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?

 

[kektex]

I just got an email from one of these guys...it looks like they´re using a template in their spam (some parts removed for privacy):

From [email protected] Wed Mar 23 15:17:16 2005
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
X-Flags: 1001
Delivered-To: GMX delivery to ***@gmx.net
Received: (qmail invoked by alias); 23 Mar 2005 15:17:16 -0000
Received: from zotz.mtu.ru (EHLO zotz.mtu.ru) [195.34.34.227]
by mx0.gmx.net (mx020) with SMTP; 23 Mar 2005 16:17:16 +0100
Received: from firstbroker (ppp130-55.dialup.mtu-net.ru [62.118.130.55])
by smtp.MTU.RU (Postfix) with SMTP id 630EA4DB5DA
for <****@gmx.net>; Wed, 23 Mar 2005 18:17:14 +0300 (MSK)
(envelope-from [email protected])
From: Chams Consulting <[email protected]>
To: ****@gmx.net
Subject: domainname.info (sent 03/23/05)
X-Mailer: NetMasters SMTP Demo
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 18:17:14 +0300 (MSK)
X-GMX-Antivirus: -1 (not scanned, may not use virus scanner)
X-GMX-Antispam: 0 (Mail was not recognized as spam)
X-GMX-UID: K+0zYlsKeSE55L7nf3QhaXN2IGRvbwDG
Hi,

I'm writing regarding your domain for sale I saw about two weeks ago. Unfortunately, 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?

Please email me your asking price in US dollars.

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

I run a software development company. Selling & buying names is not my main business. Just another way to invest free money and make some income.

Kindest regards,

Trevor Berger

CEO

Chams Consulting

Cost Analysis & Revenue Assurance Software

It loks like they´re from russia or at least using zombie infected PC´s in russia.The ISP is apparently tochka.ru (can anyone from russia lenda a hand?).

I was about to bite (I´m still a newbie in the dn biz :p) but I casually ran in to a scam warning thread in the sedo forums and found this site with some info.
I was about to delete it but I thought I might have some fun with this guy and find some more about them in the process.Any ideas? 8-X

I want to get back at them just for making me all excited thinking I might have made my first ever DN sale :p

 

[Badger]

If you give me the information on how to get my money back, and I'm successful... I will send you $30 as my appreciation.

i think this has to be said -

"no one who falls for this scam will ever get their money back"

Sorry, youre gonna just have to put it down to experience...

The contract you have with GD or fastdomainsales (or whatever theyre called) was carried out in good faith by the appraisal company and therefore any chargeback you issue against them is asking for trouble for they performed the service you requested in, as i say, good faith...

As ive said earlier in the thread, I cant get to grips with why these guys perform this scam... They dont ask you to click a referral link in order to get the appraisal so I have to say the only reasoning behind this is that they are, in some way, connected with one or even both of these appraisal companies...

Hmm, and seeing as though fastdomainsales have an IP that resides in Moscow and the scammers are always from Russia, I dont like to put two and two together but...........

 

[kektex]

As ive said earlier in the thread, I cant get to grips with why these guys perform this scam... They dont ask you to click a referral link in order to get the appraisal so I have to say the only reasoning behind this is that they are, in some way, connected with one or even both of these appraisal companies.

..


I think it´s 98% sure these guys own the appraisal companies.
Just try to educate as many people as you can and spread the scammer´s URLs and emails around any DN forums you might hang around so noone else falls for this.
I think they´re targetting SEDO listed domains since I got emails regarding my sedo domains and if you read the sedo discussion board you will about some more people getting hit by this,
Anyone else got these emails? Please post them in this thread (with headers!) and whether your domains are listed in SEDO or any other DN parking services.

 

[Zeeble]

Are there any hackers here? If so, I say we should hack these sites (after verifying that they are his)

 

[UKZJ007]

Let's try the legal ways first before trying the blackhat ways.

I will try "Baiting" him ... and at present, I'm on the phone to AOL's security team to see what they can do about this.

 

[Zeeble]

yeah could I idea, lets see if we can entice them into doing something wrong. They are hiding their IP addresses so we can't find them that way.

 

[Ben42]

Chams Consulting

Chams Consulting!?!?
Don't you mean SHAMS CONSULTING???

Too Funny...

 

[armstrong]

"no one who falls for this scam will ever get their money back"

Sorry, youre gonna just have to put it down to experience...

The contract you have with GD or fastdomainsales (or whatever theyre called) was carried out in good faith by the appraisal company and therefore any chargeback you issue against them is asking for trouble for they performed the service you requested in, as i say, good faith...

If you received the appraisal from GD (who don't offer them anymore, as far as I can tell), then above statement is true. However, if you ordered from fastdomainsales, then I sincerely believe that you can make a case for a chargeback. At any rate, it costs you nothing to try. Just contact your credit card company, inform them that you found out that one of the things you recently ordered was part of an online scam. It should work. I mean, I've seen credit card companies chargeback for less reason. And if you are scared of getting charged by fastdomainsales for fraud, just think - how likely is it that the fastdomainsales would actually file a case against you? Wouldn't that risk blowing their scam wide open? And how much would it cost these scammers to come over to the US to recover their $30? Even if they do have a case and win, how much punishment do you expect to receive over $30?

The only way to stop these guys is through chargeback, which costs them about $50 per incident, in addition to the reversal of their $30 fee. Make them pay for every single fraudulent transaction, even if a few months have passed. My bank allows up to six months to challenge a charge, so there might still be time for a lot of you.

 

[Kfkm09]

I went back and forth with this person and eventually gave up when he would not do without an appraisal. I discovered it was a scam around three days ago when I first noticed this thread.

If you can find the right script, you could get him to go to a website that captures his IP address.

Unfortunately, I don't have the header information from his emails because they have since been deleted.

 

[kektex]

I could still contact the guy since I received their email just today. Coding up some php that would capture his IP should be trivial. The thing is they might just use a proxy to visit the site.
From what I can see they´ve always emailed people from a russian ISP. That is why I want to see some more email headers from other people to make sure they´re not just emailing people from zombie PCs.

 

[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.