Chinese Domain Scams

Ahh, I love the smell of chinese.... domain scams, that is.

If you own a website, you'll probably get one of these at some point. A polite email from someone in a domain checking department somewhere deep in Asia... and they're very concerned about stepping on your trademarked toes. So concerned that they're telling you someone is wanting to register the chinese and asian versions of your domain name... and they're also willing to help you protect your trademark.

How very NICE of them! And if you just reply, they'll tell you how much it will cost to protect your corporate identity. Um...

DELETE DELETE DELETE.

Did I mention this exact same email has gone out to hundreds of thousands of other people, where the automated 'bot simply replaces the domain and the name of the registered owner?

DELETE DELETE DELETE.

I always tell my clients that if they get an email about their website or domain, to forward it to me and I'll take care of it. Why? Because they shouldn't be GETTING anything from anyone other than me.

The Chinese want to protect your trademark? Delete.
Domain Registry of America says you need to renew? Delete.
Someone has emailed you and said they can get you top positioning on Google and you don't know who this person is? Delete.

Anything else, or if you're just not comfortable deleting... forward it to me. I'll take care of it, that's what I do.

Elvis has left the building. And she's looking for lunch... chinese, anyone?