Warning for the Rookie NamePros

andriegel · Feb 8, 2005

Hi,

I have been getting these spam-scams lately for a variety of my listings from either Sedo or Afternic. Beware: these guys are scammers!!

-Andrew

"Hi,

I saw your domain listed for sale several days ago. I was busy and could not contact you at that time.

Is it still available for sale? Have you received any bids from other buyers?

If it's still available for sale please email me your asking price in US dollars.

If you have other good domains for sale feel free to email me the full list with asking prices.

If I can afford your domain I will contact you. Please keep my email address and our correspondence confidential.

Just email me your asking price. If I decide to buy I will contact you as soon as possible.

I run a software development company. We provide custom software development in Linux, Windows XP, MS Access, MS SQL, PHP and Delphi for our clients in USA, Hong Kong, UK and Switzerland. Selling & buying names is not my main business. Just another way to invest free money and make some income.

Kindest regards,

George Bergman

CEO

MCSE, MCSD

Swiss Software Consulting

Products/Services:Billing-Direct, Cost Analysis & Revenue Assurance Software
.
.

IAmAllanShore · Feb 8, 2005

Not that I doubt it, but how did you discover they are scammers?
-Allan

andriegel · Feb 8, 2005

The first time I got the letter a few months ago, it was for a domain name I had listed for sale. It was listed for something in the low $xxxx, so I responded saying that I was interested in striking a deal, but that I would be using an escrow service that I would pay for.
I never got any response.
Since then, I have received the SAME letter, but just the domain name changed for other domains I have listed out there.
Also, when you google the guy, nothing comes up for his "software Services company"

IAmAllanShore said:
Not that I doubt it, but how did you discover they are scammers?
-Allan

cfranklin · Feb 8, 2005

been a scam for a long time. They ask you to get domains appriased by certain people too

TLDnetworks · Feb 8, 2005

Been there, got that... :td:

IAmAllanShore · Feb 9, 2005

Gotcha, thanks for giving everyone the "heads up"

-Allan

jeter4982 · Feb 9, 2005

Thanks for the heads up! If I had not of read that, I would have probably believed it. You probably just saved me a lot of $$$.

zaros64 · Feb 9, 2005

lol do they take the doman and run?

Grrilla · Feb 9, 2005

If this is an appraisal scam, they have upgraded and now are using a more professional looking and sounding cover. That email is step 1. Step two would be for an appraisal request that ultimately funnels you to their "preferred" appraiser. Step 3 is, if acting as an agent, to take their cut for the referral and step 4 is, Adios!

BTW. These guys can be wicked pricks. One of these outfits took exception to being exposed, (at another domain name forum), and staged a DoS attack that caused them all sorts of probs and ultimately shut them down for awhile. Another tactic they use against those who would oppose, is to run email campaigns where they, appearing as the person/organization they wish to attack, (ie counterfeit identity), send out insulting and disparaging emails, ie "We are interested in the name you have listed at Sedo, but your price of $xxxx is, you must admit, a bit ridiculous. Our staff at XYXForum has appraised the name for $xxx, but because we know that you haven't had any sales for the past 6 mos, thought that you might be interested in our offer of $xx. You can email us @ blah blah blah."

You get the point.

FedPrimeRate.com · Feb 9, 2005

This domain appraisal scam has been around for a while. I used to get a lot of these but not anymore.

AmCy

zaros64 · Feb 9, 2005

Dos attack...thats sounds familiar...

oh yeah... RuneVillage.net/ThePub (they have runevillage.net,.com and org regged) forum got dos attacked and they had 10k members

Consigner · Feb 24, 2005

This Domain Appraisal Scammer is Very Busy!

I’ve also received duplicate (to the letter) emails that you’ve posted here. Same song and dance, yadda, yadda, yadda … he did his darned best to get me to use AllForDomains for the appraisal. I informed him my preferences for appraisal were either UrlBuyers or Sedo …

His final email to me today said (and I am copy/pasting literally quoting these words) – “Sorry, I don't trust cheap appraisals. You like these companies because they are cheap.”

That prompted me to begin researching him. The following links are just the beginning of posts related to this guy/these people scamming appraisals:

http://justtraffic.blogspot.com/ - ¾ the way down of this blog page

http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=69001

http://www.anforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222

http://www.sedo.com/forum/?task=showthread&thread=1143&tmp=&language=us

http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=68967

Thank you all very much for posting this information to warn all of us newbies!!!

andriegel · Feb 24, 2005

Yeah, and if they can't pull this scam, they try to steal your domain name anyway!
They are trying to steal my "lesboporn.net" right now...
Darn scallywags!

-Andrew

Consigner · Feb 24, 2005

Ok ... stupid Newbie question please

Ok ... stupid Newbie question please ... how can you tell they are trying to steal your domain names please? I did sign into my control panels for the domains he approached me on and everything is correct as I had originally set it up.

What should I be looking for as far as improper activities regarding my domains?

Thank you for your help.

andriegel · Feb 24, 2005

Consigner said:
Ok ... stupid Newbie question please ... how can you tell they are trying to steal your domain names please? I did sign into my control panels for the domains he approached me on and everything is correct as I had originally set it up.

What should I be looking for as far as improper activities regarding my domains?

Thank you for your help.

I'm pretty new too, but I think there are probably lots of ways to scam a name from you. The one I was referring to was simply where someone initiates a registrar transfer request hoping that one of the requests will be OK'd in error or by mistake. When you transfer a name, you get notification via email from the place that the name would be transferred TO. In some cases, for TLD's like .info, .us you have get a password from the current registrar to authorize the transfer.

Also, I think most of the major registrars have "locked" as the default- is this correct, guys?

-Andrew

kw31 · Feb 26, 2005

wow thanks for telling
it looked real to me

Anoosh · Mar 3, 2005

Thank you for the warning.

Hi Andrew:

In the last few weeks, I received the exact solicitation for one of my sites listed on Sedo . The bid seemed "legit." How did you determine he is a "scammer"? What should a "newbie" look out for?

Anoosh

andriegel · Mar 3, 2005

Anoosh said:
Hi Andrew:

In the last few weeks, I received the exact solicitation for one of my sites listed on Sedo . The bid seemed "legit." How did you determine he is a "scammer"? What should a "newbie" look out for?

Anoosh

Hi Anoosh:
Some things to watch for:

Buyer uses a free email service such as hotmail
Buyer insists on using their appraiser

There are others, too. Guys, can you help me list more?

-Andrew
.
.
.

FedPrimeRate.com · Mar 3, 2005

andriegel said:
There are others, too. Guys, can you help me list more?

If the website they provide is just an IP address, that's a sure sign that it's a scam.

AmCy

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