Dear President&CEO,<\/p>\n
We are an organization specified at dealing with domain name dispute and registration in asia. We have something important on intellectual property right need to confirm with your company.<\/p>\n
On November 3, 2009, we received an application formally, one company named “Tangto Holdings Ltd” applied for the Internet Keyword “rankexploits” and some domain names (such as,rankexploits.asia \/ rankexploits.cn…etc.) with our organization. After our initial examination, we found that they have no trademark, Intellectual property, nor patent. But the keyword and domain names they applied for registration are the same with your company’s name and trademark.<\/p>\n
These days we are dealing with it. If you do not know this company, we doubt that they have other purposes to buy these domain names.If they are your business partner or distributor in Asia,we will automatically confirm application from your business partner after this audit procedure. Now we have not finished the registration of Tangto Holdings Ltd yet, in order to deal with this issue better, please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
Best Regards!<\/p>\n
Eric Chen
\nManager
\nWeb: http:\/\/www.wtl.hk.cn
\nTel: ++852-95660496
\n ++852-95660205<\/p>\n
Fax: ++852-30197872
\nMail: eric@dnrcenter.hk
\n eric@sc-domain.org<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But, I thought, “What the heck?!?!. Curious, I sent this reply.<\/p>\n I don’t have any affiliation with that company. I’ve never heard of them. Eric answered thusly:<\/p>\n Hello Lucia,<\/p>\n I am glad you can contact me in time. <\/p>\n The several questions below I should explain to you. Secondly, as a domain registrar, we respect you are the owner of this trademark, but we have no right to refuse any person or company’s application. When we found they are In order to deal with this issue better, please make a confirmation with me as soon as possible, so that we can have a have a further discussion. Waiting for you reply.<\/p>\n Best Regards,<\/p>\n Eric Chen Wow! Someone would not only want rankexploits.cn, they want rankexploits.tw? Also, if I don’t buy “Rankexploits”, I might not rank well for the search term “rankexploits”, especially in Asia? That’s a worry. More troubling, there is a possibility someone one of you guys would get duped into buying a global lukewarming mug from “rankexploits.tw” and then get a poor quality product. Not good. So, I wrote back:<\/p>\n I can confirm that if someone other than me registers these domains, it could confuse my customers. Eric responded with this offer.<\/p>\n Hello Lucia,<\/p>\n If you think it will affect your benefits or confuse your customers, i suggest you to protect those domains which important to you.<\/p>\n As the owner of “rankexploits.com”, you will get the priority to register these domain names and Internet keyword. If you think these domain names are important to you, we can send you a dispute application form and help you register these domains within dispute period, this is the only way to prevent domain name from grabbing. If you think these domain names are not important to you, you can give up, we will finish their registration. <\/p>\n Following is domain names and Internet Keyword price list: You can choose some more important for you to register. After you confirm it,we can send the dispute application form to you and assist you to dispute and register the domain names for you within dispute period. Hope these information would be helpful to your consideration, waiting for your reply. <\/p>\n Best Regards,<\/p>\n Eric Chen <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Lets see 97+76+76+31+51+151 = Wow!!! To think I only spend something like $10 a year for rankexploits.com! I googled and easily discovered that no one had actually spend money to register any of the “disputed” domain names. (Why would they. I mean… seriously. Who the heck wants “rankexploits.tw”?<\/p>\n Still, I was curious about the “dispute application”. So, I wrote:<\/p>\n Eric, To which Eric replied:<\/p>\n Hello Lucia,<\/p>\n Attached is the dispute application form, please check. If you have no question, please fill the form and return it to us as soon as possible. If you have any questions, contact me freely.<\/p>\n Best Regards,<\/p>\n Eric Chen <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Well, they had already done 1. The dispute form doesn’t really look like a dispute form though:<\/p>\n Needless to say, I had no intention of registering all these domain names or forking over money to eric. I mean, sure, maybe you guys will get confused and buy a few inauthentic global lukewarming mugs. But, probably not so many. Also, if anyone registers these names and starts confusing you people with offers of knock-off global warming mugs, I’m sure I can do a bit of googling and find out if a dispute process really exists and what steps one takes to dispute someone’s right to register “rankexploits.tw”.<\/p>\n Still, it’s a worry. So, I wrote back:<\/p>\n I only intend to dispute that the names are registered in bad faith. I don’t need you to register the domains. Please explain how to dispute only. So far, no answer. . . But it’s late in China. Maybe Eric went to bed. I’ll let you know if eric responds tonight. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey guys, I thought you might enjoy reading some of my email correspondence with what appears to be the “internet keyword scam”. If you have registered a domain name, you may someday receive a similar offer. Dear President&CEO, We are an organization specified at dealing with domain name dispute and registration in asia. We have … Continue reading Internet Keyword Scam<\/span>
\nHmmm… sounded weird to me. First, I haven’t registered Rankexploits as a trademark. Plus, what the heck is an “internet keyword” and why would one register “rankexploits”? I mean, I can understand wanting to register something profitable<\/em> like “cheap iPods”, but rankexploits? Sounds like a pretty stupid commercial move to me. Also, why would one want to register “rankexploits.cn<\/em>” and various other endings? <\/p>\n
\nLucia<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nFirstly, if you have no relationship with Tangto Holdings , according to our working experience, there are two possibilities.
\na.Tangto Holdings is a domain name investment company, they want to register these names before you and sell them back to you in order to gain profits;
\nb.It may be a commercial method, Tangto Holdings is consigned by your competitor to register these domain names, they are trying to replicate your idea and let your customers feel confused.
\nThe following is the domain names and internet trademark which Tangto wants to register:
\nrankexploits.tw
\nrankexploits.hk
\nrankexploits.in
\nrankexploits.cn
\nrankexploits.asia
\nand Internet Keyword: Rankexploits<\/p>\n
\nnot the real owner of this trademark, we informed you to protect your interest via email. I would like to confirm if you think these domains are useful to your company. In another word, I would like to know if you think their registration will confuse your clients and harm your honor and profits. <\/p>\n
\nPS:
\nBelow is the detailed explaination of Internet Keyword:
\na: Internet Keyword is the extension of trademark and brand in the internet world. It decides the stability and activity of keyword in the world of internet.
\nb: After registration, any person in any district can type the keyword directly on the IE browser, then they can go to your official website. But If registered by other company, it will affect the rank of this keyword in google search engine. In another word, if you do not protect it, the result won’t in the first page of any search engine ( Google\/ Yahoo etc.) even if you pay much money and time for propaganda. Especially in Asia, your clients can’t search your company.
\nc: After the successful registration, Chinese government will award you an electronic certificate, which will prove your validity of using this trademark in the internet. Every international corporation has protected
\nits keyword.
\n2009-11-04<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nThank you.
\nLucia<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nDomain names: Price: Per Year
\nrankexploits.in 97.00 USD
\nrankexploits.tw 76.00 USD
\nrankexploits.hk 76.00 USD
\nrankexploits.cn 31.00 USD
\nrankexploits.asia 51.00 USD
\nInternet Keyword: Price: Per Year
\nRankexploits 151.00 USD<\/p>\n
\nPlease send me the dispute application.
\nLucia<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nIf you intend to register these domain names. Following is the procedures, you can do follow these.
\n1. We send the dispute application form to you.
\n2. You fill in the application form and return it via email (scaned) .
\n3. We will dispute their application and protect these domain names for your company.
\n4. We’ll send the invoice of payment to you.
\n5. You transfer the payment to us according to the Bank information on the invoice and fax the payment proof to us.
\n6. We will point these domain names to your main website after getting the payment proof. And award you the electronic certificates.<\/p>\n![\"DisputeForm\"](\"http:\/\/rankexploits.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/DisputeForm.jpg\" "\\"DisputeForm\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLucia<\/p><\/blockquote>\n