Beware of China Registry Domain Name Scams-Still Active
We’ve all heard of Internet scams to steal your identity, your credit card number, bank account information, etc. Some actually fall for such scams. But a little suspicion and look up for information helps. Recently we came across an email pretending to be from the China Registry saying that some organisation in China has requested registration of our domain name as their internet keyword and with China (CN) domain names. And the email at the end request us to ‘confirm whether this company is your distributor in China?‘ Such emails may come to someone managing some websites. Now, if you receive such emails, before you reply quickly, which may lead to further conversations, turn on your ‘suspicion antenna’ and look up for some more information as discussed below.
We are not sure what this ‘China Registry Domain Name Scams’ would lead to, but nonetheless, this is clearly a ‘phishing‘ attempt. The email tries to convince us that the sender is from the China Registry, as the email signature mentioned some designation at China Registry, the China Registry logo in the signature, telephone and address of China Registry as same as it is mentioned in the Contact Us page at chinaregistry.org.cn . But there were some obvious hints that it is fake. If you receive such emails, you can also check the following:
Some few tips to identify fake emails in a phishing attempt:
- The email has the China Registry logo but a fuzzy one. Professional companies would normally include a better logo image.
- We check the sender’s email address, it is <thomas@chinanetwork.net>. Whereas, the domain name of the China Registry is ‘chinaregistry.org.cn‘. So, ideally, their email address should have ‘@chinaregistry.org.cn‘ after the email handle. So, the email sender is not from where he claims to be.
Tip: If you receive a suspicious email, always compare the email address and the domain name in the email address with the actual domain name of the organization the person claims to be from.
A quick lookup on the internet shows this China Registry Domain Name Scams emails have been going on for more than 10 years ago. Others have also reported receipt of similar emails from Steve Liu, Lily Liu, Jeff Liu and from the entire Liu family!
And here is another tip : When you receive a suspicious email, copy some keywords or phrases from the email content and search online. Probably, others would have received such emails and from there you can gain more insight whether it is fake or not.
Anyway, the email looks like this.
And if you do receive such emails, just ignore it, mark it junk or sent it to the bin.
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From: Thomas Liu<thomas@chinanetwork.net>
Sent: 17 June 2022 05:00 AM
To: info
Subject: techubber
(It’s very urgent, therefore we kindly ask you to forward this email to your CEO.
If you believe this has been sent to you in error, please ignore it. Thanks)
Dear CEO,
We are the domain registration and solution center in Shanghai, China.
On June 17, 2022, we received an application from Hongmei Ltd requested “techubber” as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names (techubber.cn, techubber.com.cn, techubber.net.cn, techubber.org.cn). But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it’s necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your distributor in China?
Best Regards
Thomas Liu | Service & Operations Manager
China Registry (Head Office)
Tel: +86-2161918696
Fax: +86-2161918697
Mob: +86-13816428671
6012, Xingdi Building, No. 1698 Yishan Road, Shanghai 201103, China
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