Immidiate help needed

[Gamerz]

ok i just recieved the following email, what do i do?

International Domain Name Registry (IDNR) has received an application for registration of the domain death-squad.biz by a third party, that is almost identical to your domain name death-squad.net .
International Domain Name Registry was founded for registration, control and monitoring of domain names and trade marks that include copyright control, fair business regulations, legitimate usage and activity,
dispute and claim consideration of property breach of the domain for transfer to the court.

Registration of the domain name similar to your own can be done for the reasons mentioned below:

1. The third party wants to use the domain name for any purposes, including business, distinct from your business activity.
2. The third party wants to register the domain name for creation of a business similar to yours.
3. The third party (that, probably, before registration of a domain name was your competitor also) wants to disrupt the business of a competitor, or intentionally attempt to lure the customers of another business
by creating a confusingly similar Web address.

Consequently, it is our opinion that this application may have been submitted in bad faith.

You are required to submit to us your opposition to the third party domain name registration contemplated herein and expressly advise us of your intent to license this domain name (go to www.diregistry.com, choose "register a domain" then "block the
application of the third party") prior to the expiration of this notice (which is one working day after it is sent) or licensing rights to the domain name would be assigned to any applicant. In this case IDNR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THE LOSS OF DOMAIN NAME
IDENTICAL OR CONFUSINGLY SIMILAR USE OF YOUR COMPANY"S NAME; OR INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY OR BUSINESS LOSSES.
Also IDNR further will not consider your complaint to infringement of your rights for
IDENTICAL OR CONFUSINGLY SIMILAR USE OF YOUR COMPANY"S NAME; OR INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY OR BUSINESS LOSSES.

the email cam from an odd address though, support@diregistry.com , i have whoisgaurd though which makes me think this is an official email top have got to me

[Rocket2Uranus]

very interesting... I haven't seen that one before.

It almost looks like a scam to force you to register your domains in all available extensions, but it certainly could be legit...

[URLCollection]

It is surely a scam - http://www.dnforum.com/f26/idnr-scam-thread-83363.html

[jberryhill]

It almost looks like a scam to force you to register your domains in all available extensions

Give the man a cigar, we have a winner!

Yes, it is a scam, and yes, you nailed it. This one has been going on for years under various names.

[Gamerz]

Thanks for the replies guys, i wont reply then.

[actnow]

And, they are unrelenting. I'm getting emails, faxes and mail.

They might be calling. But, my domain phone number goes into voice mail.
So, they might be hanging up.

Are they calling, yet?

[Gamerz]

Nope, but why doesnt whoisgaurd not give out this info??

[Banned: domaintalk]

As i told you in the chatroom its an scam.
They want you to participate or so.
Just ignore them and they wont try to contact again.
Who agrees with me?

[diverge]

Not a scam, guys. I am ashamed of everyone for using this word -- it minimizes the effect of this word on REAL scams. This is a legitimate business solicitation in an attempt to drum up business for IDNR either from a) people who are too stupid to realize that the registration of alternate TLDs is normal and not an attempt to hijack their traffic (usually) or b) actual businesses who wish to protect their mark, but have failed to register alternate TLDs.

Give IDNR some credit, folks. They are inventive, they are habitually annoying, and they are shrewd, but I'd hardly classify them as a scam outfit. A scam is when someone tricks you, takes your money, and does not provide a comparably valued service. A shrewd business solicitation is just that -- targetted marketing that makes a company money by providing a service the recipient did not know they needed, but gladly pays out the nose for.

Bottom line, though, is (like the others have said) you can throw the letter away. It is no more important to you than the countless other non-scam solicitations you receive every day for products you didn't realize you needed (and probably don't), such as the door hanger from the local neighborhood weed-killing lawncare professional, or the numerous credit card applications in your mailbox.

[namestrands]

Ok.. here is how I see it.. they lie... which is for all intents fraud

the meaning of the word scam is "A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle"

so.... hmmm ok... we have established they lie to you in order to scare you into purchasing another extension to your currently registered domain, and to you that is not fraudulent?

I had a phone call from something similar some time ago, they told me that someone was about to register my domain, and would I like to register it quickly before them.

I told them to allow the other person to register the domain name, because in the event it infringed on my trademark I would sue them and the the person registering the domain.

You see the fact that this company phoned me to inform me of this; they were aware of my mark and would therefore be on constructive notice of said mark of which there is little defence.

However after a phone call to trading standards the company ceased trading.

IMHO:---- SCAM.

you can add strawberry sauce and sprinkles to a piece of crap but it will always be a piece of crap

[mike031]

this guys are clever little bad boys.. are they ever going to quit? probably not... still a whole lot of folks out there that are not e-literate who will surely fall for this scams.


Domain: DIREGISTRY.COM
ICANN Registrar: GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC.
Created: 03-mar-2005
Expires: 03-mar-2006
Registrant:
J.D. Fisher
14 Bond Street, 417 Great Neck
NY, New York 11021
United States

funny thing is that "diregistry" is available in all other extensions right now.. anybody want to register .net/.org and have some fun with this clowns?

[diverge]

Originally Posted by namestrands

Ok.. here is how I see it.. they lie... which is for all intents fraud

the meaning of the word scam is "A fraudulent business scheme; a swindle"

so.... hmmm ok... we have established they lie to you in order to scare you into purchasing another extension to your currently registered domain, and to you that is not fraudulent?

So it all boils down to whether "IDNR has received an application..." is a truthful statement or not. I have over 500 domains, each with alternate TLDs available for registration, and I have never received a letter from IDNR, which either means a) they target certain people for their "scam" letters, b) they have a limited mailer budget, and its luck of the draw that my 500 domains have been overlooked, or c) they really DO have people attempting registry of an alternate TLD, and therefore the letter is not a lie.

If you have a couple moments, Diregistry.com is an interesting read. They claim that due to the high volume of people requesting personal info on these phantom "attempted registrants", they are trying to hone up their EULA for their channel partners to ensure the capability to identify these attempted perpetrators in the future. Good luck with that, IDNR.

Another question on my mind is "What constitutes 'received an application'?" Could this mean that someone simply searched the domain in a registration interface? If so, this would make sense, and may even loosely fit the phrase
"received an application".

Well, this is all conjecture. I don't know any of IDNR's channel partners. I haven't seen one of these letters. And I certainly have not been party to their inner workings. My point is simply that if it turns out that IDNR is not lying about the "attempted registration" (whatever that means), then I would say the terms "scam" and "fraud" are inappropriately assigned here.

If however, they are lying, then I concur with your assessment, namestrands.

[mike031]

fle8, you cannot possibly be defending this crooks.. they have been scamming for years with all sorts of tricks.. what.... you think they all of the sudden have gone legit and are looking for somebodys best interests? i highly doubt that!

99.9% scam

[jberryhill]

My point is simply that if it turns out that IDNR is not lying about the "attempted registration" (whatever that means), then I would say the terms "scam" and "fraud" are inappropriately assigned here.

Oh, of course, all sorts of legitimate businesses have registration data in Russia, and an address and phone on their website that correspond to a hotel in New York.

[actnow]

Originally Posted by jberryhill

Oh, of course, all sorts of legitimate businesses have registration data in Russia, and an address and phone on their website that correspond to a hotel in New York.

John, you are jumping to conclusions.

They might be temporarily renting space in the hotel until their elaborate offices
on the main floor of the Trump Tower is completed.

www.TrumpOnline.com

Apparently, they must have taken all of the office space available because
none is listed. (Or, Donald uses a commerical broker.)

I look forward to visiting their N.Y. offices to discuss giving them my additional
business.

[Acro]

Those damn scamming no life russians need to go **** themeselves

[LeftRightOut]

Too bad they don't send snail mail which I can stuff the return envelope full of confetti with. I just received 15 snail mails today from Domain registry of America 5 of which are for names which I don't even have the extensions for (they had the .info when I own the .com).
I hope they enjoy their confetti.

[diverge]

Originally Posted by mike031

fle8, you cannot possibly be defending this crooks.. they have been scamming for years with all sorts of tricks.. what.... you think they all of the sudden have gone legit and are looking for somebodys best interests? i highly doubt that!

99.9% scam

Never heard of them before this thread. If you have previous encounters with them ("for years"), and can affirm that they are a scam, great. My point is simply that if they are not lying (big IF) about having a registrant lined up, then it's not a scam. If they are, then it is. I'm not defending them, I'm defending the principle that someone sending an unsolicited solicitation for an actual provided service that is not necessary for 90% of the population does not a scam make.

Originally Posted by jberryhill

Oh, of course, all sorts of legitimate businesses have registration data in Russia, and an address and phone on their website that correspond to a hotel in New York.

Are you disagreeing with my premise, or just being funny? If they are not lying, is it still a scam? If they send an identical letter, but provide proof that someone actually IS trying to register the alternate TLD, is it still as scam? Hypothetically speaking, of course. Whether IDNR will actually provide such proof is very unlikely, I admit.

[mike031]

fle8, we get your point.. but they don't deserve the benefit of the doubt... they are infamous for domain scams.. they earned their title... for years now they have been emailing, faxing, snail mailing... all sorts of bogus crap.... preying on newbies for the most part... anyways, i bet you they are usa based.. just hiding their identity of course.. somebody needs to get the feds onto them and investigate how they conduct business

[diverge]

More information, just for kicks:
Is DIRegistry.com run by the same people that do IDNRegistry.com? Both are simply copyright "IDN Registry", and both use lame templates and have numerous bugs (I love the "lorem ipsum"-esque text at the bottom of http://www.idnregistry.com/aboutus.htm) Anyway, I tried to register an alternate brand of mine, and could not (doesn't work properly). I tried at diregistry.com, and the credit card processing system apparently doesn't actually process the card (used an old card number that is no longer valid, and it accepted the order). We'll see if they now actually contact me to let me know about this attempted brand hijacking, and if so, if they will disclose the name or contact information used to attempt the order. Will let you know what happens.