This scam is very subtle, it preys on fear, uncertainty and doubt. If you are not regularly doing business in this field and receive a message like this, it can be quite distressing. Note that this email below is not actually asking you for anything, but it is begging you to reply.  (click on the image to see a larger version of it). 

How does it work?

I have deliberately changed the real domain name in question to homestart-czw.

The sender (who is probably real) claims that they wish to use homestart-czw as a keywork in Chinese domain names.

They know that there is a homestart-czw.org.uk and that is how they found it. Similar scams along this theme may claim ownership of copyright or trademarks. What they want you to do is reply to the message. In other words start a conversation.

The sender will claim that you should protect your domain name against misuse by purchasing a set of CN (Chinese) domain names to protect your uk one. It will not stop there, they will also recommend that you purchase other domain names including the text “homestart-czw” for Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines etc. Before you know it you have purchased maybe 5 or more domain names that you do not need. Plus you have to renew them every year. The last one of these I looked at a few years ago would have amounted to an annual bill of £100 per year

Why should I ignore this?

Fundamentally because you are not trading worldwide, at best you are trading at the county level and most of you are at the local level covering a sub region in a county. Your domain name will generally give a clue about where you are:  homestart-czw.org.uk is an Organisation (charity) based in the UK. You are not providing services in China or Asia, therefore no conflict exists.

However you have to admit; from a “plausible deniability” perspective, that the person making the enquiry could just claim he is trying to help you! Sadly there is nothing going on here which could be deemed to be illegal.

If you receive a message like this, send it over and I will check it for you.

The highlighted red ring around the web address is designed to fool spam checking tools which will probably be looking for that website address. That is why it has spaces and square brackets where there should not be any.