Finally happened to me..... grrr!!

**SlimPickins** · 05-15-2008, 12:16 PM

WEll, i finally got stung by a scammer. Bought 2 names off of JohnBolg here on NP last night. I thought i did things right since he was new on forum...... I had domains pushed first AND checked whois and sent a 'confirmation of intent to sell' email to the admin email listed, and then only sent payment after i received a response from the same admin email. everything seemed to check out fine, the names were pushed and email answered. so i paid. sadly with moneybookers.

hours later i see his account was closed shortly after our deal, got in contact with bill, then waited to see. Checked whois on the names when i got home from work and not only were the names not updated to my info, but werent showing his anymore either. so i logged into my enom account and.... they were gone

. called enom and they said that the previous owner contacted them and said he/she did not authorize the transfer so they were given back..."their hands are tied". which is fine, of course i dont want stolen names, but i was VERY upset that i only happened to find out the names were no longer in my account only because i happened to check. ZERO communication from enom to the effect 'the ownership of the names was in question, to be safe they were being returned until clarified' etc.... nothing. It couldve been weeks before i realized i was out money AND domains if i hadnt happened to check. so i ranted about that, and they said they are looking into a wide spread fraud case stemming from possibly this one person/ ip address etc.... i gave them what i know, but still feel like what the heck just happened?!
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/469727-finally-happened-to-me-grrr.html

anywho, for what its worth this was the admin email listed on the names i bought (if thats the right word anymore): bolg297@hotmail.com

and this was the moneybookers email: jeeses2008@yahoo.com

could/should i have done something more to be cautious (aside from avoiding deals with new members, since we were all new at one time) than i did: checking whois, contacting the admin email myself and not sending payment until confirmation was received from admin email and name was pushed and in my account? i guess with my limited computer savvy and fledgling experience in domaining i felt i had covered my bases and that NOT sending payment shortly after these precautions seemed to be met would only be unfair to him as a seller. i dont want to become jaded, but i certainly want to at least learn something from this expensive lesson (as getting my money back from moneybookers is highly unlikely) and be a better domainer. any tips and help from more experienced/knowledgeable would, as always, be much appreciated. and cudos to Bill for honing in on him so fast and closing his account so he didnt scam more people....... couldve been a LOT worse.

Watch out for yourself and watch out for each other!! Denver

Ergo · 05-15-2008, 12:46 PM

New members + Moneybookers + free email account = SCAM in 95% of cases

It's difficult for new members who are not scammers to become verified members of NP

I remember that it was difficult for me. Happily I had DigitalPoint and one Russian forum history with a lot of positive feedback, so it was easy for me to start selling-buying here.

sf2010 · 05-15-2008, 12:50 PM

This dude tried to scam $850 for LLL net. I actually wanted to contact you last night to see which names he sold you but you weren't online.

The old mantra of "if it's too good to be true"......

PS. I know PayPal sucks but Moneybookers? Hmm, I don't know.

Originally Posted by Bill