Beware of CN Chinese Domain Name Scam

Beware of CN Chinese Domain Name Scam. TutorZ has had its share of it.

TutorZ has received several email messages from the site ittdns.cn. Specifically, the person contacting us was Colin Tan (tan@ittdns.cn). He is asking to speak to an person of authority regarding the domain name registration of your .com domain in China, India, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He claims to have a client who wants to register under your brand name in China. The message would look like this:

Dear CEO or General Manager,

This is a letter to confirm the registration of your company name tutorz, please read it carefully. We are an agency engaging in registering brand name and domain names. Today, our center received an application from OLAMP International Ltd applying to register tutorz as their brand name and some top-level domain names(.CN .HK etc). After our careful investigation, We found the main body of domain names is same as yours. As a professional registrar, We are obligated to inform you of this situation.

We are handling the application and we need to confirm whether or not you authorize them to register them? Let me know your answer ASAP so as to solve this promptly. Thanks for your cooperation.

Best Regards,
Colin Tan
Tel:0086-551 634 911 91
Fax:0086-551 634 911 92
Tuogui Building, No.777, Ningguo South Road, Hefei, China

After responding to “Colin Tan” he would roll out the instructions with the request for payment:

Thanks for your prompt reply. Register by yourself is the best way to protect the intellectual property rights. Following is the procedure, you can do follow it.

1. We will send the dispute application form to you.

2. Please fill out the form and return it via email(scaned) or fax.

3. We will dispute these domains for your company, In the meantime, we will send the Invoice signed & stamped to you.

4. Please remit the payment to us according to the bank information on the Invoice and send the payment proof to us.

5. We will register the domain names for you within 2 workdays after receiving the remittance.

6. You will be awarded the certificates of Brand name after complete the registration.

Following is price list, for your reference:
tutorz.cn 45 EUR /per year
tutorz.tw 55 EUR /per year
tutorz.hk 55 EUR /per year
Brand Name:
Tutorz 150 EUR/per year

Please make a decision then tell us. Time is limited. If you decide to register, we will send you application form. Looking forward to your prompt reply.

How can you spot this domain name scam? Here are the hints:

1. Colin is trying to pressure you, e.g. “Time is limited.”

2. He references a company (OLAMP International Ltd) who is trying to buy your domain name in China, Hong Kong, India and Taiwan.

3. Mr. Tan asks for a bank transfer as a payment and no credit card payment.

Other ways to spot this same are:

1. Visit the URL as indicate by the email, that is ittdns.cn. It’s a professional looking site. But trying to register for a domain name all they do is to collect contact information. Contrary, Godaddy.com one can go through he entire process of registering and transferring a domain name.

2. Read up on domain name scams on wikipedia or squelchdesign.

We replied back to Mr. Tan with the following questions:

1) Who is the contact at OLAMP International Ltd to verify that they indeed tried to register for tutorz.cn

2) did you see my comment/registration for tutorz.cn on ittdns.cn? If so, please reply with its content.

3) Do you accept Visa Card credit card payments?

4) Who is the contact at OLAMP International Ltd to verify that they indeed tried to register for tutorz.cn

5) Why does ittdns.cn have not self-service?

6) Why do you require pre-payment?

There was no further reply back from ittdns.cn. So the guy realized that we are on to him.

I hope this article helps you not to waste time on ittdns.cn or even loose money on this cn domain name scam.