Fallen half way into a popular appraisal scam, be careful

[petrosc]

I have fallen for a popular email scam where a potential buyer asks for your domain name but wants an appraisal, and he accepts no appraisal company except from one he "trusts". He is potentially the owner of that service and you end up losing your $$ for appraisal without making a sale.

Here goes the email, I am posting this for the members who did not hear about this scam yet(although as i understand most of you have)

-----Original Message-----
From: BN Engineering [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: 8. února 2006 17:49
To: [email protected]
Subject: AdultPictorials.com (sent 02/08/06)


Hello,

I think you have not sold your domain name yet. I'm very interested in it. Can you send your price for the domain?

Did you get offers from other people already?

I run a software company. We develop client-server systems and databases in MS SQL and Delphi. Buying and selling domain names is not my main business. Just another way to invest money and make additional income.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Best regards,
Edward Kramer Ph.D.
President
BN Engineering

============================================================================
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.

===========================================================================

I replied that I want $150 for it and he then replied this

XXX range. Ok.

Do you offer a web site or domain name only? I'm mostly interested in names.

Do you have an appraisal certificate?

Domain name is an investment for me. In other words I'm going to sell your name later and make a profit. If I overpay I won't be able to make a profit in the future. It's very important for you and me to know the current market value of your domain.

Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging a reputable appraisal company. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals.
I will only accept appraisals from independent sources I trust.

To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies in a forum http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/58046.htm

Juck check this posting.

If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly.

After I get an appraisal from you we'll continue our negotiations.

How do you prefer to get paid: www.PayPal.com, www.escrow.com, check or wire?

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.

If you notice the link he provides http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/58046.htm
there is a suggested appraisal site inside, its www.ALLDOMAINS.com (to which he is potentially related)

Unaware that this was a scam, I have made an appraisal for the name, but not with the suggested service but with one of my choice, moniker.com as i trusted their services. I have spent $20, but at least the $20 didnt end up in his hands!!

Be careful for these types of scams

this is my last reply to him

Hello

I have decided to sell you my domain for $0,99. I suggest that we use escrow for such a transaction. Tell me when you would like to start the transfer process.

Best Regards,
Petros

Petros

ps. Should I contact alldomains.com and ask for explanations for this scam?

 

[OptimyzDomains]

Hey gang,

I'd be wary of "Dr. Hegglund". We've been getting emails that look exactly the same for our web properties. We've also posted a warning on our site as well.

THERE IS NO LEGITIMACY TO THIS! DON'T FALL FOR IT!

If there is any question about this scam, please ask someone reputable to give you their honest and unbiased perspective.

Also, face-to-face or by phone is a great way to initiate this type of business, as personal touch can often weed out a lot of these types of issues.

 

[fbcoach]

Wish I had found this thread yesterday

I too fell for this. I just started in the domain buying/selling game last week and received an offer for $25,000.00 from Robert Hegglund for my coachteed.com site.

I'll admit it, I ran and had a appraisal done on all 5 of my domains.

Good thing I did a search and only paid 29.00 for 5 appraisals.

Now I feel like a dumbass :yell:

 

[sin]

You will not believe this. I just got the appraisal from moniker.com

They appraised it for $3,250 and to think that i only asked for $150

LOL he missed out on a great deal :hehe:

I don't think that what their doing is illegal, I don't agree with it and if they all went to jail I'd be happy but I don't think that what their doing can be proven in court to be different then seeking to buy domain names. So why would the FBI care? just my opinion

 

[Archangel]

Same guy, same scam. I made a thread awhile backk: http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/212019-appraisal-scam-email-least-im-praying.html An excerpt:

All righty: I received an email from [email protected] . It was an inquery about a 3-character .net domain I once owned. Apparently, my email address is still in the whois. Anyway, the letter:
Ignore the > >


I told him in a reply to name a price. And the idiot went on:


My reply to that was, to me, obvious:



Ugh... knowing my luck, this might have been a legit offer but $5k for a THREE CHARACTER .NET sounds unrealistic. I won't state the domain for obvious reasons. It was bought for about $10 and sold for about $15. I don't see $5,000 in its future for a long time.

Well, to read it properly, with his/my messages to each other, ya gotta read the original in the link above

From the url I mentioned above:

Always a "PhD" from some engineering or software firm.

 

[sin]

I too fell for this. I just started in the domain buying/selling game last week and received an offer for $25,000.00 from Robert Hegglund for my coachteed.com site.

I'll admit it, I ran and had a appraisal done on all 5 of my domains.

Good thing I did a search and only paid 29.00 for 5 appraisals.

Now I feel like a dumbass :yell:

well now you know what their worth

 

[40cooperltd]

man o man

I'm glad I did research on this first. I've been scammed before, through ebay and paypal. Not by them, but through them. Now I'm extremely paranoid about it. I research everything first. Today I recieved this email:

Hello,

Our company develops software so domain investing is not our main business. Just additional way to generate income.

Please email me price for your domain name mentioned in the subject line. If it's reasonable we'll do business.

If you have other domain names for sale please send us the complete list with prices for consideration.

I'm a very busy person so it may take several hours before I respond

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,
Robert Hegglund, Ph. D.
President
Opera Software

============================================================================
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.

===========================================================================

I was suspicious because I didn't understand where he found my domain for sale, I only have it listed at sedo and plesmo, but no offer was made through them. So, I checked out the website from his email addy and it was some norwegian(sp) parking site. Nice. That's when I looked some more and found this thread. Man, this guy needs an arse whoopin'. Luckily I'm way too paranoid to be scammed ever again, but it is nice to see people are looking out for eachother.

 

[Snurf]

I got this email too, there were slight variations but the second email you received was WORD for WORD the same as the one I got, they sure do sound tempting.. I knew something was up when they offered 800 USD for a name of mine that was not even worth $30 :lol:

Be careful out there...

 

[Pilatus]

Haha I just received the exact same email. Actually just told him to go **** himself LOL

 

[NeeJam]

Ye i heard about this scam in chat, guess thats the way they think they can earn a hard-buck, and anyways if he wants you get get an appraisal at a trusted person from him surely he should do this free?