A new kind of scam
Posted on Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 10:33am. #
Aviva Li writes to my mediauk.com address from the other side of the world - indeed, from something calling itself “Asia Domain Name Registration Ltd”. He writes with some concerning news.
There’s a company called “Viva International Holdings Ltd” who’ve just applied with them to register a ton of domain-names with ‘mediauk’ in them - like mediauk.net.cn or mediauk.com.hk, etc. He helpfully lists about ten.
“After an initial examination we have found that the keyword and domain names applied for are the same as your company’s name and trademark. … If you want to protect your domains, we will send you a dispute application form”.
I’m used to scams online, but this one had me suckered for a few minutes. How dare Viva be trying to steal my name? What are they trying to do? Of course I’d like to stop them! Thank you, the unlikely-named Aviva, for your kind diligence in… oh, hang on a minute.
First: “After an initial examination we have found that the keyword and domain names applied for are the same as your company’s name and trademark” looks all very well, until you consider that Media UK isn’t a company - it’s wholly owned by Not At All Bad Ltd. And “Media UK” is not a trademark either, being a rather too generic name to trademark successfully. And this extra word ‘keyword’ which has popped in here looks scary - you need keywords for search engines, right? - except you don’t register keywords.
So… why has Aviva bothered to tell me this?
“If you want to protect your domains, we will send you a dispute application form”. Neat wording. They’re not MY domain-names, yet Aviva has now made me think they are. And now all I need to do is ask for a form to - wait a second - register these domains. Clever!
Additionally, one might ask why Viva (curiously, a name with the dubious honour of two failed UK radio stations being called it) would want to register “Media UK” in China. After all, the only reason I registered that is because media.co.uk was taken.
So, if you wanted, you could rewrite this email as:
Dear CEO,
We’ve made up a story you’ll never be able to check to scare you into buying some domain-names you don’t need at a vastly-inflated price. Send us your money.
Lots of love,
Aviva
PS: I’m named after a large European insurance company, and I also sound a little like a big bus company too.
Photo: Chris Bersbach. Used under licence
amy liu said at February 19th, 2008 at 5:17am 
Byron Collett said at February 21st, 2008 at 12:32am 
another victim from the US said at February 22nd, 2008 at 4:40pm 
MINDY said at February 22nd, 2008 at 6:11pm 
