Is this a scam? Please Help!

[paret]

I recently received a private email from an "investor" looking to purchase a couple of domains I had listed. It all seemed normal until he responded with the following email:

"I'm not interested in sales under 1000 usd. I suggest you to change your price to $5000 for both names. Of course, the budget of my client is not unlimited but he can afford this sum. Ok?

What country are you from? Do you sell a domain or a web site? Web site is not necessary. My client is more interested in the domain name only.

He is also interested in purchasing gambling, accounting, insurance and adult names.

How can we pay you (PayPal, Western Union, escrow.com etc.)? If this is your first time domain sale I may help you with the sale/transfer process.

Are you a member of domain seller communities/forums? Probably, we know each other under some nicknames?"

Seemed kind of strange that he would ask me to RAISE my price, then proceed to pry for information.

Seems like a scam

 

[rh2000]

Scam.

 

[paxy]

I also beleive this is a scam, but you need to consider the fact that it maybe isn't, so go with him in further conversation. If he's going to buy it without any valuation requests or something like that, go with escrow.com and you'll be safe during the transaction

EDIT: Could you post an email headers or address, or pm me, so we'll check, maybe he's from whitelist of scammers.

 

[paret]

Great advice. Thank you!

---------- Post added at 02:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:49 PM ----------

This was the response. Your Thoughts?

Ok. Great! Before we proceed my investor needs only one thing from you:

As you may know all major domain brokers does not allow listing above $1000 or higher if you don't have an official appraisal. Since the sale price is not low in our case, my client needs an official certificate of price (appraisal). He also needs to know you have no trademark problems. It won't be a problem since I know an official appraiser that offers this option (trademark infringement verification) for free as a part of the appraisal service.

I'm also interested in a good valuation and a high sale price because my client pays me a commission (10-15% of the sale price) on every domain purchase. So I'm not interested in low sales too.

Of course, you should not use a free automated service like Estibot or similar services. My client won't accept them. I was working for Estibot and knew they were using automated scripts for free appraisals. In our case we need a real manual valuation.

To avoid mistakes and wasting money on useless automated services I asked in the forum about reliable manual valuation/TM verification services. Please read this: CANT POST LINKS

The process is very easy:

1. Go to the appraisal site and order the valuation with the TM verification. Submit your domains to them and let them know you have a buyer with $X,XXX offer so you need the appraisal near this value. After several hours you will get the results.

2. Then send these results via email and we'll proceed with the deal.

If you are new to the appraisal process I can help you with a step by step instructions.

 

[Joseph Green]

This is a well-known scam. You can read about it here: https://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/810285-i-got-offer-does-look-like.html

My suggestion from that thread:

I always tell them to use those services themselves and they can deduct the fees, not to exceed 5% of our sale price, from our transaction if and only if the domain is sold at the price we previously discussed.

Cat has their tongue after that.

 

[paret]

Well it is more than obvious that this is scam.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how exactly the scam works and what is are the scammer's intentions?

I'm not sure what and "Appraisal Scan" is and if he is trying to get money, information or steal my domains

 

[Joseph Green]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know how exactly the scam works and what is are the scammer's intentions?

They will suggest that you use their appraisal services, which will cost you money, and then they will disappear without buying your domain. If you use another appraisal service, they will tell you that the buyer rejected it and that you must use the appraisal service that they suggest.

 

[yogiDomain]

yes this is a scam.
if you try to check the background of the emailer you cant trace out who he is and with what website he is associated with.
appraisal scam
just ask him to make offer on the one of the market place where your domain is listed and leave it.

 

[mitch007]

I have seen this movie before.... it is a scam....

 

[htmlindex]

Great advice. Thank you!

---------- Post added at 02:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:49 PM ----------

This was the response. Your Thoughts?

Ok. Great! Before we proceed my investor needs only one thing from you:

As you may know all major domain brokers does not allow listing above $1000 or higher if you don't have an official appraisal. Since the sale price is not low in our case, my client needs an official certificate of price (appraisal). He also needs to know you have no trademark problems. It won't be a problem since I know an official appraiser that offers this option (trademark infringement verification) for free as a part of the appraisal service.

I'm also interested in a good valuation and a high sale price because my client pays me a commission (10-15% of the sale price) on every domain purchase. So I'm not interested in low sales too.

Of course, you should not use a free automated service like Estibot or similar services. My client won't accept them. I was working for Estibot and knew they were using automated scripts for free appraisals. In our case we need a real manual valuation.

To avoid mistakes and wasting money on useless automated services I asked in the forum about reliable manual valuation/TM verification services. Please read this: CANT POST LINKS

The process is very easy:

1. Go to the appraisal site and order the valuation with the TM verification. Submit your domains to them and let them know you have a buyer with $X,XXX offer so you need the appraisal near this value. After several hours you will get the results.

2. Then send these results via email and we'll proceed with the deal.

If you are new to the appraisal process I can help you with a step by step instructions.

Yep its a scam. Reply back saying that the buyer should absolutely get his OWN appraisal before buying your domain so he's confident, or that YOU AS THE BROKER who's getting 15% commission from the buyer should get the appraisal for him since YOU'RE ACTING FOR THE BUYER and should provide whatever's necessary for your own client

You will never hear back from him again lol.

 

[Bannen]

The scam works this way:
Your 'buyer' is actually not a buyer at all. He works for or owns a domain appraisal website and he actually has no interest in buying domains from you, that's a complete lie.

He pretends he's interested in your domain on behalf of a wealthy buyer; he pretends he needs you to get your domain appraised so it has an 'official' appraised amount to show his buyer; once you pay for an appraisal, his goal is accomplished and you never hear from him again, or maybe he'll send one last email saying his buyer has shifted his interest to other domains instead.

His entire scam is created in order to fool and excite newbies into thinking they might be able to sell their reg fee domains if they pay for this appraisal. Lots of noobs fall for this, and these appraisal scammers make a lot of money from it (I'm assuming), because so many noobs just go for the paid appraisal, rather than doing some investigation first (like you did).

The ugly beauty of their scam is they only trick you once, and it's for a relatively small amount, the appraisals cost around $30 - 60 each on average. So even after you realize you've been scammed, it's not worth hiring a lawyer to charge them with fraud (lying/using false means to solicit your paying for an appraisal). Appraisal scammers are a prime candidate for people to organize a class action lawsuit against... but probably no one ever will, since each person is scammed for such a small amount. If you're scammed for 60 bucks, are you just going to be a little pissed but forget about it... or are you going to spend weeks or months out of your life, organize hundreds of other victims, pooling and spending thousands of dollars towards a class action suit?

That's why they're still getting away with the scam after 10 years... we hate them, but individually it's not worth the massive effort and cost in our lives to find them and prosecute them (if that's even possible, whatever country/ies they're from)... for $60 worth of scam.

 

[carob]

Wow this one never stops coming up on here. It deserves its own site. Yeah we'll just ask them to pay $5.00 to have their appraisal system appraised at domainappraisaltest.com TM before proceeding.:sold:

I've started getting emails that sound like a variation of this that offer to develop a site on a new domain at ultracheap prices, but ask a lot of questions about the domain and my plans for it. No doubt if I answered that would lead to sudden interest from them in buying my fabulous domain for a fat price.

WTF domainappraisals.com has been registered since 99 and the DNS is set to ROOKDNS.COM - way to get rooked.:lol:

 

[dframe]

Paret,

That is the exact email I received! I'm glad I asked about it here (I didn't see your thread first). Good to know there are people here looking out for newbies!

Diana

 

[McDuke]

419

 

[weblord]

they seem to like your price first, then they will suggest you increase price, later you end up paying them for domain appraisals, that you can get here for free. scam 101%