Appraisal Scam

[fastfred]

I would like to know if anyone have had a person contact them about buying there domain name and using an independent appraisal service,after I present him the appraisal,now he want 30 days to find a buyer.I am wondering is there people out there with thier own agenda?

 

[Kfkm09]

I'm not sure whether or not it's possible, but maybe there's a PHP script that attempts to see past proxies.

On top of having the script, you would need to convince the scammer to actually visit the website. Maybe you could say it's your domain name portfolio so he'll find more names he can pretend to be interested in.

If he is visiting Namepros, unfortunately he could be reading this thread right now. But I know we'll get him soon.

 

[clasione]

Greatdomains is a PR6 and it states:
© Copyright 2005 VeriSign, Inc. All rights reserved

That one should be ok....

 

[UKZJ007]

I've been doing a lot of research into this.

He's probably reading this thread right now, but oh well - Let's just hope he isn't.

I have over 13 e-mails from him, each with an interesting header - It seems to me that he has gained my trust, I am currently "baiting" him and so far it's going good, this is what I have found so far:

- His software development company is small and apparently based in Switzerland
- He didn't give any more information on this, and turned down an offer I baited him with (not something a Developer would turn down)
- I asked whether I should buy more appraisals, he said they would help but not "dramatically" increase the chances of sales - An interesting reply indeed.
- I am now pretending to show an interest in buying some VERY EXPENSIVE domains from fastdomainsales, I have asked his opinion on their crediblity - His reply will be very interesting and should help us establish his stance with the company and give a better understanding as to his motifs.
- His "template" e-mails are all the same; however his genuine replies to questions I ask are very brief, vague and mono-syllabic - "no", "yes", "deal" and other instances.
- He scouts around on Sedo looking for victims
- He strongly dis-recommended that I use Sedo's appraisal service because they are not an "independant" company - Too bad I had already wasted 40E on a Premium Appraisal
- He uses free e-mail services such as "hot-pot" (more information will be released once I investigate this case further)

I will be speaking to AOL's security teamm, to see what they can do. I will furthermore contact a few internet security companies, BBC WatchDog, some lawyers, and of course my bank - I am going to come down hard on this guy like a ton of bricks.

I once again urge all interested namepros members to add me on my msn: [email protected] - So we can all work together, communicate safely and start our plan of attack on this scammer.

 

[Zeeble]

it is impossible (near enough) to find his real IP address, he hideas bhind, not just one but several proxys.

 

[UKZJ007]

If we can't catch him, we need to crack down on the incident and fight on behalf of everyone who has been affected.

I have just launched a new site ICCIA - International Cyber Crime Investigation Association which will be a free cyber crime information site (perhaps with forums) - The site will be set up soon - I need as much voulntary help as possible from members who are interested in cracking down on cyber scams such as this one.

 

[kektex]

Let´s not forget that we may not be able to get his IP but we can be 98% sure that this guy owns the appraisal companies... let´s try to keep all domainers we know and all forums we hang around in educated so noone else falls for this.

 

[UKZJ007]

I have already started helping - Everyone, please see this thread: http://namepros.com/showthread.php?p=502910#post502910

 

[Zeeble]

Did some one here say that they got an email in which he says that his software company is softforces?

 

[Badger]

Hey but it is nice to see that allfordomains has its own anti-scam page on its site now....

http://www.allfordomains.com/scam.htm

Oh my God, no please, my sides are splitting..... God love em....

 

[armstrong]

haha. to see the articles, one has to signup for a $59 membership.

 

[UKZJ007]

Damn, all those sp mistakes :p

Btw, we have his real IP

 

[neveremail]

hi,

i got this email but could tell it was fishy from the start - I asked on this site and turned out i was right.
http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=80486


Maybe try banning his site by google and yahoo will annoy the guy a bit as well.

If ppl find the site is not on google and yahoo then they may get suspicious enough not to bother.

Chris

 

[Chris]

hi,

i got this email but could tell it was fishy from the start - I asked on this site and turned out i was right.
http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=80486


Maybe try banning his site by google and yahoo will annoy the guy a bit as well.

If ppl find the site is not on google and yahoo then they may get suspicious enough not to bother.

Chris

I personally would just forget about it and not try to deal with them or tick them off. They are crooks so there's no reason to pick a fight with a criminal as you'll be on their target list forever. Their not your average people, they are trying to con innocent people out of money so that shows their mentality. Be better then them and ignore it. Create a website with awareness about the scams, but don't contact them directly yourself.

I'm glad you didn't fall for it as it's a common scam in the domain Industry, do a search here or at Google and you'll see.

 

[armstrong]

Maybe try banning his site by google and yahoo will annoy the guy a bit as well.

If ppl find the site is not on google and yahoo then they may get suspicious enough not to bother.

No need for that, Chris. If you search on google for fastdomainsales, you'll find 70% of the first page results talk about how it is a scam.

 

[fastfred]

RE:Fastdomainssale

I see that fastdomainssales is dead, great news, one down and more to go,yesss

 

[Zeeble]

yes, we managed to shut down fastdomainsales.com. That won't stop him for too long though, but perhaps it will make the scammers a bit more weary....

 

[debnyberg]

Wow, last year we received that scammer's email too. Never heard from them again after we put together a terse response to their inquiry.

We do not concern ourselves with appraisals. We know what this domain name is worth.

Your need for an appraisal is your business and can be handled on your end. Your partners are yours and your alone, we are not involved.

As far as negotiations, the price listed is the price needed to be paid to own this domain name. If that is unreasonable, then we suggest you do not look at something you can not afford.​

Now we realize that we were responding to spam and whoever is sending this scam had no intention of responding to anybody's reply.

Wonder what would happen if somebody replied by saying they already had an appraisal from one of those companies? If anybody does that and actually would get a response back, please follow by expecting a show of good faith and asking for earnest money being put forward first before negotiations continue.

This is how I responded when I received his request:

"If you wish XXX.com appraised for your investment purposes, I believe it should be you that obtains the appraisal. That way we both know you satisfied your requirements and I had nothing to do with the appraisal. If, after you obtain the appraisal, and you decide to purchase it, I will take off the price of the appraisal in the final sales price to you. Fair enough?"

Of course....nothing else came back from him after that....teeheheheee! Deb Nyberg

 

[Ben42]

Heh, you could offer them triple the cost of the appraisal deducted from the final price!

 

[digidogstudios]

I got an email from this jack martin guy about a month ago, wanting me to sell him 15 of my domains, i dont give anything away until i get the $, not to mention my domains are not for sale, i told him to go fly a kite.....beware of scammeras/fishers on the net, man what i would pay to get ahold of one of these lowlifes.....

 

[Yomah]

Yes the same thing happen to me! But at the time i didnt have the money to get it appraised.

 

[adam_uk]

can i make a suggestion.

it seems alot of you have had these emails trying to scam you. if you all take the ip address of the server it came from and do a whois query it will tell you an abuse / admin email to contact (or at least the owner of the ip address)

dont get someone to drum up a nice email and send it once. you all send it each.

email there abuse department, if enough of you do it they will notice and will be forced to take a look at the server / machine / customer that is miss using there services.

any spam i get that apears to come from ebay / paypal / microsoft / banks / shops etc i report imediatly to the ip owner. you all should do too.

 

[Zeeble]

Hi Adam, we have already followed this up. even to the point of speaking the ISP on the phone, all to no avail. If you come accross one of their sites, check the whois, ring the number, if it doesn't work, contact their Registrar, who then contacts ICANN who will then shut the domain down. If you keep doing this, then it will be a nuisance to the scammers and cost very little time.

 

[adam_uk]

ah right fair enough, i had only read the first couple of pages in this topic so just thought id suggest it anyway

with alot of abuse departments you never get a reply. it seems that its not a very important department to some but ive emailed some isps who are very quick and tell you there looking into it. but its very rare.

out of 140 blocked ip's i have on my webserver due to bfd's ive had 2 replys.

this needs to change if people are to create a better internet

 

[Zeeble]

I agree, I don't think that some people realise the importance of the internet. Its THE future of MOST business, IMO.

 

[Redleg]

yes, we managed to shut down fastdomainsales.com. That won't stop him for too long though, but perhaps it will make the scammers a bit more weary....

Fastdomainsales.com is still up and running as far as I can see??