One of my clients received the following e-mail, from a person @ asianetwork.mobi:

“Asia Network is the company of internet services that the domain registration is one of the major online styles of our service range. Now we have something need to confirm with you. We hope you to cooperate with us. On 2008-10-21, we received an application from one person named “John Alldis” who wants to register some domains (my_client’s_company_name.cn my_client’s_company_name.in my_client’s_company_name.hk my_client’s_company_name.sg my_client’s_company_name.asia) and internet brand (my_client’s_company_name). According to our investigation, we found that domain names have relevance to your company’s name and trademark, so we send this email for you to confirm it. We are dealing with this affair in these days, so we wish to get the confirmation and the assent of your company. If John Alldis doesn’t belong to your company and you don’t authorize him to register these domains, Pls contact with me asap in order to prevent some guy from abusing your trademarks and the company names.

“In addition, I must state that we have time limited for one person or one company’s registration. It is just 15 days. If your company files doesn't resent within the time limited. We will unconditionally authorized the application of John Alldis. In order to deal with this issue better, please let someone who is responsible for trademark or domain name contact me as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperate.”

I have no firsthand experience of Asia Network and so I am posting here to ask for members’ views or experience. I am uncertain as to whether to respond to the e-mail or simply ignore it.

Naturally my client wants to know if they or their reputation will be at risk if this John Alldis does purchase the domains. Any guidance?