I received the an e-mail trying to scare me into purchasing a Chinese domain name.
The e-mail comes from various e-mail addresses, uses terrible grammar and spelling and usually has all the details wrong. The implied threat is that some company named in the e-mail will take away your current domain name, unless you contact them to ‘protect the brand in Asia’.
Here’s a copy of the scary sounding e-mail:
Dear Manager:
This email is from China domain name registration center, which mainly deal with the domain name registration and dispute internationally in China and Asia.
On September.8th,2010, We received HAITONG company’s application that they are registering the name ” inetdaemon ” as their Internet Keyword and ” inetdaemon .cn “?” inetdaemon .com.cn ” ?” inetdaemon .asia “domain names etc..,It is China and ASIA domain names.But after auditing we found the brand name been used by your company. As the domain name registrar in China, it is our duty to notice you, so I am sending you this Email to check.According to the principle in China,your company is the owner of the trademark,In our auditing time we can keep the domain names safe for you firstly, but our audit period is limited, if you object the third party application these domain names and need to protect the brand in china and Asia by yourself, please let the responsible officer contact us as soon as possible. Thank you!
Best regards,
John
Oversea marketing manager
Tel:+86(0)21 6191 8696
Fax:+86(0)21 6191 8697
web:www.ygnetwork.com.cn
Apparently, in Chinese the phrase “protect your brand in Asia” actually translates more properly to “buy a domain name in China from us or else, because we’re really good at scaring you and you’re stupid”.
I don’t think so.
InetDaemon is a name I have been using online for 15 years. My readers know InetDaemon.Com has been around forever and even the Wayback Machine knows I’ve had this name a loooong time (more than 10 years). Beyond that, if anyone is going to take away the InetDaemon domain, its the people who wrote the original inetd binary for UNIX, who have nearly 50 years prior claim to the name. Nobody has ever contacted me about the name, and I don’t suppose it really matters, since inetd made the Internet possible and InetDaemon makes people learning about the Internet possible–before there was Wikipedia, About.com and all the other Internet help sites. It’s good Internet Karma to help others, and that’s what I’ve been doing for almost 15 years.
So, since I was curious, I checked the enclosed web address. No registrar website, just a “HTTP 404 – Not Found” error. A website/domain name registrar with no website?!? Whoever heard of that?
Yes, I’ve wasted waaay too much time on this. Don’t waste your time on it.