Maybe the guy just wants that I spend my money on this site
Bannen's handy Appraisal Scam Explanation:
1 -
the scammers scan for fresh regs. They look mainly for what they consider crappy new regs (though it could be argued that all new regs are crappy... let's say they look for the crapp
ier ones that make little sense, a sign of a newbie domainer), and probably use a tool to see whether the new registrant owns very few domains. It's a waste of time to send emails to owners of hundreds or thousands of domains as this generally means the owner by now knows about appraisal scams already. But some of us long-timers still get the occasional email from them when we make a fresh reg.
2 - they make an offer for your domain. Usually newbies give them a small asking-price for their fresh-regged domain - they get excited and don't want to scare away the 'buyer', so they ask a few hundred $. The scammers try to hook you deeper by saying they'll pay a lot more, usually a few grand.
That makes it more feasible for you to consider paying a good amount of your hard-earned cash (they don't give a shiitake how poor you might be) for... drum roll...
3 - an 'appraisal certificate' is asked for. They say their (fictional) client needs to see an appraisal certificate to make sure it's worth paying that big price. They give you a link to what they say is a 'reliable/accurate' appraisal service. They pretend they just know about this site, or read a review of it, or it was recommended to them, etc, but
the appraisal website is actually owned by the scammer/s who just emailed you.
4 - you diarrhea your pants, scream at your parents to not microwave your dinner yet, kick the dog from under your desk, piss on the houseplants in the excitement of release, and slap your baby sister out of your room to go steal your parents' credit card for you, in your haste to
pay anywhere from $50 to $200 to have your domain appraised right away, because you have an awesome buyer/fish on the line for your newly crapped, I mean regged, domain and the only thing in the way of your getting tons of weed money real fast is that insignificant little appraisal certificate and the time needed to scratch your ballistics.
5 - the scammers lustfully and gleefully accept your parents' credit card payment, buy more stinky kielbasa and ale to celebrate, and laugh contemptuously while their back-alley-coded software generates a
completely random and irrelevant but high value to your domain. Then it automates a really pretty and official looking e-document that seems to resemble a certificate of some kind, with some appraisal figure and some domainer jargon on it. It looks wonderful, and it must be worth every penny paid. Heck, get the appraisal again, for the same domain, just to get TWO pretty certificates! Trust me. Then buy appraisals for your friends' domains too, as a gift. Well worth it, IMO.
6 - since they were never real buyers, and their entire motive in making an offer for your domain was to lead you to their paid appraisal service, then
right after they have your money they disappear. They either stop responding to your emails, or they say their buyer has lost interest or has found another domain they like better, or a dozen other excuses. Voila: you have a useless certificate and you're out the money for both a crappy useless domain reg fee (I mean that in the kindest possible way, don't be offended) and a crappy useless appraisal certificate fee. And the registrar has your ten bucks and the appraisal scammer has ten times that amount of your parents' money, which is coming out of your college fund anyway (actually it's your entire college fund) so you've just screwed yourself, really.
Or you can back up a few steps, right after step 3, so let's call this step:
3(a) - you sign up to Namepros, ask what the damn hell is going on with this strange offer on your new reg, and we fill you in about appraisal scams, and then you, your parents, your underpants, your dog, your baby sister, your plants, and your college fund are saved from the holocaust of steps 4 through 6. And you've only foolishly wasted the reg fee $ of your useless unsellable lame-a$$ crappy new domain reg (again I mean that in the kindest way, no offense).
Thank you for your time.
