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Most folks here are tractor nerds and not computer nerds. So here's a simple explanation: This was at the tail end of that email:
Link See that .sg malarkey? The US essentially invented the Internet. Long story about the military funding data networks, lots of details, blah blah. dot-com/net/org/edu mainly means "United States" and is run by a series of US based under a cartel called ICANN (10 years back, one had to show proof of a business to get .com, proof of a non-profit org to get .org, educational to get .edu, etc). If you feel doubt, check out:
Link Do a 'whois' search on the owner of the domain. You can find their name, address, phone number and a suprisingly large amount of data.
Everything that ends in a 2 letter code is a 2 letter ISO code for a country. Those aren't as easily searchable as they are maintained by the country themselves. They usually contract this out to a private firm, although it used to be universities/non-profits and sometimes still is.
Example: Netherlands : small country north of Belgium (BE), West of Germany (DE) is known as NL. To get a domain name in .nl (e.g. dave-o.nl), you have to show a business license (registration) and a lot of other legal paperwork. In the .com/net/org, anyone can register for $10/yr to own whateverthehecktheywant.com/net/org.
.tv is a tiny island nation in the South Pacific that has sold the rights to their domain name to a for profit firm.
.sg is probably the same deal and most certainly a scam. Check the country code on and two letter domain name ending. Do a search on google.com for ISO Country Codes and see what you find. If it isn't a .com/net/org and isn't from a major Western European country, it is most likely a scam.
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