Information on Latonas.com

[ulterios]

Hi all, I received an email today from someone claiming to be a website broker for latonas.com saying they were interested in one of my domains. I haven't heard anything about them before and a search on both here and Google didn't really show enough info to help.

Here are some questions I was hoping I could find an answer for:

Is this some kind of scam?

Are they legit?

Have any of you dealt with them before?


They seem legit but I haven't been able to find good information on them to make a judgement.

They threw me off by putting this in the email: "I just wanted drop you an email to see if you would be interested in either selling xxxxx.com or any others you may have?"


Any other thoughts or information you might have about them will be greatly appreciated.

 

[carob]

Wow, so he moved up from watches to websites huh? Thanks for the info.

The comments on this one are interesting
http://domainnamewire.com/2011/06/07/rick-latona-disses-domains-and-focuses-on-cash-flow-assets/

Yet in 2011 he dumped a lot of names http://domainnamewire.com/2011/03/29/no-reserve-rick-latona-auction-on-sedo-has-many-winners/


When googling this Adsense ad came up just now

Latona's Website Brokers
www.latonas.com/‎
Latona's brokers websites with
profits and revenue from $20k - $2m

 

[ulterios]

The comments on this one are interesting
http://domainnamewire.com/2011/06/07/rick-latona-disses-domains-and-focuses-on-cash-flow-assets/

Yet in 2011 he dumped http://domainnamewire.com/2011/03/29/no-reserve-rick-latona-auction-on-sedo-has-many-winners/a lot of names


When googling this Adsense ad came up just now

Going by some of the comments, shouldn't he be making hundreds of millions on these developed sites? LOL

I have been getting his adsense ads all day saying "Latona's, Dedicated brokers to help you buy the right business". LOL

 

[Chetan]

Latonas advertise a lot, and every domainer can see them on facebook and google ads section, atleast that confirms that fb and google recognizes you as domain investors, if you are able to see that add every now and then

 

[jdab]

I thought I read a while back that Rick was stopping domaining?

 

[ulterios]

I thought I read a while back that Rick was stopping domaining?

I haven't found any info on that yet. His website says they are a broker for selling websites and mentions nothing about domains. That's why I am curious about why I got the message.

I know it's a good brandable name for a WordPress related website so maybe that by itself is why I got the message.

I think though they are just spamming to see if maybe I might be interested in one of their websites for sale since I own several developed sites myself.

 

[jdab]

I haven't found any info on that yet. His website says they are a broker for selling websites and mentions nothing about domains. That's why I am curious about why I got the message.

I know it's a good brandable name for a WordPress related website so maybe that by itself is why I got the message.

I think though they are just spamming to see if maybe I might be interested in one of their websites for sale since I own several developed sites myself.

Fair enough. Was speaking with him a while back - he tried to sell me a Twitter name for 5 figures.

 

[ulterios]

Fair enough. Was speaking with him a while back - he tried to sell me a Twitter name for 5 figures.

Wow, he's pretty optimistic isn't he. Have to be careful with Twitter names, I met one domainer and developer who got into legal trouble with a couple of Twitter related names.

I guess Twitter can be vicious about their trademark.

 

[discobull]

Fair enough. Was speaking with him a while back - he tried to sell me a Twitter name for 5 figures.

Did you mean a domain with "twitter" in it, or a twitter username?

 

[jdab]

Did you mean a domain with "twitter" in it, or a twitter username?

Twitter username.

 

[ulterios]

Wow, are Twitter usernames fetching that kind of money?

 

[jdab]

Wow, are Twitter usernames fetching that kind of money?

Not from me!

 

[ulterios]

Not from me!

It does make me wonder how many people register Twitter names and try to sell them.

 

[carob]

It does make me wonder how many people register Twitter names and try to sell them.

Offering them for sale is a violation of the Twitter TOS - they updated that several years ago. So sales are probably discreet but do happen. Passively selling might be OK, but Twitter can and do cancel unused accounts.

Here's a six figure one from 2010
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/sep/14/twitter-user-sells-israel-username

In 2007 Israel Meléndez set up a Twitter account under his first name. This year he was approached by the state of Israel, which wanted to buy @Israel from him for a quantity of dollars that, he told Spain's Público newspaper, included "five zeroes".
The sale went through despite Twitter's stated policy of preventing username squatting and Meléndez, who runs adult websites for a living, said Twitter itself had advised the Israeli government on how this could be done.

 

[jdab]

Yup, I think there are even websites that sell the accounts. I have tried to buy a couple in the past but didn't go through with them as the prices were high.

 

[ulterios]

Yup, I think there are even websites that sell the accounts. I have tried to buy a couple in the past but didn't go through with them as the prices were high.

Wow, maybe I am in the wrong industry. I do imagine it you had a really good ID, something like a name maybe like Joe, Mike, Julie or something like that it would probably fetch a nice chunk of change.

 

[kawalsukhi]

Now they always appears as Website brokers in Google ads!!!

 

[Nem0]

Anyone remember when he took over Namepros (with wild advertising plastering every corner of NP with nutty colors) for about 10 days in March of 2008?

It looked so bad but he got many eyeballs to get a look at his brokering service. He had the biggest domain/broker email/newsletter at that time.

I tried to find a Namepros screenshot from that exact time but neither Archive nor screenshots.com show how NP looked during those ten days.

Edit: found this https://www.namepros.com/threads/whoa-ricklatona-coms-namepros.449932/

But, I looked all over and cant find a screenshot on old blogs or Goog images or anywhere. Would love to see how NP looked at that time, again. Anyone got the detective skills to find a screenshot of it?

 

[JayJay]

Anyone remember....

It looked so bad

Ha, how could we forget , glad you brought it up I was thinking of posting about it the other day. Im sure he did gain customers but it annoyed the sh*t outta me.

 

[johname]

Anyone remember when he took over Namepros

That's always the first thing I think of when I hear Rick L lol

It was Him in a tough guy t-shit next to a black muscle car, and flame orange colors.

Luckily the new owner of NP doesn't need the cash to sell out like that.

Was kinda fun though

************

In general an email from Rick means your doing something right.

 

[ulterios]

In general an email from Rick means your doing something right.

 

[Hidigo]

Always be aware, and collect as many informations about your client before you make transaction.

 

[ulterios]

Always be aware, and collect as many informations about your client before you make transaction.

Thanks for your reply. Good advice, I always do that myself, just in case someone knows anything about a potential buyer I am dealing with. Shared knowledge helps.

 

[robert_jones]

The way I see it is they are emailing you to try and either buy or broker one of your domains OR they are just spamming you so you can take interest in what they have up for sale.

If they are seriously interested in buying one of your domains, call them out on it and try and work out a deal. You have nothing to lose by doing this as if they aren’t serious they will just back down. And if they are serious then you might be able to get a sale. Also, keep in mind that if you do move forwards with a sale with them and they try to avoid using a well known Escrow then you’ll know they were full of it.

If I were you just look to see if the guy left his name and contact info in the email – if he did, just ring him up and see if he’s serious or not. If he is legit he shouldn’t have any problems speaking with you on the phone.

That’s just my 2 cents for what it’s worth.

 

[ulterios]

The way I see it is they are emailing you to try and either buy or broker one of your domains OR they are just spamming you so you can take interest in what they have up for sale.

If they are seriously interested in buying one of your domains, call them out on it and try and work out a deal. You have nothing to lose by doing this as if they aren’t serious they will just back down. And if they are serious then you might be able to get a sale. Also, keep in mind that if you do move forwards with a sale with them and they try to avoid using a well known Escrow then you’ll know they were full of it.

If I were you just look to see if the guy left his name and contact info in the email – if he did, just ring him up and see if he’s serious or not. If he is legit he shouldn’t have any problems speaking with you on the phone.

That’s just my 2 cents for what it’s worth.

Everyone's (well almost everyone's ) 2 cents is welcome.

I was thinking the same things. I replied back to the email but haven't heard back yet. All the contact information is there but I haven't called yet. I was hoping for a reply by email to see if they are going to show a bit more interest.

I might just give them a call though.