Handle your typo domains to us or you will be paying $100 000

this is the email I got from "CitizenHawk Domain Recovery"

[adrianTNT]

Hello.

Can someone tell me if this is real or not?
I got an email for 3 of misspelled domains, the email says they are a domain recovery firm and that they ware hired by the original domain owners and if I do not handle to them I will be paying $100 000 for each domain name.

...email quote removed...

The email is signed as "CitizenHawk Domain Recovery".
Anyone received a similar email form same company "CitizenHawk Domain Recovery"? I do not know if this is a fraud or not.

Thanks.

[edited by: adrianTNT at 8:31 am (utc) on Jan. 25, 2008]

[Laker]

adrianTNT,

Please click on this link to read: Domain Forum Policy Regarding Trademark Threads [webmasterworld.com].

[Marcia]

And from the Terms of Service [webmasterworld.com]:

Email excerpts of ANY type or length are not allowed on WebmasterWorld. There are no exceptions to this rule.

[adrianTNT]

ok, I edited the email quote, so anyone heard about "CitizenHawk Domain Recovery" before? I am thinking this might be some kind of fraud and that they are not really hired by the domain's company to recover the typos.

[edited by: adrianTNT at 8:32 am (utc) on Jan. 25, 2008]

[Webwork]

The real question isn't "Who's that knocking at my door?"

The real questions are "Do they have a loaded gun?" and "Are you wearing a Kevlar vest?"

Are you the registrant of domains that are typos of famous, non-generica trademarked brands and are you deploying those domains in a manner calculated to make coin off the value of that brand?

If so, CitizenHawk may or may not be a threat. At the very least they may stir things up at the legal department of the famous brand or they may be your "warning shot" before the real big guns start firing at you.

Read the news. More big brands are going after typosquatters and those brands aren't stopping at the door - stopping at taking back the domains - they are, instead, leveling houses. They are not stopping until they get money judgments that will bankrupt people.

[edited by: Webwork at 1:39 pm (utc) on Jan. 25, 2008]

[LifeinAsia]

Did you try a Google search or at least try CitizenHaw dot com? You'll probably find a lot of information that way. :)

[adrianTNT]

@Webwork: the domains are parked and they show ads related to orignal domain, I guess that means I proffit from their brand?!

@LifeInAsia: I did searched their name on Google, I only found some infomation about them, but not much.

The domains do not make any income so I guess I will just let them have it.

[bateman_ap]

I would never answer anything like that that came in via email or fax. A registered letter would be the only thing I would then look at further.

[LifeinAsia]

I did searched their name on Google, I only found some infomation about them, but not much.

Really? I got over 3,000 hits.

Having a former Former Yahoo!, Overture, and Microsoft executive on their board and the amount of writeups they've gotten in the online press (clickz.com, informationweek.com, inc.com, etc.) would indicate to me that's probably not fraudulant.

[adrianTNT]

3000 hits is kind of low to check a company's reputation, my nickname returns 46 800 results and I am small :) . And those 3000 results are mostly blog entries and things like that.
Just to be clear: I am not considering them to be fraudulent but I had doubts.
I handled 3 domains to them few hours ago.

[bateman_ap]

It does worry me when people just do stuff over the strength of an email. We all know email can be spoofed, and in my head there is no difference between saying you are a recently deceased kings son or the CEO of Yahoo in an email communication.

I could have quite easily come across your domains, fancied having them for free so write you an email claiming I was from so and so legitamate company and you have to hand them over or I wll take you to court for hundreds of thousands of pounds. Spoof the from address, send it from an untracable IP address, you look them up on your fav search engine, see they are a real company, and hand the domain over to me. I've just got a nice domain for free and you will find it nigh on impossible to get it back.

[adrianTNT]

Yes, but that was not the case now, I replyed to the message and they replied back. That way you can check that the sender was not spoofed.

[nomis5]

But why give them the domains? Why not just remove the content and ads and see what they do then? They would nedd to reply to you if you told them what you had done.

[adrianTNT]

They just said to give them the domains or I could be paying $100 000 for each one. So changing the content was not what they wanted and I do not want to risk especially because the names didn't generate profit.