Before buying or selling domains

[gafadi]

Well i have been in the forums quite about a year but i consider myself a newbie because i only do this part times, so here is my question how to make sure when you are the buyer , that domain that you are buying are ligit and the seller is not a scammer .

I am talking to a seller , price is allright price but i want to make sure its a legit sale , i asked him to send me email from the whois email and he did . Should i go ahead with that ? or is there anything else i can do to make sure.

 

[wwwweb]

always use escrow, takes away a lot of the risk.

 

[Truthman]

It is very easy to fake an email from any address. So receiving an email from the whois address is ZERO help. If you want to confirm the address in whois is his, better to send an email to the whois address, and ask him to respond to that.

I also recommend using an escrow service. I have been happy with escrow.com

 

[gafadi]

It is very easy to fake an email from any address. So receiving an email from the whois address is ZERO help. If you want to confirm the address in whois is his, better to send an email to the whois address, and ask him to respond to that.

I also recommend using an escrow service. I have been happy with escrow.com

haha you were right

thanks

 

[DomainTalker]

If you're worried about a domain you're buying may be stolen, check to see if anything shows up in Google about it, and whether anything has been reported in Forums....A stolen domain will usually be reported by the rightful owner.

If there is nothing, it looks good.


Easiest way to confirm ownership further, is to ask the seller to make an agreed change to the WHOIS - eg change a line of the Admin address, or something...

If the seller can do that, then, it at least proves they control the domain - and, is probably legit.


.

 

[copper]

Just because they control the domain do NOT necessarily mean it's legit.
Email from whois contact email prove nothing.
Responding your email to whois contact prove nothing.

Thief may have temporary control of stolen domain including email and registrar login.

Security of using Escrow service has nothing to do with stolen domain.
It's not their job to verify whether domain is stolen domain or not.
Escrow just ensures buyer get the domain (stolen or not) and seller get the money.

There is NO absolute guarantee.
However, checking previous whois record may reduce your risk.
You may be able to see if there is any whois record history here with paid membership.

Do you see many changes recently? - may need to check further.
Domain has just one registrant since registration - that's good sign
although thief may have temporary control of registrar login and/or whois email address.

Need more security?
If domain was sold previously, contact previous owner by phone and
ask if he/she did sell the domain to current domain owner.

Contact seller by phone that show on whois if that phone # hadn't changed recently.

Buying and Selling domain names are still WILD WILD WEST

 

[TristanH]

I feel like there's some security with eBay. Someone contacted me a few months ago about buying one of my domains, but didn't want to just PayPal me the money, fearing the fact that I was under no real obligation to transfer the name. He suggested that I eBay it and have the Buy It Now price be the agreed upon price. I did it, shot him an email with the link to the auction, and he bought it right away.

Obviously this doesn't mean that someone couldn't just create a new account and do their shady dealings from it, but like I said, I think it makes things a bit more comfortable for everyone involved.

Tristan