Am I being set up?

[butchos]

Below is an email I received today. I only registered the domain a few days ago.

Hello,
We are interested in clerks.in Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price. Our company provides IT security services and performs security audit of local and global networks. Our clients are mainly based in Europe and Canada. So investing in names is an additional direction of our financial strategy. Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,****** *******
PresidentITU Consulting

BTW the email came from a "phreaker.net" email address, not a company one.

My questions:
1)Can this be real? It sounds fishy. Why would a global security consulting company want to invest in domains?
2)Assuming it's not, how does the rest of the 'sting' come?
3) Do I lose anything by replying, i.e. confirming that they have the right email address?

Cheers in advance
B

 

[Jasdon]

Yes, this is the old 'appraisal scam' - been around for years. You agree a price then they want to have the name appraised at your cost. They are the appraisal company (non genuine).

Just ignore it.

 

[Lemon Jelly]

I doubt it is a real at all, don't bother replying to them. Phreaker.net is a free email service from Hotpop, why would a company use a free email address like Phreaker.net?

ITU Consulting. Done a Google search and didn't find anything, only ITU.int.

Google their name and see what comes up "xxx xxxx" "xxx xxxx scam" "xxx xxxx domain names"

 

[butchos]

Thanks guys, shame not to have a genuine sale but thanks for confirming my suspiscions!

 

[Miyavi]

I've received the exact same copy and paste email with only the company name changed, so yeah... if you reply, your next email will be a generous offer with the catch of getting your name appraised through a specific company/etc. They'll even link you to a fake bulletin board page with comments about the appraisal service, too.

 

[gazzip]

Sounds like an appraisal scam waiting to happen IMO :td:


.

 

[yandig]

Anytime you hear them say that domaining is not their main line of business, it's probably a scam in my experience.

 

[scrsteven]

definitely the appraisal scam

 

[sky]

They should have said they're a slightly used bridge dealer

I'm always suspicious when they provide exactly not quiet enough specifics. Seems like someone legit would either remain completely anonymous about the nature of their business in the initial contact, or be very forthcoming about the
specifics.

But to be so vague, without placing an offer and require that you engage them to discuss things in general... without laying something compelling on the table ... I wouldn 't bite. A legit buyer with a real desire will usually be eager to demonstrate immediately that they really mean business. If they really want your domain they'll make a real offer if you ignore them.

 

[TheBulldog]

Tell them "Hi from Bulldog".

Oh we go back.

 

[DomainMayhem.com]

Tell them "Hi from Bulldog".

Oh we go back.

LOL. One can only wonder what the bulldog had to say to them :hehe: .

 

[Spade]

Its funny - seems they did a mass email recently - as I recieved several of these and so did many other domainers.

 

[Earthian]

check domainappraisalscam.com , where someone explains the whole procedure of the scam ...



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