The ‘Hard Sell’ ­ Domain Name Scams

This article was taken from the Venner Shipley Newsletter edition 22.

A new variation of a domain name scam has appeared in the UK, and which is proving to be extremely convincing. Ed Harrison, a trade mark attorney at Venner Shipley LLP, has some advice and comments that may be helpful in avoiding panic and possibly paying out money unnecessarily.

The scam takes the following form:

1) A company (the ‘owner’) will be contacted by telephone, by a caller claiming to be to be from a firm of domain name registration agents.

2) The caller will state they have had a ‘client’ instruct them to register a series of domain names that are identical or very similar to the owner’s name or trade mark.

3) The caller will say that they had concerns about this instruction, as they have made some enquires, and they feel that the client is not the rightful owner of the domain names, and that the owners should be given first refusal on the domain names

4) The caller will state that there is only a limited period of time before they must release the domain names to their client. They will generally offer to register the domain names for the owner at an inflated price.

The reason that this whole thing is a scam (and not just a very commendable service), is that, in reality, no one has actually instructed the caller to register the domain names. The caller is using the threat of possibly losing a domain name to a competitor or a cyber squatter, in order to generate money.

There is the added possibility that the caller is not even a genuine registration agent, in which case any money given to them may simply disappear, and the owner will not even have any domain names as some consolation.

Ed Harrison comments that: ‘the caller is truly convincing, and has a smooth response to every question or doubt that may be raised.’ He continues, ‘For example, when I questioned a caller from one company, who had a known history of this sort of scam, it was claimed that I had mistaken them for another company of the same name, and that legal action was being taken against the other company.’ As a trade mark attorney, Ed was able to find out very quickly that no court proceedings had been issued, and the whole story quickly collapsed.

In a recent case for a US corporation, Ed was contacted urgently to advise on such a situation. Within 24 hours, he was able to confirm that the approach was a scam, and had also co-ordinated with both the Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards to see if action could be taken against the company. The offending company, Profile Business Services, is now under investigation by Trading Standards.

A spokesman for the US company commented, ‘We take the protection of our trade mark very seriously. When we received a phone call advising us that a number of similar domain names were being registered in the UK, which has potentially serious implications for us, we immediately contacted Ed Harrison at Venner Shipley LLP to advise. Fortunately he was able to swiftly confirm that there was no need to panic, and we hope that the UK authorities will act as quickly in taking action to stop this scam.’

Ed’s final tip is, ‘Be sceptical of someone you don’t know, offering to do something beyond the call of duty, and wanting money for doing it. Do some investigating! Sometimes just a quick search of the internet will reveal that the company that has contacted you has a history of this sort of thing.’

In essence, in the murky world of domain name registrations, be very alert, and if you have doubts or questions, contact your existing ISP or your trade mark attorney.

01 Nov 2007

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