Someone wants to register mydomain in asia

should I care?

[too much information]

I was contacted last week by a registrar who informed me that a company has contacted them to register mydomain name as an asia-pacific domain and internet brand for their company. They saw a possible conflict and contacted me about it.

My site is 10% personal blog and 90% affiliate and the domain name is awesome for my topic and a few others that I could imagine. There is no way that I would give up the domain at this time, but I have no plans to buy the same domain name for other TLD's either and I'm not sure if I should care if someone else does. Plus, I don't really see any possibility for competition with my current content that I don't already have.

The part that trips me up is that they want to establish this as an "internet brand" so I'm not sure where that leaves me since I've been kind of pushing the same thing for a few years now. So my question is should I respond and say I don't care (because I really don't) or should I be trying to protect my name a little more?

[Visit Thailand]

Be very careful of such phishing emails, or scams. Not saying yours is one such email but be careful.

I am guessing it is a .cn as we have received a few of these emails over time.

[bill]

This is a common scam. It started with Chinese domain registrars. They tell you some fake company is trying to register your domain/keywords/trademark. They almost always end the mail saying "if you don't contact us we'll give your domain/keywords/trademark to (fake) company."

Don't fall for this!

If you have un-registered domains in the regions then don't bother using the scammers who spammed you. Use your own preferred registrar and get them yourself.

Otherwise you can completely ignore these. They simply troll the WhoIs of other domains, contact you, and hope you will panic and use their services.

[too much information]

Wow, I didn't even think about them trying to get me to buy the name myself.

I just went back and read the email again and that is what they are trying to do. That's just too funny, it was worded so badly that I didn't understand the scam. I thought they were just being nice!

Thanks for pointing that out guys, I was about to put together a response email.

[maximillianos]

Very common scam. I get one of these every few months. It is a tricky attempt to get you to registered your domain in their country extension. If you check in a few months I bet your domain is still available... ;-)

[sonjay]

I'm playing with one of those guys right now. I got the original e-mail, and wrote back pretending to be shocked and surprised that someone was trying to register my domain, and asked what I could do about it.

In the response I received back, the alleged cybersquatter is now trying to register 3 different TLD versions of my domain. They kindly offered to send me an "application" that I can use to stop the cybersquatting. They haven't yet made it clear that they're trying to get me to register those domains through them, nor have they named a price.

I'm awaiting the next installment even as we speak. (Don't worry, I have no intention of registering anything through these guys. I was just curious where it would lead.)

[HugeNerd]

I was confused the first time I got one of these emails...then I started doing some research. They were definitely trying to get me to register my domain in other TLD's. However, my research eventually got me to a site of the "company" which would help me register in these other TLDs. Site looked nice...but none of the navigation really worked and the english...well you get the picture. Since then, I've treated all such emails as spam/phishing/cons. They go into the same deleted folder as the requests from "Reverend Some Guy" for shipments to Ghana.

My thought is: Notable, trusted registers wouldn't notify me of someone trying to park a similar domain to mine on different TLD's. Heck, they'd simply register the domain, collect payment, and on to the next sale. So if the big guys aren't doing it, I am suspect of anyone else putting in such effort...they must certainly have ulterior motives to be so "nice". Cynical yet safe.