Domain Blackmail from Hong Kong Network Service Company Limited

I got this email below from a company in Hong Kong stating that someone was trying to register Trustwho.hk. We own the Service Mark for TrustWho. TrustWho is an anti-fraud company that we operate. Thinking this was strange I replied to them. They then offered to not allow the other party to register them if we wanted to block them by registering the domains ourselves.

This is a Scam and it is Blackmail. check out these emails and I'll give a few more comments below.

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From: Monica.meng [mailto:Monica.meng@hk-nsc.org.cn]
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 1:11 AM
To: Marcus Eikenberry
Subject: Re: RE: YOUR DOMAIN NAME (trustwho)'SCURRENT SITUATION

Dear Marcus ,

Thanks for your prompt reply. Domain names were open to be registered all over the world. Now, the aforementioned third party is applying the following domain names and internet keyword:

Domain names as below:

www.trustwho.cn

www.trustwho.com.cn

www.trustwho.hk

www.trustwho.tw

www.trustwho.com.hk

www.trustwho.com.tw

www.trustwho.asia

Internet keyword as below:

trustwho

Once you would like to protect or preserve them by registering ahead due to importance, one valid application form will be sent to start your prior registration. Or we are going to approve the application from the third party if your company does not lay claim to these domains. Please let us know if there is anything more we might be of assistance. Thanks very much and your early reply will be appreciated.

An introduction of Internet Keyword is enclosed for your review.

Regards,

Monica.Meng

2008-10-17

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Monica.meng

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发件人： Marcus Eikenberry

发送时间： 2008-10-16 22:16:02

收件人： Monica.meng@hk-nsc.org.cn

抄送： 'Dennis Hutchinson'

主题： RE: YOUR DOMAIN NAME (trustwho)'SCURRENT SITUATION

Monica, We own the Service Mark for “TrustWho” and “Trust Who”. We have applications in the works with the US Patent and Trademark offices. We expect soon these will be fully registered marks. We would challenge any registration of these domains if they are in any way related to online sales, online trading, trust services, anti-fraud or video games.

We were contacted yesterday by a gentleman in China wanting to be our Asian provider. We have not replied to this person as of yet. When or if we do we would be turning them down. I suspect that your client is this same person.

If further information is required you may contact me directly. If there are any questions of legal issues I can provide our law firms contact information.

Marcus Eikenberry
Trust Who LLC.
www.TrustWho.com
USA:
Canada:
United Kingdom:
FAX:

From: Monica.meng [mailto:Monica.meng@hk-nsc.org.cn]
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 2:17 AM
To: support
Subject: YOUR DOMAIN NAME (trustwho)'SCURRENT SITUATION

Dear Trust Who LLC,

We are a domain name registration organization in Hong Kong, mainly dealing with the company domain names conflicts in China and Asia regions. We received an formal application from one company named " Zhimingtang (China) Investment Co.Ltd " which applied the domain names(www.trustwho.hk www.trustwho.com.cn etc.)and the Internet keyword(trustwho)their domain names and internet brand at October 15, 2008. After our investigation, we found that it is the same as your company name and trademark, so we inform you about this. In order to find out if it could affect you or not, we still have not confirm the third company yet, and if you think the domains are important and would like to register to protect it, Please contact us by telephone or email as soon as possible.

Best Regards,

Monica.Meng

Tel: +852-31757931 (ext8023)
Fax: +852- 31757932
Email: monica.meng@hk-nsc.org.cn

Hong Kong Network Service Company Limited
website: www.hknsc.hk

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You may have noticed I removed a few details of personal information. I left all of theirs in though. :) I did some investigating about their domain. I found a few other mentions of them trying to extort domain name purchases from companies who have very obscure domain names that no one else would ever want. After seeing this post here on this blog http://elliottback.com/wp/domain-name-registration-scam/ and the replies my investigation was over. I can say with 100% certainty this is a scam.

If you have other versions of this they are trying I encourage you to post a comment with a copy of the email so that others who are searching for this information can find this.