I've been Scammed

[mattonline]

Ok well been domaining for the past 4 years without any problems, but yesterday was my first scam! - i only blame myself as i should of been more thorough with my payment checks!

The domain in question was 0///z///5///.com and i had a buyer for the domain, i set up an ebay auction (which is still live) and this person contacted me saying there was something wrong with the buy it now i have on it, and this week i've been having problems linking my paypal with my credit card and i've had problems with my bank etc so i thought it was a problem on my side of things and didn't think anything of this false claim by him. So i let him pay for the item off eBay - via PayPal, so he sent the money into my account, i saw the money was there (didn't see the pending or anything) (why would PayPal say you have money in your account when the payment is under review) :s so i thought everything was fine, so i transferred the domain over to his godaddy account then checked my emails - found that i had one off paypal saying the payments under review please dont send the item! i wish i would of checked my emails beforehand...

So no i've contacted Godaddy and they have been usless thus far to be honest, and i've contacted PayPal - (which i'm not sure what they could possibly do now...)

i've also contact IC3.org and reported the crime.

I've also contact comcast.net - the persons email provider.

I have this persons detail (which most likely are fake)

Is there a very cheap domain lawyer out there which could help me get this domain back... or are the fees expensive (costing over $200) - the buy it now price i had for the domain.

This shouldn't be allowed as if these fees are expensive then there is a massive incentive for scammers to do a similar thing, as paypal are doing nothing and so are godaddy.

Godaddy said they will freeze the persons account if they can see a legal suit is in progress


what you think my next move should be?
Is there similar topics to this on these forums?

 

[mis_chiff]

Is there similar topics to this on these forums?

Yes, in Warning and Alerts, which is where I'll move this to.

Hopefully you can get it resolved.

 

[MJ]

Well I'm not sure if you have been scammed at all. Your post is unclear, does it still say pending? or did the payment fall through? Many times payments can be pending and for many reasons. He may have been transferring funds from his account or card. May have been jumping the gun a bit. But if the payment did fall through then perhaps you were scammed.

There is not too much you can do to be honest, that would be worth it for a domain of that caliber. I can see you getting a lawyer for a high priced domain perhaps. It is good that you contacted the authorities, perhaps contact his police department in his district. Most of the times I have not seen anything work, but a handfull of times it does.

You could take him to small claims court, but again, the fees would be greater than what you got for that domain.

Yes, next time check paypal, but also check ebay. Ebay tells you all over the place not to accept money from outside the auction. If you did take him to small claims court, what could be done? Not much.. you didn't have an agreement with him for him to purchase the domain.. you did not go through ebay... as far as he knows, you just sent him the domain for free.

I used to be more trusting like you. It is a sad world out there with lots of scammers. Sorry to hear that another domainer has been scammed by old auction tricks. I would personally write it off as a loss. I do feel your pain though, as I have been scammed out of 10k before.

 

[mattonline]

Thanks mis_chiff

Also to add, that the paypal payment has been canceled

'Cancelled by Payment Review'

---------- Post added at 12:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:03 PM ----------

ouch 10k is alot, do you think if someone sent a email to him (that would look like a lawyers letter... etc make him sweat a little?)

---------- Post added at 12:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:06 PM ----------

Update from godaddy:

Thank you for your email.

Unfortunately, we are not able to become involved in 3rd party purchase agreements between parties. If you do file a complaint against the current registrant, please send a filed-copy to [email protected] so that we can lock the domain name.

Best Regards,

Undo Department

-----------------------


I have to now contact someone from this list

ICANN | Approved Providers for Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy

Anyone know which one i need to pick?

 

[spamer]

You should feel that it all ended so happy!