Domainer Newbie - Appraisal scam alert

[Havela]

Posting to warn other newbies

This morning I received the following email:

"From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2012 8:08 AM
Subject: re: yourdomain.net


Hello!

We are interested in purchasing yourdomain.net. I noticed that it was for sale. Please let me know your price.

Our company is investing in domain names and web projects.

If you sell more domains I will review them.

Best Regards,

David Shulman

President

Affordable Hosting Inc.
========================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
========================================================"

So I googled "Affordable Hosting Inc" and it did not appear to exist. Nor did David Shulman appear to be linked to any domain service company.

On the other hand, affordable-web-services.com redirected to http://www.webhostingclue.com, which is a legitimate business and a nice touch, imo. (I also thought the confidentiality notice was a nice touch.) However, when I looked up affordable-web-services.com in domaintools.com, it was privacy protected, which got all my red flags going.

So I pasted the entire email into google and found this:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20120504063437AAb0jgK

I.e.: A domain appraisal scam.

The "recommended" appraisal site domain-cost.com is registered to the Vladimir Obraztsov in the Russian Federation.

Fellow newbies, be warned.

 

[domainbartender]

Thread moved to Warnings & Alerts.

crumblepie,
NP Team

 

[Havela]

Update

Small update with another scam site to look out for:

Just for the fun of it I sent the following response to "David Schulman":

"Dear Dr Shulman,

Thank you for your interest in my domain.

My price is USD 1,000.

Payment through Escrow, split cost.

Any appraisal services at your cost.


Kind regards,

Fictitious name
Company Name"

Less than half an hour later I received the "I need you to pay for a domain appraisal and have had this wonderful site recommended on a forum" email back - only this time another "appraisal" site was recommended:

name-experts.com

Their whois is hidden, but I guess it would not be too much of a leap of imagination to assume that also this site is controlled by Vladimir Obraztsov in the Russian Federation.

So please, watch out for name-experts.com too.

PS forum admin: Is it possible to make the sites name-experts.com and domain-cost.com links with no-follow attributes, so that they are easily found in search engines without increasing their search rank?

 

[dphil0]

I received the exact same email.

I am talking with this same person. He says he is interested in one of my domains and wants me to get it appraised through the same suggested website. I told him I would lower my price by a substantial amount if he would do the appraisal himself. He said no. He says appraisal is only $50 but he insists that I do it. What should I tell him?

 

[mis_chiff]

Welcome to the forum.

I am talking with this same person. He says he is interested in one of my domains and wants me to get it appraised through the same suggested website. I told him I would lower my price by a substantial amount if he would do the appraisal himself. He said no. He says appraisal is only $50 but he insists that I do it. What should I tell him?

Tell them no!

100% of the time is is a scam.

If someone really wants your domain, they wouldn't contact you to get an appraisal
just the price you are selling it for.

Review the Warnings and Alerts forum here and you'll see lots of them,
along with advice from many members.
http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/

 

[DN BROKER]

This latest re-brand has been published on my blog. I have posted a $500 reward for any information that leads to a conviction.

 

[Havela]

I am talking with this same person. He says he is interested in one of my domains and wants me to get it appraised through the same suggested website. I told him I would lower my price by a substantial amount if he would do the appraisal himself. He said no. He says appraisal is only $50 but he insists that I do it. What should I tell him?

I agree with mis_chiff, tell them most definately no. Did you see the yahoo link I attached, by the way? Vladimir or whatever his name is has been bugging me ever since because I was curious enough to answer him. Ignore, ignore, ignore. He will never pay for your domain and the appraisal is worth nothing.

PS about appraisals from newbie to newbie: The others here probably know already, but I've found many free appraisal sites over the past few days:

Estibot.com (everyone knows that one)
Godaddy.com/Auctions/Domain Name Appraisals
Domainworth.com
urlappraisal.net
appraise.epik.com

I'm not saying you should rely on any of them, just that it's nice to know about them for various purposes (Vladimir not being one of them).

 

[dphil0]

thanks

Thank you so much for the info. I told him "no deal". He hasn't answered back.