Is this a scam?

[iKettles]

Just got an email regarding my selling of Polyfuzion.net

Hello,

I've found your domain listed for sale.

Just send an email with your asking price in Euro or USD for the domain name.

Domain market is so hot now. Have you heard about recent multi-million dollars sales?

Our company develops software for a large corporation. Domain names is not our business but a new way to earn on reselling. We are going to buy domains to resell them at higher prices. Our company has a large database of clients interested in good domains.

If you offer more domains for sale with good reselling potential please email us your list.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,
James Champoux, Ph. D.
CEO
UTS Technologies

I replied saying that it had been sold (which it has) but that I still had the .info for it. He replied with this:

I was late . However I'm interested in .info domain.

Looks like domain market is hot now. Porn.om sold recently for $9,000,000!
http://www.901am.com/2007/porncom-sold-for-9m.html

Let's talk about our deal now.

Can you accept 4,000 USD?

Do you sell the name only without web site? I'm interested in the name so web site is not so important.

Do you have an appraisal certificates for your domain names? As fas I know it's a common practice to show appraisal of domain name (even without traffic and web site) before doing business.

Without appraisal I risk to overpay. In other words I won't be able to make a profit on reselling this name. It's very important for you and me to know the current market value of your domains.

Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging an appraisal company with REAL manual service. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate auto-generated 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/417295.htm

Just check this posting.

If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. I also hope you can give me 10% - 15% discount of the appraised value.

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

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

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.

Is this a scam?

 

[Ringtonebro]

Yes it's a scam. The guy just wants you to pay money for an appraisal.

 

[iKettles]

Thanks.
Here comes hate mail!

 

[danielr]

Yes its a scam to get you to pay for an apprasial and then they never buy the domain.

So many new domainers have fallen for it.

 

[tetrapak]

The Ph.D guys... scam!

 

[pedromcreis]

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[gazzip]

Another Scam :td:

.

 

[oveber]

Yes, this is scam.

 

[Jeffrey]

http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/417295.htm --- Why is this scam site still online?

 

[htmlindex]

Yep, that's the typical appraisal scammed :td:

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Sound familiar?

(Scam)

Hello,

I've found your domain listed for sale.

Just send an email with your asking price in Euro or USD for the domain name.

Domain market is so hot now. Have you heard about recent multi-million dollars sales?

Our company develops software for a large corporation. Domain names is not our business but a new way to earn on reselling. We are going to buy domains to resell them at higher prices. Our company has a large database of clients interested in good domains.

If you offer more domains for sale with good reselling potential please email us your list.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,
James Champoux, Ph. D.
CEO
UTS Technologies

 

[markmiddleton]

I had that within about 2 weeks of getting back into trading.

My response simply was to refer him to several sites I would be willing to pay for appraisals from, I think I listed half a dozen in the end or alternatively he could buy the appraisal and i'd knock it off the final price.

His responses were that sedo for instance were not impartial and nor were the others I listed (some not auction sites, just those topping google), I tried to reason at the time that Sedo really had too many domain transactions to care to be biased to any particular client. However at that point it was very obvious it was the scam I had heard about.

But yes, this is a generic appraisal scam that I thankfully read about in my research before coming back into the industry.

 

[RyuKenLi]

I got this after I listed a domain on sedo. Yep, scam.