Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on April 27, 2009

Would you buy a domain from this man?

We have all gotten them.  You know, those official looking emails that tell us that [insert important sounding name] has received an inquiry about purchasing your domain in China (or some other country) and they wanted to go out of your way to inform you that your intellectual property rights might be infringed upon!  Wasn’t that nice of them.  A big company like that going out of their way to make sure that you get first crack at the domain someone is trying to register?  Except they aren’t and while you should ALWAYS check with your lawyer if you are the least bit suspicious of something you receive, there are a few things you can do to head things off at the pass, as it were.

• Google the text of the email.  If you got it, odds are someone else did, too, and they might have posted it to a message board or something.  Make sure you Google it with quotes around it.  Here’s one we got recently:

Due to the possibility of involving your company name or trade mark, thus causing the conflict with your online interest, we bring this into your attention immediately in view of your priority and Intellectual Property Rights according to the registration procedure. You could contact us for learning more about it or seeking the corresponding operation on your behalf promptly.

• If the email came from gmail, hotmail. yahoo or any other free account service – then really think about how official the company could be.
• If the email came from a domain – see if the domain actually exists.  Is there a website?  If so, then what does it say?  Do they sell domains?
• Do you really care if your domain is registered in China?

The last point is the one that you should really consider.  Protecting your trademarks is important.  But if you can’t register the domain through one of the big registrars (like Network Solutions) then maybe you don’t really need it.  I mean, pretty much every country has their own domain extension, and you are not worried about having your domain in Belgium, are you?

So while we are not saying you should not check with your counsel if you are really worried (if it is your trademark, or you have an office in China) we do want to make sure you know that the main goal of the people emailing you is to get you to buy a domain from them.  And if you want to by a domain, there is usually a better way to do it then by replying to some random person who emails you.

Categories: Technology, Websites, industrial marketing, online marketing
Tags: email, Scams