Request to register domain name because a third party is "interested"

Over two years, three "different" domain registries have told me that a third party is interested in a variant of my domain and offered the opportunity to purchase it to stop the third party damaging my brand.

The first seemed genuine, but the following two were suspiciously similar. The real question is this just aggressive and unethical marketing, or am I dealing with a scam? I'm happy enough defending this by ignoring them but am curious if this is widespread.

The similarities are:

• The third party always wants the .NET domain - and, by implication the first and second ones never proceeded with a purchase even though the emails were separated by some months
• The email wording is essentially similar
• Three different registries are involved (TSG domains, BSN domains and Dorsey Domains)
• Their web sites are effectively mirrors of each other - I assume that the same principal is involved.

A copy of the first message (from 2022) is below

Dear Sir/Madam,

Today we received a registration request for the domain name www.<mydomainname>.net. After our check, it appeared that you already have www.<mydomainname>.co.nz. That means that you have the first option of registration of www.<mydomainname>.net in accordance of the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.

If another company registers this domain name, this may have a negative impact on your business. For example, it could lead to misunderstandings between the two domain names. Image damage can also occur in a serious case.

Would you rather register the domain name www.<mydomainname>.net for yourself? If so, please let us know. If agreed, we will link the domain name to your current website. If a visitor enters www.<mydomainname>.net, it will automatically be linked to your current website www.<mydomainname>.co.nz

The costs are 49.99 per year. The domain name is directly registered for a period of 10 years. The costs are then 499.90. All amounts mentioned are in NZ dollars and exclude GST.

Do you agree with this proposal? Then confirm this by sending your invoice details (company name, address and name of contact person).

Don't agree? Please let us know as well. We will then agree to the request of the third party. This means that they will acquire the domain name rights of www.<mydomainname>.net.

 

Please let us know within 72 hours.

Kind regards,

<someone at>

TSG Domains

www.tsgdomains.com

 

The content of this email is confidential and intended for the recipient specified in message only. It is strictly forbidden to share any part of this message with any third party, without a written consent of the sender. If you received this message by mistake, please reply to this message and follow with its deletion, so that we can ensure such a mistake does not occur in the future.

 

TSG Domains puts the security of the client at a high priority. Therefore, we have put efforts into ensuring that the message is error and virus-free. Unfortunately, full security of the email cannot be ensured as, despite our efforts, the data included in emails could be infected, intercepted, or corrupted. Therefore, the recipient should check the email for threats with proper software, as the sender does not accept liability for any damage inflicted by viewing the content of this email.

 

This is a non-binding proposal; you do not have to register anything if you do not want to. Nevertheless, we advise you to register this domain name. Do you not want to receive e-mails about your registrations from third parties? Then reply with "delete". We will then no longer keep you informed in the future.