Domain name scam.

[Dave A]

I got a phonecall from London advising that someone is seeking .com and .net registrations for names I have protected under company law in South Africa.

Start searching the internet - this warning from Northampshire Chamber describes this scam the best:

Domain Name Registration Scam
Be aware of an underhand technique being employed by some domain-name registrars to coerce you into buying domain names that you don't need.

The scam involves the registrar ringing your company and claiming that somebody has used their website to register a number of domain names based on your company's name.

You are told that the name of the person trying to register the domains can not be disclosed because of data protection laws.

The registrar will claim they have a system which cross-references the names entered in their domain registration system to see if the domain is already a company name. If it is, then they ring that company to confirm whether it is indeed them that is perfoming the registration.

Once you tell them that it is not your company that tried to register the names the registrar will employ some scare-tactics, explaining that this could be a cybersquatter, or someone trying to profit from your name. They will then offer you the chance to buy up the domain names before this potential name-thief does.

The truth is that nobody has tried to regsiter a domain name similar to yours, and that it is a ploy to encourage you to buy up domain names (usually at a vastly inflated price) that are vaguely related to your company name.

You will often find that the company that called you up cannot be found on the internet anywhere.

Your best course of action if this happens to you is to just politely refuse, or say you will call them back later.

Search for Evolution Domains - nothing.
Definitely UK accent and calling for action immediately.
Fortunately, I said I looked forward to suing the bastard.