Am I Being Scammed?

[DotNetAllDay]

I got an unsolicited email from an interested buyer a few days ago on a domain I parked at SEDO. I responded to his inquiry and said I'd get a quote to him after I got it appraised. This is what he replied. I would like to know if I'm getting scammed or not? Some of his questions / points don't seem quite right. The domain appraised very high - over $25,000.

-----
Your valuation looks reasonable enough and I agree with it. To get a fair value I ordered another valuation from different site. Since it's not smart to rely on one valuation only. I've got the figure already. It's veru close the result of your valuation. Of course, I expected a lower estimation .

Anyway, now I see from different sources that your name has a good
potential. My partners told me about ICANN rule that prohibits domain reselling before two months from registration. I did not want to wait for two months. Here is my solution:

I search for a buyer and get 14%-15% upon sale. I wrote about reselling in
first emails. Of course, I don't require exclusive rights to sell. You can try to sell at the same time. If I find a buyer faster I get my 15%.

I've already bought opt-in lists from http://www.bizemailsolution.com/ site
to promote your domains. I invested about $150 in these opt-in lists. Of course, I cannot list your names with brokers and auctions since I'm not
the owner. You should list your names in all possible palce to increase the exposure. I think www.Amazon.com and www.eBay.com are good sites to
start with. Please don't forget to send your auction links. I'm going to use your valuation in my promotio? Is it ok with you?
-----

Does ICANN have time restrictions on reselling domains?

 

[notlikeyou]

Sounds like a sneaky way to get 15% of the name you are looking to purchase. Wouldn't surprise me if he magically found a buyer in a day or 2 if you said yes (knowing that he already intended to purchase the domain, or already had a friend lined up). IMO

By all means let some of the senior members here give you their take before doing anything.

 

[Earthian]

it is the appraisal scam ...


that guy just wanted you to pay for the appraisal (which is done by a company of his or by one that he earns commission from) and he was not planning to buy your domain ...


check domainappraisalscam.com for a step by step description of the scam ... one email in the last steps is almost identical to to the one in your post , and I guess the first emails are very similar to the first emails in that site also ... "domaining is not my main business , I am buying to resell" ... "we are a software developing company" ... name has CEO or PhD after ... etc


or search "appraisal scam" on this forum to get more info regarding this ...

​

 

[DotNetAllDay]

Thanks for all your great input! Since I've been scammed, is the appraisal I purchased total bunk? I've had domains appraised before, but these were done on my own (without a purchase solicitation). How accurate / reliable are human based appraisals? Are there companies out there that are more accurate than others?

 

[TheBulldog]

IF you got the appraisal from the one he pointed you to, then it is worthless.

What is the name?

 

[advaita]

Not sure if it is the same 'scheme' but this post is about appraisal scams - http://www.netmonetization.com/2007/07/domainers-beware-this-scam-e-mail.html

 

[DotNetAllDay]

I got two (a double kick to the stomach - ouch!).

uniquevintage.com
locatelove.com

I've had them both appraised before from another website a few years back after reading a magazine article on the appraisal company. Those appraisals were close to this scammers so I didn't suspect anything.

What appraisal companies are worth using?

 

[TheBulldog]

None of them.

They are ALL subjective. You can try estibot.com, at least it is the only one I know that comes close to a real world value. Paid appraisals in general are looked at with contempt by most domainers.

The only real value is what someone is willing to pay and you are willing to accept.

No offense, but I can't see your names being worth more then a 100 or so on the open market.

 

[DotWeekly]

Sorry to hear you paid for the appraisals.

Never pay for an appraisal. NamePros.com members are always will to give you a price and it's free! Estibot.com is also a great tool, which is Free.

If you paid via a credit card, do a charge back! If you paid via paypal.com file a claim.

 

[DotNetAllDay]

Market economics prevail. Thanks for the heads up. I'm in the process of disputing the charges. Hopefully, I'll get my money back. If not, I've learned a costly lesson.

Thanks!

 

[notlikeyou]

I completely missed the part about you already getting them appraised! Hopefully you get the charges reversed.

 

[DotNetAllDay]

I've talked to my bank and they've always been helpful in the past. Hopefully, the same will follow with this debacle.

Thanks!

 

[Earthian]

don't worry about the lost money ... those few bucks you lost will make you more vigilant on the internet and in life in general ...








regarding if their appraisals worth anything ... check this thread ... an NPer there says that a product from the company that makes those appraisals (or one of the many companies ?) gives the same dollar amount even if you put random letters ...


this though refers to a program they sell and not the human (?) appraisals ... I have not seen any of those appraisals so as to tell you if they worth anything or not , or how accurate they might be ... but ... they are probably bogus ... and secondly , I don't think they are respected by any domainer if they are from any of the possibly-connected-with-the-appraisal-scam-companies ...








in general , appraisals , either human or automated (and mostly the latter) cannot give you an accurate evaluation of a domain , because its value depends on many different factors ... end-user's desire , size of market , competition in the market , rarity of a name , new concept/technology , a characteristic/concept that you are seeing and the appraiser missed ... just to name a few ...








that being said ... GoDaddy , SEDO and others do human based appraisals ... but for the reasons explained above I would not really suggest a paid appraisal except on some cases/circumstances ...








if you want to play with free appraisals and without taking their results too seriously ... you can try ...

- a small "trick" that some domainers do is with the Certified Offer Service from Network Solutions ... go to https://www.certifiedofferservice.com/CertifiedOffer/offer/makeoffer.do?dom=XXXXXXX.TLD , after you put the domain name where the XXXXXXX.TLD is ... then , where it says "Does XXXXXXX.TLD include the name of a product or service?" , on the bottom right , choose "No or I don't know" ... it will give you an automated appraisal for the domain ...

- go to Nameboy.com and request a free appraisal ...

- go to LeapFish.com and request an appraisal ... bear in mind that leapfish depends a lot on the age of the domain (as derived from archive.org)

- go to EstiBot.com and request an appraisal ... bear in mind that estibot depends a lot on Overture and that Overture has stopped functioning completely for a couple of weeks now ... maybe if Josh finishes the v2 , estibot would become a good automated appraisal service ...

- go to SwiftAppraisal.com and request a free appraisal ... try to answer rather honestly and bear in mind that results are somewhat inflated ...








regarding reversing charges ... I don't know how successful a chargeback might be ... he might be just an affiliate of the appraisal company (rather difficult though) ... or ... they could claim that you ordered the service on your own free will , and proving that the two are connected might not be easy ...








lastly , the guy in the NP thread link above managed to shut down the company's account in the payment processing company (he lived near the payment processing company's office) ... maybe you should contact the payment company you used and notify them about their practices ... make sure you include a link to domainappraisalscam.com , a link to the NP thread above and/or a link to this thread ...

​

 

[del.icio.us]

I got an unsolicited email from an interested buyer a few days ago on a domain I parked at SEDO. I responded to his inquiry and said I'd get a quote to him after I got it appraised. This is what he replied. I would like to know if I'm getting scammed or not? Some of his questions / points don't seem quite right. The domain appraised very high - over $25,000.

-----
Your valuation looks reasonable enough and I agree with it. To get a fair value I ordered another valuation from different site. Since it's not smart to rely on one valuation only. I've got the figure already. It's veru close the result of your valuation. Of course, I expected a lower estimation .

Anyway, now I see from different sources that your name has a good
potential. My partners told me about ICANN rule that prohibits domain reselling before two months from registration. I did not want to wait for two months. Here is my solution:

I search for a buyer and get 14%-15% upon sale. I wrote about reselling in
first emails. Of course, I don't require exclusive rights to sell. You can try to sell at the same time. If I find a buyer faster I get my 15%.

I've already bought opt-in lists from http://www.bizemailsolution.com/ site
to promote your domains. I invested about $150 in these opt-in lists. Of course, I cannot list your names with brokers and auctions since I'm not
the owner. You should list your names in all possible palce to increase the exposure. I think www.Amazon.com and www.eBay.com are good sites to
start with. Please don't forget to send your auction links. I'm going to use your valuation in my promotio? Is it ok with you?
-----

Does ICANN have time restrictions on reselling domains?

Hmmm, Same story.

I've paid for one of those such worthless appraisals in my earlier domaining days for one of my domain names just like you did, but recovered the amount paid by a simple chargeback request. No need to worry. You can call your CC company and explain them about the fraudulent emails and the illegally operating website. Definitely they will approve your chargeback request and refund your amount.

If possible, file a separate complaints at IC3 and BBB with all possible evidences such as the email correspondences (with full headers), and the payment receipt that you might have received from the appraisal company for the appraisals.

Hope this would help.