Is SEDO helping scammers with fake domains like wíne.com or físh.com ?

[Erdy]

I call domains like wíne.com and físh.com as fake since these are not true idn's. Köln.com is an idn since in German there is this word Köln and it is written with ö.

físh.com is like a counterfeit product. It is a copy of the original. Maybe you didn't understand what this topic is about. Look closer to físh.com and you will see that is not fish.com it has an í instead an i.

The main aim obviously is to trick unaware buyers making them believe they are buying the real thing while they aren't. There are many people out there who don't know much about domains let alone idn's.

Do you really think the poor guy, who has to pay 2250 usd for físh.com after yesterdays sedo auction, knew what he was buying? I don't think so. This is almost like ebay scams but with the exception that sedo makes it difficult not to pay when you get scammed. I think sedo should stop helping scammers.

Even I was almost bidding yesterday on físh.com. I knew 2250 usd was incredibly cheap but I expected the prices to go higher during the last few minutes. Then when the last 10 minutes came and the price was still the same I though, ok, just put $3000 and see what happens. From my ebay experience I know that bidding last moments can be fun. And there were so many bids which made the deal look like real. Only by chance I have realized it at the last moment that it wasn't the real thing. I could have been carried away by the last minute bidding race and excitement or whatever.

Then I wrote an email to my sedo representative and the respond I received is very disapointing. He says they made it clear in the description. On the other hand I don't care about the description. They must make it clearer on the main auction list as well.

Here is a picture on what I mean:

Edit:
Fake fìx.com went through for 46,001 USD. With ì instead i this domain is not even worth one dollar.
http://www.sedo.com/auction/auction...=us&auction_id=5400&tracked=1&partnerid=27222

Please let them know what you think on this issue. Their email address is [email protected]

 

[Broker]

Yeah something should be said and an article written with those guilty exposed. This is a very sneaky and dirty business practice if above said is true. This "fake" fish.com name sold or atleast had bids and finished last week on auction at sedo and now its back on there. Something is definitley not right imho.

 

[scandiman]

I noticed that auction and thought the price was low. Now I know why. Sounds simply sneaky to me and someone is going to get burned.

 

[Erdy]

Hi HasRob,

I know what happened. Last week the buyer was not happy and thought he was scammed. Sedo cancelled last weeks auction and put it back with more information on description which is the page you access when you click on the name.

On the other hand on the main list of auctions there is not enough clue that this is a fake name. They should make it clearer. See the picture on my previous message.

After fake fish.com finishing yesterday now we have a fake wine.com active auction.

 

[tricolorro]

I call domains like wíne.com and físh.com as fake since these are not true idn's. Köln.com is an idn since in German there is this word Köln and it is written with ö.

físh.com is like a counterfeit product. It is a copy of the original. Maybe you didn't understand what this topic is about. Look closer to físh.com and you will see that is not fish.com it has an í instead an i.

The main aim obviously is to trick unaware buyers making them believe they are buying the real thing while they aren't. There are many people out there who don't know much about domains let alone idn's.

Do you really think the poor guy, who has to pay 2250 usd for físh.com after yesterdays sedo auction, knew what he was buying? I don't think so. This is almost like ebay scams but with the exception that sedo makes it difficult not to pay when you get scammed. I think sedo should stop helping scammers.

Even I was almost bidding yesterday on físh.com. I knew 2250 usd was incredibly cheap but I expected the prices to go higher during the last few minutes. Then when the last 10 minutes came and the price was still the same I though, ok, just put $3000 and see what happens. From my ebay experience I know that bidding last moments can be fun. And there were so many bids which made the deal look like real. Only by chance I have realized it at the last moment that it wasn't the real thing. I could have been carried away by the last minute bidding race and excitement or whatever.

Then I wrote an email to my sedo representative and the respond I received is very disapointing. He says they made it clear in the description. On the other hand I don't care about the description. They must make it clearer on the main auction list as well.

Here is a picture on what I mean:

Hi,

I agree with you 100% these fake and misleading auctions should not be allowed.

I wish everyone would speak up and take action.

VOIP.info was offered on eBay a while ago. VOIP was in the auction title. All letters.

I checked to make sure that the O was indeed a letter and not the number 0.

Since the auction seemed too good to be true I contacted the seller.

He admitted the auction was for V0IP.info with a zero NOT VOIP.info.

His auction title used the letter O and no where in the auction did you see any reference to the number 0 being used.

The auction closed at over $1200 if I remember correctly.

I have no idea if the buyer or bidders knew about this "scam' but it should not have been allowed.

Compalints to ebay are futile.

Patrick

 

[circa1850]

I call domains like wíne.com and físh.com as fake since these are not true idn's. Köln.com is an idn since in German there is this word Köln and it is written with ö.

físh.com is like a counterfeit product. It is a copy of the original. Maybe you didn't understand what this topic is about. Look closer to físh.com and you will see that is not fish.com it has an í instead an i.

So true, so true, so true.

It has one purpose and one purpose only. To deceive.

The seller can claim buyer ignorance all they want. But that does not wash it clean. And for Sedo to permit such crap to even be parked let alone go to auction is shameful on their part and doing a terrible injustice to the domain industry.

Such trickery is all too common on other formats like ebay. Just last week DRlNK.COM was being auctioned off. It was well into the thousands in a matter of minutes and hours. The domain was actually drlnk.com as in DRLNK.COM where the seller intentionally substituted the lower case "L" with other upper case letters.

The buyer was confronted by numerous members and non members of this forum regarding the auction and the auction was pulled.

Sedo, on the other hand, has an obligation to uphold a sense of decency and respectability in the domain industry and allowing such trickery to be part of the Sedo way of doing business is simply pathetic.

 

[Erdy]

Yesterday just after the auction ended I've send my sedo representative an email telling that I was almost bidding on that domain and I would lose lots of money. I told him that they should have make it more clear. This is the reply I received:

I’m sorry but we have made a clear description into the offer of the seller stating the following points:

“físh.com: IDN-Domain (International Domain Name), with logo, without content.

Please note that this domain is a simple misspelling of the English word "fish" and contains an international character/accent.

It may show up in your account or elsewhere as “xn--fsh-rma.com”.”

This was submitted from Sedo as a detailed description to make everybody who is interested to buy this domain. Furthermore every buyer has to be sure to read this information about a certain domain. We have made it very clear in this offer that the domain is a misspelling of “fish.com”.

For further information's please don't hesitate to contact us again.
Kind regards,

So what happens is that the winner from last weeks fake fish.com auction contacts sedo and objects to the sale. Then sedo contacts the seller and asks him to add more information while the name is being auctioned again. They never even think on making it more clear on the main action list which is where everybody looks at.

At this stage the seller says, oh sorry this is not fish.com but it is a misspelling. He obviusly knows that this is not called a misspelling. Fihs or fisch is a misspelling but this one is called a scam.

Now, I'm not happy with sedo at all. I have many domains parked there and I've had a few sales. I've even a running auction myself yet they are not listening to me. I can't imagine how they will handle the poor newbie domainer who wins one of those dodgy auctions.

 

[Bramiozo]

As it is right now ;

Domain Name without content.
Important Notice: This is a Multi-Lingual (IDN) Domain


with "Multi-Lingual (IDN) Domain" being a link to the following outdated message;

IDN Domains are "Internationalized Domains Names", they make the use of special non-English characters possible (i.e. Umlauts like "ä", "ö" und "ü", other European Characters like "á", "é", "í"). These domains are subject to many temporary technical restrictions, for example users need an IDN compatible browser to visit them.


This notice is actually the result of the following discussion on dnf;

http://www.DNF/showthread.php?t=204290&highlight=idn

 

[mulligan]

As the owner of an IDN portfolio some of which are parked at Sedo I have contacted them directly by email, sent their representatives PMs on the various forums regarding these phishing domains and have heard nothing back from them apart from the robotic email below...

At the end of the day Sedo dont give a shit who gets burned along the way, it is of no concern as long as they get their 10% ....
If the shareholders are happy thats all that matters....

This does nothing but damage to IDNs and for that reason I (and others I know of) are moving our IDNs away from them. And I am not talking about 3 or 400 names either.

Hello XXXXXX,

I hope you fine. I am pretty fine here but the weather is getting colder here.

Recently, I have recently observed that you have removed a number of your domains from Sedo's Parking program and parked them elsewhere. Sedo is interested in your concerns and would like to meet your expectations of a great parking program. Sedo offers many benefits that our competitors are not willing or able to offer to our parking clients.

Blah blah blah

Are they the Registerfly of parking?

 

[omnia]

Heading there by the sounds of the above

 

[Nmapster]

New bogus IDN listing: fìx.com

Sedo has listed another one of these bogus domains: fìx.com . They have a subtle note in the 'Details' section of the more info page that it is IDN, but it should be much more prominent. On the auction listing page, these should show the actual punycode, as in "fìx.com (xn--fx-kja.com)".

Also, the Sedo exclude filter doesn't seem to work at all. Go to Sedo.Com and then "Buy Domains -> Domain Auctions" on the top menu. The left-sidebar search tab should show "Exclude IDN" checked, but you still see them on the page. Next, set the "length" to "max 3 characters", and check the exclude boxes for Hyphens, Numerals, and IDN. Then hit search. I get results which include the bogus ' fìx.com' as well as domains including numerals such as 6vw.com, despite trying to exclude them.

 

[Erdy]

wíne.com 675 $US 17 1d 9h 39m

This domain is worthless. It is not even worth the reg fee. Yet there are 17 bids and its going currently for 675 usd and one more day to go.

I took a screenshot of í and i from sedo auction list. There is only one pixel difference between those two letters. So basically sedo is saying that a buyer must realize every single pixel and if they don't see one pixel on their page and therefore lose 2000 usd its their fault.

Because sedo is so ignorant on this scam seems to be growing. Have you seen vísa.com ? It has 4 days to go.

Nmapster,

You are right. I didn't even realize fìx.com before you mentioned it. The ì on fìx.com bends left and touches the f. It is very difficult to see. You have to copy fìx.com and then paste it somewhere and then delete f to see that this is not fix.com. What a joke.

 

[htmlindex]

Of course Sedo doesn't care. As far as they get their comission of 10%, they're happy. Why would they want to lose their comission when they can profit out of it?

 

[Ronald Regging]

I think Buyer Beware is a very valuable statement and I encourage anyone who is buying domains to contact the owner through the Whois of the domain you THINK you are bidding on to verify it's authenticity. If you take a miniscule amount of precautions, you won't be duped. Especially if you see what you think is fish.com going for $2200, some red flags should go up. Email the owner and read the descriptions. I dont think it's very hard. If you have money to throw around without even researching what you are buying, more power to you...

While I may take a hardnosed stance on buyer responsibility, I do agree that Sedo in general should not allow these types of listings/auctions. It is obvious that the intent of the seller is to be deceptive and by supporting this type of behavior only gives Sedo's image a black eye. They should be more willing to uphold their integrity as the domain aftermarket leader.

So an equal mix of due diligence by the buyer and limiting deceptive activity on Sedo's part.

 

[Bramiozo]

Let's agree on the following, sedo only has to provide for a prominent feature of the punycode next to the utf-8 representation of the domains to avoid most of the confusion.

If sedo is watching this thread, please do something like the following ; prominently feature the punycode next to the utf-8 representation and link an explanation of IDN directly to the punycode->
bláblá.com (xn--xxx) with the punycode giving a pop-up onmouseover with an background on IDN.

Having said this, the implementation is easy and each phishing domain that is being auctioned because of the current negligence is a dent in sedo's reputation and maybe even the reputation of IDN's.

 

[Erdy]

fìx.com is to become the biggest recent fiasco in domain business. Sedo doesn't give a damn and people are bidding thousands of dollars for a worthless IDN thinking that it is LLL.com. In reality it isn't worth the reg fee.

Right now current price is 3100 USD and there are 5 hours to go.

What is being auctioned is not fix.com but fìx.com. The fìx.com has an ì instead i. It is almost impossible to realize it from the name since the ì merges with the f which is why they have choosen this name on purpose.

There is a simple conversion tool here and all sedo needs to do is to add conversions next to the name whereever the name is mentioned.
http://mct.verisign-grs.com/index.shtml

My Sedo representative Oliver is getting crazy when I tell him they should make it more clear.

The listing is here:
http://www.sedo.com/auction/auction_detail.php?language=us&auction_id=5400&tracked=1&partnerid=27222

 

[risenfall]

Could there be any legal recourse for a buyer of one of these sham domains? Willful deception or something to that effect...?

 

[sumac]

Interesting thread.

Although, I have to wonder if anyone protesting the questionable ethics of this practice secretly wish they were the ones selling the DN.

After all, is the whole point of domaining being opportunistic? I mean seriously, it's not really the most ethical way to try and make a buck now, is it?

 

[Ronald Regging]

Interesting thread.

Although, I have to wonder if anyone protesting the questionable ethics of this practice secretly wish they were the ones selling the DN.

After all, is the whole point of domaining being opportunistic? I mean seriously, it's not really the most ethical way to try and make a buck now, is it?

Theres nothing unethical about domaining unless you resort to unethical practices... Look at business in general though, I don't think anyone even knows the meaning of "ethics." Some people just look for an easy way to make money. Others actually want to build something they can be proud of that is sustainable and real. Thats the major difference.

 

[Jo]

There's a lot of them on there now:

wìne.com
domaín.com
websítes.net
wín.com
credít.com
bíke.com
clíp.com
websítes.com
ítaly.com
spaín.com
russía.com
cínema.com
propertíes.com
dìamond.com

Some are ì and some are í

 

[CrazyHorse]

There is NO WAY the sale will go through. Everyone needs to calm down I think.

 

[Danny25]

There's a lot of them on there now:

wìne.com
etc..

Some are ì and some are í

It's getting ridiculous..

I just can't believe these guys are bidding that much on those look alikes.

I mean how can they not know? You would think people bidding that high on domains would know what they are doing.

Some of these look alike IDNs that mean nothing are selling higher then some real premium foreign IDNs that mean something

There is NO WAY the sale will go through. Everyone needs to calm down I think.

I think some has already went through and thats the problem. It's becoming rampant. At this pace half of the domains on auction will be fake by next month :sold:

 

[Erdy]

fìx.com is at 5,001 $US with 57 bids and 1h 34m left. This auction is going to rise some attention on the loophole.

Hopefully sedo will stop talking rubbish and fix the issue. See message #7 where they keep saying we made it very clear. No you didn't make it clear. You must show the conversion next to the name whereever the name appears.

DNjournal shows the conversion only. Usually they don't even mention the idn but only the conversion. They understand the domain business.

Sedo you are not selling fìx.com. You are sell xn--fx-kja.com. Stop talking rubbish.

I hope a buyer takes legal action and we see what happens.

 

[CrazyHorse]

I just discovered that a huge land rush started yesterday for many of these types of domains.

Is there a possibility that these domains are worth something just based on how close they look to their non IDN counterparts?

 

[Erdy]

I think there is a sedo employee behind this and he is rushing to get all fakes through before the party is over.

The reason why I think so is that I have seen domaín.com without any bid and it is impossible a domain will get into auction without an offer unless an employee thinks it is a good name.