Beware of the Asian Domain Scam!

I am probably one of the sharpest people when it comes to email scams. Even if I'm sent one that I've never heard of, I more often than not can sniff it out right away-- which is why I was surprised when I very nearly fell for the notorious "Asian domain scam" recently.

1. The Scam in a Nutshell

What is the Asian domain scam? Simple. You own and run a website-- let's call it "Widgets.com". One day you're checking your web site's email when you come across what looks like a legitimate message from a domain registrar in Asia. The subject of the email may say something like "Widgets.com Dispute". The email informs you in a very calm, cool, and professional manner that it's concerned about a so-called trademarking issue involving your domain. You see, a company overseas (let's call it Company XYZ) is attempting to purchase several domains using your web site's name-- Widgets.asia, Widgets.in, Widgets.com.tw, and a host of few others.

The reason why this registrar is contacting you is that before going ahead with the registration, it first looked up Widgets.com to see if anyone else owned the domain. It discovered that you owned it and realized that since there's no connection between you and Company XYZ, concluded that this company is trying to take your web site's branding without your authorization. As a protocol, the Asian domain registrar is alerting you to this situation-- as well as seeking your input on it-- so it knows what to do next. That means that if you didn't give this company approval, you must respond immediately, or else the registrar will have no choice but to proceed with its request.

So, what happens when you respond with the demand that the registration not go through? You're told in a very business-like, yet apologetic tone that even though you gave no authorization for anyone to register these domains, legally its hands are tied-- internet law says that it has no right to reject a person's request for a domain, based on the "first come, first served" principle. Everyone has the right to purchase any domain they want-- regardless of authorization-- not even Google was able to stop people from registering domains based on its name. In fact, it had to pay out over $1 million to try to buy back several domains.

Even though you can't technically prevent Company XYZ from registering your domain, there is a solution to this dilemma. You can beat this company to the punch by registering these domains yourself. If you do, the registrar will give you priority since you are the rightful owner of this brand.

2. Hmmmm... Sounds Legit, but...?

When I first got this email, I initially bought into it hook, line and sinker. Not only was it very well written, the scenario it presented was plausible. Having been the victim of cyber squatting in the past, I've experienced the annoyance of a random company discovering my website and eagerly taking the .com and .net versions for itself, even going so far as to buy up shortened variations of the name so I couldn't get those as well. That someone could've stumbled across my current site and decided to start registering all of these domains in Asia for whatever reason was not unlikely.

Giving the email more validity was the fact it actually mentioned my domain by name, which is a rarity for scams. (They seldom get that specific or personal.) Furthermore, unlike most scam emails, this one wasn't instantly asking for important banking info or money. If anything, it was doing me a "favor" by helping me out!

As fooled as I was with the first email, the 2nd one sent up red flags. It didn't make sense that a company would spend so much time, money, and effort to copy a site of mine that isn't all that popular. It was just a little far-fetched to believe that someone was impressed enough with it to want to purchase up to eight domains based on it. This is especially true since most of these Asian domains-- upon further research-- seemed to cost a minimum of $39 a year. No one could be that stupid.

Another red flag was the fact that the registrar changed its tune when I followed its instructions to let it know I didn't want the registration to go through. In the first email, it made it sound as if it had the power to stop the registration.But then in the response, it acted as if it was totally helpless to do anything.

The last red flag in the response email was that in contrast to the first message, the reply began to have a hint of that typical sense of urgency you find in scam emails. Although it was subtle about it, the underlying message was clear-- if I wanted to keep someone from registering my "trademark", I should register all these domains myself through the registrar and as soon as possible.

Despite all of the red flags, believe it or not I was still uncertain about the whole matter. So I did what I usually do when I'm undecided about certain things. I took a shot in the dark and made a search with the keywords, "Asian domain scam." Within seconds I turned up several hits, some going back as far as 2008.

Yup, this was a scam all right-- an old one based out of China and Hong Kong that had disappeared for awhile but was now resurfacing. Mystery solved!

3. The Payoff

What's this scam all about, really? It's to get you to buy up a bunch of useless domains you don't really need to acquire, and usually for a lot of money. I never got past the second stage in the correspondence but this blogger got as far as asking how much the domains would cost to register. Unsurprisingly, they are very expensive, going for much more than you would normally spend for a domain. We're talking $40 and up, not the usual $10, $20. Should a person fall for this scam, he or she could stand to lose hundreds of dollars with absolutely nothing to show for it, not even the "protection" that purchasing these domains promised.

4. Don't Fall Victim!

If you ever get one of these emails, trash it no matter how legitimate it sounds. It's a complete and total scam. Even if in spite of my warnings, you feel a lingering doubt about the legitimacy of such an email because it sounds so professional, remember: if you feel pressured to register these domains to "save" your brand, you don't have to register them through the company that's writing you. You can always go back to the domain registrar you regularly use. After all, if it turns out that you do in fact need to register them, why trust an overseas company you've never heard of to do that for you? Might as well stick to a company you know so that if worse comes to worse, all you'll be faced with is the loss of some money and not the agony of identity theft or something much worse.