Domain owner murdered partner...

[S-B]

Well, I was trying to buy a domain and it turns out that the owner is in prison for murdering his partner!

Now I'm left wondering if he'll sell it at a discount so he can buy some prison cigarettes.

Anyone else have a crazy domaining story?

 

[baldonius]

Out of curiosity, I just found the original link to that conversation

http://www.alverde.net/forum/compravendita-domini/80267-regalo-domini-3-lettere.html

the LUV hint was given in private before this message. I was receiving $400 offers for it at that time.

And yes - always make sure to check availability.

But I would say 10 years ago there was less automation around the whole thing. I had already then built an AJAX domain-search engine (that I am still using now) that automatically searched for every combination of wordlists, letters, etc. in every selected extension.

At that time I also found many 4L .com domains that today would be considered "gorgeous", and shared them as I thought they were uninteresting

Italian's a nice language. Tangential story, but at uni I remember two female international students talking in Italian in the dorm's laundry room. Freaked them out when I asked them in Italian if I could use their laundry machine after they'd finished with it. Never seen such redder faces... viso rosso!

 

[S-B]

Must have co-owned several LL and NN com to do that type of dirty deed!

Hah!

Perhaps he suffers from a domain brain damage and the partner had just bought killme.com

:D

Great Story :P

Thanks!

Great user name... But you ain't?? the...

LOL

Ok this one time..... Actually you win

I didn't intend to win...

Well, one time at band camp...

LOL O.o

:P

Pretty sure there's another "crazy domainer stories" thread floating around here somewhere.

I recall one other domainer murder mystery. I'll post the link tomorrow.

Look forward to seeing it.

So that person was a gay? Mr.Shane Bellone!!!

Yep.

My craziest domain story: some years ago, I was wondering if I should buy some LLL.it domain and asked an opinion in an italian domaining forum.
One of the pros there told me that "it wouldn't be a great investment, unless it was something great such as LUV.IT"
I went to check on a registrar, out of curiosity, and realized LUV.IT was available. Registered it, and one year ago sold it for 25.000 EUR - by far my biggest sale and definitely making my domaining hobby worth the time I spent on it

That's awesome! Congrats.

Great story! How'd you sell it?

Agreed.

Actually the story is longer and more interesting than I made it, because the domain was "sold" two times, but first time... I had it back!

First time I "sold" it, it was an american company that wanted to acquire the domain for a startup.
They sent me a direct email, as they found it in the whois info.
My price for them was EUR 15000 but (essentially as it was a startup) they asked me if they could just pay the half, 7500 EUR, and if after two years the project would have failed being funded and / or generating revenue, I would have the domain back.
This was regulated by a signed contract.

After two years, they failed to reach their objective, so I managed to have the domain back, and essentially gained 7500 EUR for free. This was - I think - in 2010.

One year ago, when I was out of the domains business, another startup (mexican) asked me to acquire the domain. I raised the price to EUR 25000 also because since 2006 I had been using the email for my personal account, and losing it would have been a complication.

After a couple of months they confirmed they were interested in buying the domain and accepted a condition to keep my email account up and running. Luckily the buyer was a very honest and cool person, and one year after the sale I am still using my @luv.it email on a daily basis.

In the end, from LUV.IT I gained EUR 32.500 - and I was directly contacted by the buyers "both times" I sold it.

Now I have no idea if I was using a professional brokerage service that could have reached even higher figures, but I guess I am happy with what I got

OMG awesome

That will teach you to check availability even if it seems the name must be taken 100%

Glad you elaborated.

Italian's a nice language. Tangential story, but at uni I remember two female international students talking in Italian in the dorm's laundry room. Freaked them out when I asked them in Italian if I could use their laundry machine after they'd finished with it. Never seen such redder faces... viso rosso!

Heh.. that was random. :P

 

[33S]

Here's a crazy story:

Godaddy users from Crimea received this letter on January 29th, 2015

> The United States recently enacted new trade restrictions that prevent
> U.S. companies from conducting business with individuals and entities
> located in the Crimea Region of Ukraine. As a result, we're no longer
> able to provide our services to these customers.
>
> Our records indicate you or a contact listed in your account may be
> located in the Crimea Region. *If our records are correct, we'll
> unfortunately need to terminate your account and/or your affected
> product(s) as of January 31, 2015.* Any unused products that are
> discontinued as a result of these restrictions will be automatically
> refunded to the original payment method we have on file.
>
> If your GoDaddy account is closed as a result of these new restrictions,
> your domains will be cancelled and released back to the public. In
> addition, your data and content on file with us will be deleted and we
> will not be able to provide you with backups. Accordingly, *we
> respectfully ask that you act at once to retrieve your data, and
> transfer any products you have with us, including domain names and
> hosting, to new providers.*

 

[S-B]

Here's a crazy story:

Godaddy users from Crimea received this letter on January 29th, 2015

What in the world....

 

[Templr]

Write him a good ole fashioned letter. Then you can become pen pals)

 

[S-B]

Write him a good ole fashioned letter. Then you can become pen pals)

Hah! Send him cash and ask for his login details... :D

 

[brandnow]

Hah! Send him cash and ask for his login details... :D

On second thought, better get his login details first before you send cash. You know, he is a convicted murderer after all.

 

[S-B]

On second thought, better get his login details first before you send cash. You know, he is a convicted murderer after all.

I think that means I shouldn't trust him with a gun.

 

[DomainiaXYZ]

Should visit a jail and offer him a cash for his domain

 

[S-B]

Should visit a jail and offer him a cash for his domain

Ehhh. I wouldn't fare well in prison - even as a visitor.

 

[Grego85]

So it took me awhile to realize this, but what is to stop domainers from figuring out his portfolio (or any other domainer who is killed or goes to prison) and just wait for some possibly wonderful once in a lifetime drops, knowing they would all be coming based on simply checking expiry dates.

sleazy yes, but so is murder :0

 

[Suraj Soni]

if he is prison for murder then may be his domain will expire soon.

 

[NameVerve]

Ok get this:

So I was searching for domains about 2 weeks ago and leaving my email address out on quite a few boards and forums as you do and I get an unexpected email out of the blue from a Mr Harry.K.Richardson. Didn't know him, never heard of him...anyway, cut a long story short he's got a friend in the Nigerian Department of Defense who needs to get money out of the country as the banking in Nigeria is supposedly a little on the dodgey side, wouldn't know myself, never been to South America, anyway...

...2 days ago I get ANOTHER email from Nigeria, this time from Dr Marcel Christianson III, stating that his friend a Bishop named Benjamin Obakuku was also in dire straits and needed help to release $4 mil and all I'd have to do is wire transfer a "release" fee of $2500!!! What are the odds!...can't wait....had enough of flipping shitty .mobi's for lowball xx ...

I'll keep you guys posted..

 

[Rado_Ch]

Ok get this:

So I was searching for domains about 2 weeks ago and leaving my email address out on quite a few boards and forums as you do and I get an unexpected email out of the blue from a Mr Harry.K.Richardson. Didn't know him, never heard of him...anyway, cut a long story short he's got a friend in the Nigerian Department of Defense who needs to get money out of the country as the banking in Nigeria is supposedly a little on the dodgey side, wouldn't know myself, never been to South America, anyway...

...2 days ago I get ANOTHER email from Nigeria, this time from Dr Marcel Christianson III, stating that his friend a Bishop named Benjamin Obakuku was also in dire straits and needed help to release $4 mil and all I'd have to do is wire transfer a "release" fee of $2500!!! What are the odds!...can't wait....had enough of flipping shitty .mobi's for lowball xx ...

I'll keep you guys posted..

Send them $5000 to establish your dominance and gain respect!!! Worked for me and the princess from Sierra Leone who inherited some $30 mil. in diamonds. Sleeping on a mattress full of cold, sharp jewels is rough but totally worth it!

 

[Andreas_N]

and if after two years the project would have failed being funded and / or generating revenue, I would have the domain back.
This was regulated by a signed contract.

After two years, they failed to reach their objective, so I managed to have the domain back, and essentially gained 7500 EUR for free. This was - I think - in 2010.

Not questioning your story, but why the hell would anyone agree to that? if their startup failed they could have sold the domain they rightfully owned and made money. Instead they gave it back for free?

 

[aditya agrawal]

hahahahaa... I just came here to read the comments..

 

[gattoplano]

Andreas_N in reality I don't know. Probably while not wanting to spend 15.000 EUR they had no interest or knowledge in the domains business.
During the whole process they were acting for a client of theirs, and possibly they already had a feeling that it could have been a failure.

However it was them proposing and I gladly accepted. I kept ownership of the domain all the time until the termination of the contract.

 

[forge]

A diet doctor is gunned down in an alley outside his storefront clinic, and it looks like the kind of murder case San Diego homicide cops loathe: the professional hit, with a lengthy list of suspects.

(Dr. Kent DeLong) bought and sold domain names and weight-loss websites through a netherworld of brokers and dealers of questionable repute. His biggest success came in 1999, when he sold the domain name Vitamins.com for a reported seven-figure sum.

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2001/feb/22/suspicion/#

 

[Yusuf Musa]

Not questioning your story, but why the hell would anyone agree to that? if their startup failed they could have sold the domain they rightfully owned and made money. Instead they gave it back for free?

I think their objective is to rent and then fully purchase when its a success.