Recently I got two emails concerning the use of the name “McGath” in Chinese domains. It’s very strange. Here’s the first, which I got on April 25, 2026:
(If you are not the CEO, please forward this message to your CEO since this is urgent. If you consider this has been sent to you in error, please ignore it. Thanks.)
Dear CEO,
This is a formal email. We are the Domain Registration Service company in Shanghai, China. I have an issue to confirm with you. An application was received by us from Yahui Ltd on April 25, 2026. They desire to register “mcgath” as their internet keyword and Chinese domain names (mcgath.cn, mcgath.com.cn, mcgath.net.cn, mcgath.org.cn). But after checking it, we find this name conflicts with your business name or brand name. To resolve this issue better, it’s necessary to send this email to you and verify if this company is your distributor in China? Best regardsFrank Liu
General Manager
The message came from 163.com, which is a Chinese email service often used for temporary addresses. It’s suspicious that the message doesn’t name the domain service which allegedly is contacting me. If this was an attempt to trick me into anything, I can’t tell what it could gain from me. I replied saying I have no business presence in China. On April 27 I got this mail:
To whom it concerns,
We are the company who submitted the application to register “mcgath” as Chinese domain name and internet keyword. We intend to register the Chinese domain names “mcgath.cn” “mcgath.com.cn” “mcgath.net.cn” “mcgath.org.cn” and internet keyword “mcgath” and have submitted our application. Currently, we are waiting for Mr. Frank Liu’s approval. These CN domains and internet keyword are very important for us to promote our business in China. Even though Mr. Frank Liu advised us to choose another name, we will persist with this name.
Kind regards
Lisheng
Even though my surname is unusual, I don’t own it and can’t stop anyone else from using it. However, I can’t think of any honest purpose for this. While I know little about the Chinese language, I’m pretty sure you can’t even pronounce the name properly in the Chinese phoneme set. Maybe they’re planning to squat on the name in the hope someone (like me) will buy the domain? I can’t grab up every possible domain that contains “mcgath.” A worse possibility is that they’re planning some impersonation scheme outside the reach of American lawyers. I can’t do anything about it before it happens, and it seems like a strange way to set up a scam.
All I can say right now is that I have no control over or connection with those domains, and I’m not responsible for whatever they do with them.
Hi Gary,
A better explanation is that they wanted to scam you into sending them money to license those domains. They pocket the cash. You get nothing. And the scammers move on to the next target.
Regards,
Dann
Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free. – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
That does make a good amount of sense. Kind of like domain squatting, but without the effort and cost of actually registering the domains.
Here we go: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/beware-latest-china-domain-name-registration-scam-niral-dhameliya-gv8vf/
I got a third email, saying in part: “We can forward you an application form with cost details to help your company to register these Chinese domain names and internet keyword during our dispute period if you want to register them.” The scam is now obvious. I didn’t think of it at first because it’s such a nickel-and-dime thing. The cost to register a domain in China is typically around $5 to $10 a year, but the point is probably to get payment information which they can then abuse.