Similar Domain Names Scam
A common scam message sent to domain name owners claims to be from a domain name registration company, saying that someone else has tried to register a domain name like example.cn (note the “.cn” on the end), or has tried to register a similar “internet keyword”, “net brand”, etc. The messages are often, but not always, from a Chinese company.
These messages say they’ve noticed that you own example.com, and that they want to check that you approve of another party registering the similar domain name / keyword / brand.
These messages are a scam. If you reply, the company will tell you that the only way to stop the (probably fictitious) other party from registering the domain name / keyword / brand is to buy it yourself at an exorbitant price.
What should I do about this?
You should ignore these messages. Even if there really is another party trying to register something like “example.cn” (which is very unlikely), that doesn’t affect example.com at all, and they cannot use example.com in any way.
Here are some other pages around the Internet confirming that this is a scam:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_scams#Fake_trademark_protection
- https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/chinese-domain-name-scams
- https://www.chinalawblog.com/2017/08/the-china-domain-name-scam-redux.html
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2015/may/05/how-does-a-domain-name-scam-work
- https://www.hoax-slayer.net/domain-name-application-scam/
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