Using Domains To Scam For Money Part 1

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It's not often I get emails of this ilk but these do cause concern and worry for some people. Here's the email:

Dear Sir/Madam

We are a internet service (software development, website design and development, wifi network works to promote the protection of brands, search engine optimization, etc.) company in China,

Several days ago we received a formal application submited by Robert Jiang who wanted to use the keyword "mswd" to register the Internet Brand and with

suffix .cn / .com.cn / .net.cn/ .hk/ .asia/ .info/ .tw/ .us/ .jp/ .fr/ .de/ ...domain names.

After our initial checking through Internet , we found that the keyword "mswd" to be applied for registration is same as your keyword.Accordingly,before we finish his registration,we would like to get your final decision about this,whether you mind his registration,if you believe his registration would affect your bussiness and produce conflict,then we could give your priority to register them,as the keyword is first used by your company.However,if you do not think so,please advise of that and then we will finish his registration.

For proceeding the next step, Please contact us by Fax ,Telephone or Email as soon as possible. Under the circumstance of no your reply during the next 5 working days ,we will consider you to give it up and finish his registration.

Yours sincerely

Cherry

Checking Department

Basically what these pond scum do is to trawl through domain records and tell you that some punter has been in touch with them to buy up all the domains that contain your domain name word. How it could cause conflict with your business and may even harm it. But of course being kind and godly people they wish to offer you the chance to get these domains first. And of course you can use their service. Which you can bet is going to cost hundreds of pounds or dollars, unlike the few bob that your regular domain registrar will charge.

So my website offering website design and hosting is at http://www.mswd.co.uk, hence the 'mswd' in the email I received.

You know of course that there's no such 'Robert Jiang'  looking to buy up all the domains with 'mswd' in the url. But they want you to think so and rely upon your response to a fear or concern that they are trying to generate in people who may be unsure with all things internet.

So if you do get such a mail, bin it, mark it as spam, blacklist their email address, do whatever. Just don't reply to them. And relax!

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