Today I was contacted by a man claiming to be a premium domain name broker asking if my domain was for sale. He said he represented an interested party in Norway and that he just had to have a domain name of mine for a project. My excited quickly faded when he signed off with Ph. D. on the end of their name, I still bit to see what's up. Here's how it when, first contact to me:
[email protected]
2:43 AM (17 hours ago)
Hello!
I represent an investor from Norway who needs xxxxx.com for a new project.
Are you still interested in selling this domain? If so, please reply back to our email and we will proceed with the sale.
Our company is in hosting business. I help our VIP clients to buy premium names for their projects. If you have other domains for sale, I may offer them to our investors.
Best Regards,
Joseph Halpert, Ph. D.
Vice President Investor Relations
Front Office Web Solutions
Jakob Askelandsvei 13
4314
SANDNES
NO
Naturally I wrote back:
Dear Dr. Halpert,
Yes, the domain is for sale and I currently have it listed here on Sedo:
https://sedo.com/search/xxxxxx
There is a minimum offer on the listing so it can be bought for $599.
Thank you for your interest in other domains I have for sale:
http://fliporium.blogspot.mx/
Best regards,
Christer
He counters back, WITH an image attached to the email claiming to be him, to make the email look "professional":
VP Investor Relations<[email protected]>
11:01 AM (9 hours ago)
I'm not interested in transactions under $1000. My client pays me 10%-15% on every sale.
May I suggest to change your price to $5000? In this case I will earn a better commission.
I hope you understand my business model better now.
Sincerely yours,
and some sig here
When he went to my Sedo link he saw that my listing was under $1000, clever way to get someone excited.
I'm super skeptical now, I downloaded the image and loaded it up to Google image search and it came back as a Linkedin profile pic of some Australian businessman. Now I'm still hanging on to every hope that there is a plausible reason for that, so I play along:
to VP
I do understand it perfectly and am happy that someone understands the potential value of the domain name. Is $5000 the best all around or should it be higher, because I obviously wouldn't mind. I'm not trying to hold out for more believe me, if you tell me to change the price on Sedo for $5000 I will.
What would you suggest?
Christer
He countered with this:
VP Investor Relations<[email protected]>
11:55 AM (8 hours ago)
to me
My client offers a sum in $5,000 - $15,000 range. The exact figure will depend on the appraisal results (see below).
Before we go further we need only one thing from you:
My client is a professional investor and he buys certified domains only.If your domain has been certified, please email me the certificate and we will proceed with the sale. If you don’t have a certificate it’s not a problem. I may send you a link where you can obtain it. Please don’t worry. It takes 1-2 minutes to order it. The results will be sent to you within 24 hours. Then you send me the certificate via email and we’ll proceed with the sale
The certification includes the following:
1. Independent valuation of the market price. It will show your domain name is not overpriced. On the other hand if the valuation comes higher we will increase the price accordingly.
2. Trademark infringement verification. It proves your domain has no trademark problems.
3. Verification of the owner. It proves you are a legitimate owner and your domain has no any obligations and restrictions. I’m sure that you are a legitimate owner so it will be only a formality.
As a broker I’m very interested in a good valuation part of this certificate because my client pays me a commission (10-15% of the sale price) on every domain purchase. So I’m not interested in a low price too.
You can read about the certificate agency at http:// answers.google-answers.net/archive/threadview192711.htm(“Domain Broker” is my nickname).
The process is very easy:1. Go to the certificate agency site and order a certificate. Just submit your domains and let them know you have a buyer with $XX,XXX offer and need a valuation near this value. After several hours you will get the results. If the price in your certificate comes higher we will increase our offer accordingly.
2. Then send these results via email and we’ll proceed with the deal.
If you are new to the certification process, I can help you with the step by step instructions.
Sincerely yours,
sig here.
That link he gave for the certification process is funny but it fooled me: http:/ /answers.google-answers.net
I clicked the link and the big red warning popped up about the site being a detected phishing site.
Anyway, that's my scam story of the day, I'm sure there will be more to come lol
[email protected]
2:43 AM (17 hours ago)
Hello!
I represent an investor from Norway who needs xxxxx.com for a new project.
Are you still interested in selling this domain? If so, please reply back to our email and we will proceed with the sale.
Our company is in hosting business. I help our VIP clients to buy premium names for their projects. If you have other domains for sale, I may offer them to our investors.
Best Regards,
Joseph Halpert, Ph. D.
Vice President Investor Relations
Front Office Web Solutions
Jakob Askelandsvei 13
4314
SANDNES
NO
Naturally I wrote back:
Dear Dr. Halpert,
Yes, the domain is for sale and I currently have it listed here on Sedo:
https://sedo.com/search/xxxxxx
There is a minimum offer on the listing so it can be bought for $599.
Thank you for your interest in other domains I have for sale:
http://fliporium.blogspot.mx/
Best regards,
Christer
He counters back, WITH an image attached to the email claiming to be him, to make the email look "professional":
VP Investor Relations<[email protected]>
11:01 AM (9 hours ago)
I'm not interested in transactions under $1000. My client pays me 10%-15% on every sale.
May I suggest to change your price to $5000? In this case I will earn a better commission.
I hope you understand my business model better now.
Sincerely yours,
and some sig here
When he went to my Sedo link he saw that my listing was under $1000, clever way to get someone excited.
I'm super skeptical now, I downloaded the image and loaded it up to Google image search and it came back as a Linkedin profile pic of some Australian businessman. Now I'm still hanging on to every hope that there is a plausible reason for that, so I play along:
to VP
I do understand it perfectly and am happy that someone understands the potential value of the domain name. Is $5000 the best all around or should it be higher, because I obviously wouldn't mind. I'm not trying to hold out for more believe me, if you tell me to change the price on Sedo for $5000 I will.
What would you suggest?
Christer
He countered with this:
VP Investor Relations<[email protected]>
11:55 AM (8 hours ago)
to me
My client offers a sum in $5,000 - $15,000 range. The exact figure will depend on the appraisal results (see below).
Before we go further we need only one thing from you:
My client is a professional investor and he buys certified domains only.If your domain has been certified, please email me the certificate and we will proceed with the sale. If you don’t have a certificate it’s not a problem. I may send you a link where you can obtain it. Please don’t worry. It takes 1-2 minutes to order it. The results will be sent to you within 24 hours. Then you send me the certificate via email and we’ll proceed with the sale
The certification includes the following:
1. Independent valuation of the market price. It will show your domain name is not overpriced. On the other hand if the valuation comes higher we will increase the price accordingly.
2. Trademark infringement verification. It proves your domain has no trademark problems.
3. Verification of the owner. It proves you are a legitimate owner and your domain has no any obligations and restrictions. I’m sure that you are a legitimate owner so it will be only a formality.
As a broker I’m very interested in a good valuation part of this certificate because my client pays me a commission (10-15% of the sale price) on every domain purchase. So I’m not interested in a low price too.
You can read about the certificate agency at http:// answers.google-answers.net/archive/threadview192711.htm(“Domain Broker” is my nickname).
The process is very easy:1. Go to the certificate agency site and order a certificate. Just submit your domains and let them know you have a buyer with $XX,XXX offer and need a valuation near this value. After several hours you will get the results. If the price in your certificate comes higher we will increase our offer accordingly.
2. Then send these results via email and we’ll proceed with the deal.
If you are new to the certification process, I can help you with the step by step instructions.
Sincerely yours,
sig here.
That link he gave for the certification process is funny but it fooled me: http:/ /answers.google-answers.net
I clicked the link and the big red warning popped up about the site being a detected phishing site.
Anyway, that's my scam story of the day, I'm sure there will be more to come lol