3

About a week ago I did something dumb.

I went to network solutions, typed in my current domain name, checked the boxes next to any tld that was available and hit "add to cart". I was curious to see what the cost would be for buying every variant. Network Solutions website actually crashed when I tried this.

This morning, my boss received an email saying something like:

Dear CEO, This email is sent by XXXX Co., Ltd(ICP Record NO.XXXX),located in XXXX,China,an institution registering domains in China professionally,also a member of "Domains Security Union" of CNNIC. Here we have something to confirm with your company,we received an application on May 3,2012, one company called "YYYY Co, ,Ltd." intended to register the following Network Brand and Domain names:

Followed by a list of many of the domain names I had attempted to register....

I am sure this makes my boss uneasy, but my colleague says he gets this sort of email twice a year and that it is a scam.

Is there any real danger here, or is this just an extortion attempt for me to buy those domains?

EDIT: I should note that searching any unique part of that email brought up virtually no results in Google.

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

Too be honest this sounds like two separate unconnected events, the email your boss received is fairly regular spam attempting to get your boss to spend money.

It's VERY unlikely that this has anything to do with your actions on the network solutions site. Don't worry about it.

Improve this answer
2
  • You're probably right, but isn't it the case that domain name searches are not private? I've heard about cases where someone checks the availability of a domain name, then a week later someone else has bought it, even for uncommon names. Commented May 4, 2012 at 14:17
  • @Jim I've heard the same stories going about for years, I'm not saying it doesn't or hasn't happened but in most cases it's just coincidence. Commented May 4, 2012 at 14:36
1

I got the same email about a different domain. I Googled it, and I found these answers:

From today: https://plus.google.com/103112149634414554669/posts/K5KSuaVEkyh

From 2008: http://www.rumblepup.com/chinese-domain-name-fraud/

Improve this answer