Thursday, December 13, 2007

Internet Brand Hijacking

I started receiving e-mail from a chap named Leo a couple of days back. He claims to be the "Principle of Checking Department" of Shanghai Ou Pu Information Technology Inc. He said someone was trying to register the .cn and internet brand of simply-aesthetic and we were offered first rights to our brand.

Cost of protecting our brand? 30 EUR a year for the .cn domain and 100 EUR a year for the internet brand. Minimum registration period: 10 years!

Ridiculous price!

Then I found this website discussing Chinese con artists pulling the same trick on various people around the world! They use many company names, but the message is the same: pay to keep your brand. And these guys call and call and call! The poor folks in the US get it real bad... The calls happen in the middle of the night!

They are persistant. And yes, they have called the clinic too. I wonder how many people have actually fallen for their trick and paid up. Interesting that they choose to con people in EUR instead of US$ now...

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