According to ifeng.com, a Chinese publication, on July 30, Changping police announced the busting of the an online domain name brokerage scam and detained over 100 suspects.

“The scam company, with over 130 employees, markets itself as a subsidiary of China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), operating under the cover of domain name brokerage.

Its “business development” team regularly searches the web, for information of owners of domain names with commercial potential, and makes contact, proposing to sell their domain names at surprisingly high prices.

In the process, victims are asked to pay for expensive “optimization” and “maintenance” services in order to boost the domain names’ supposed commercial value.

The company even has a team pretending to be domain name buyers, to keep the victims motivated.

In order to expand its operation, the scam company lures fresh recruitments with promise of “monthly salary as much as 10,000 Yuan”, and gives each new employee a free mobile phone.

The company rakes in over one million yuan on a good day.

On June 17, Changping police blitzed the headquarter of the scam circle, arresting all members within 30 minutes.

According to result of initial investigation, over 100 domain name owners have fallen victim to the scam, with a combined loss of 28 million Yuan.”