- Impact
- 8,956
I've had several names listed with new brandable marketplace Alter.com for a few months. When I first listed them, I mistakenly believed that Alter was an exclusive marketplace, and so I removed these names from all other marketplaces.
Since then, I have discovered that names listed with Alter can in fact be listed elsewhere. As such, I began re-listing with Afternic yesterday. Upon submitting my names, I discovered that six were already listed at Afternic by another user. The names and listings (in .com) are as follows:
I have also contacted Afternic to ask that the names are removed from the bogus account. Haven't heard back from them yet.
I suspect that the bogus Afternic user does this with many names in the hope that they'll make a sale at a price much higher than the listed price on Alter (or any other marketplace where the name may be listed). At that time they buy the name from Alter themselves, and complete their sale on Afternic.
Is this kind of thing a pretty common occurrence?
@Joe Styler - I'd be interested to know how Afternic handles these issues. Is action taken against the offending account/user? Is their address/phone number banned from ever creating an account again?
Honestly, I was tempted to create my own bogus account to offer $20K for one of the false listings of my own name. I make a sale... Alter gets some commission... and a scammer gets screwed. Seemed like a fun idea, but I thought better of it.
Since then, I have discovered that names listed with Alter can in fact be listed elsewhere. As such, I began re-listing with Afternic yesterday. Upon submitting my names, I discovered that six were already listed at Afternic by another user. The names and listings (in .com) are as follows:
- Ohasa - $2k min. offer
- Launch/Leader - $2k min. offer
- Planned/Path - $2k min. offer
- Ronono - $2k min. offer
- Mosry - $2k min. offer
- Dollar/Bot - $10k min. offer
I have also contacted Afternic to ask that the names are removed from the bogus account. Haven't heard back from them yet.
I suspect that the bogus Afternic user does this with many names in the hope that they'll make a sale at a price much higher than the listed price on Alter (or any other marketplace where the name may be listed). At that time they buy the name from Alter themselves, and complete their sale on Afternic.
Is this kind of thing a pretty common occurrence?
@Joe Styler - I'd be interested to know how Afternic handles these issues. Is action taken against the offending account/user? Is their address/phone number banned from ever creating an account again?
Honestly, I was tempted to create my own bogus account to offer $20K for one of the false listings of my own name. I make a sale... Alter gets some commission... and a scammer gets screwed. Seemed like a fun idea, but I thought better of it.
