[punky]

Got a cold call yesterday from someone called Business Services Agency. They said they had a request to register a domain name which could confuse the buyer's company to ours, and as we are registered with Companies House, our company name is like a trademark. They said they had to offer us the chance to buy it first (which is AFAIK true). Our website is companyname.co.uk, .com, companyname.ltd.uk, and BSA said someone wanted to register companynameltd.co.uk and .com

It started sounding fishy when the woman said she could only do a 10 year registration for £400 per domain name. I pretended I was only a sales guy, and tried to buy time. They said it was pre-registered so either we paid their extortionate rate now, or he has it. I did a quick whois on the phone and both were still available. So she was caught lying. At this point she passed me over to her 'supervisor' who echoed the same thing, said she needed an answer now, or he'll get it (AFAIK you legally have 7 days to answer), but suddenly she said she would offer it to me a 2 year registration for the princely sum of £100 per domain. I just said i'll get back to you. Went straight over to GoDaddy and registered both for 2 years at £12 each.

Certainly sounds to me like that are a scam, cold-calling companies, saying fictious clients want to register a domain name similar to theirs, and pressuring them to sign up with them at a vastly overinflated rate. Anyone else come across this? Are there any bodies who might want to know about this? Trading Standards maybe?