Spam Alert for All Domain Owners

I just receive the following email from a company who claims to represent the “Department of Registration Service in China”.

It appears that the email was sent to individuals who owns domains and is attempt to scam the user into spending outrages prices for similar domains under different TLDs.

We are the department of registration service in China. we have something need to confirm with you. We formally received an application on May. 17, 2010, One company which self-styled “Mintor(Japan)Venture Capital Co.,Ltd” are applying to register(vinko) as internet brand name and domain names as below (vinko.cn vinko.com.cn vinko.net.cn vinko.mobi  vinko.asia  vinko.in  vinko.hk vinko.tw etc.).

After our initial checking, we found the internet brand name and these domain names being applied are as same as your company’s, so we need to get the confirmation from your company. If the aforesaid company is your business partner or your subsidiary company, please DO NOT reply us, we will approve the application automatically. If you have no any relationship with this company, please contact us within 15 workdays. If out of the deadline, we will approve the application  submitted by “Mintor(Japan)Venture Capital Co.,Ltd” unconditionally.

Please forward the email to your decision maker,and let them contact me in time,so that we can handle this in reasonable,Look forwarding to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Kevin Wu
Senior Director
TEL: +86 21 69929440
Fax:  +86 21 69929447
Website:http://www.qp-world.org.cn

Address:Room 902,8th,nong 1518,Jinyuan 1st Road,Jiading District, Shanghai city.

Whatever you do, DO NOT click on any of the links, reply to the email, visit the company’s web site or act on this email in any way. It is a scam to try to get you to purchase more domain names.

Phishing on YouTube

YouTube logoYesterday I received a message in my YouTube account Inbox claiming that my account was flagged. On initial skimming of the email I was shocked, but then looking at the message closer I quickly recognize it as another Phishing email.

The email states

The Youtube Team YouTube Broadcast Yourself™ Hi (account), According to our records, you have been flagged for the following: Hate Speech/Bullying Spam/Flooding of other YouTube channels Massive Advertising Explicit Copyright Infringement Your ac…
The Youtube Team
YouTube Broadcast Yourself™

Hi (account),

According to our records, you have been flagged for the following:

Hate Speech/Bullying
Spam/Flooding of other YouTube channels
Massive Advertising
Explicit Copyright Infringement

Your account also appears to be phished and/or flagged by other users with the following IP addresses:

72.55.191.6:3128
80.227.1.100:8080
119.70.40.101:8080
216.194.70.3:8118
61.166.68.69:80
194.44.170.81:3128

We have reviewed your account and notice that your account seems to be in good standing. Therefore, we will not penalize you for any actions. However, we have reviewed the reports made to your account, and notice that your account has been flagged and/or reported multiple times. We ask for your current password in order to ensure that you are the owner of this account and to verify your current account status. Please provide us with the information below…

On initial thought, I was wondering about the scammers’ goal for taking over a YouTube account. Then I remember that many YouTube accounts are now linked to user’s Google Account, which provides access to GMail among others.

So, everyone needs to be diligent and be careful when receiving instructions via email or through proprietary messaging system, asking you to provide username and password or means of authenticating your identity. In most cases, legitimate web sites will never ask for a user’s password. Remember bad guys are everywhere, especially on the Interweb.