpetrators tried to target our sister site Jezebel. Basically how it works is that a website operator will get a very official looking email saying they’re an internet registration company and that someone applied to use your domain name except with a different suffix, instead of .com, .cn, in this instance. Then, says, Kevin Tjaden, Client Services Manager at MarkMonitor, If you respond to the e-mail they will register the domain and offer to “recover” it for you for a large fee. It has been a pretty successful so you will see more of them in the future. It is best to treat them like spam and do not reply.”

Inside is the email that our fellow editor received as an example so you will know what to watch out for…

From: john@chinaregistry.cn
Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 12:36:57 +0800
To: [redacted]
Subject: Notification of intellectual property

Dear manager,

This is Shanghai Oupu Information Technology Inc. which is a professional interenet brand&domain name registration and service company in China . On 7th, Jan. I received EFEDA international company’s application.they want to register “jezebel”as “.cn”domain names and internetbrands.

But after checking it I find these domain names conflict with your company’s name.In order to avoid the unnecessary conflict ,lt’s necessary to send email to the owner of this name and confirm whether you have authorized EFEDA to register the domain name and internetbrand or not?

Best Regards
John Yuan
Principal of Checking Department
Overseas Registration Organization
Tel:+(86)21-5425 3330
Fax:+(86)21-5425 5521

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