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PayPal and GoDaddy Support and Protect Scammers!

NameSilo
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Everyone please Digg this, here is the link: http://digg.com/tech_news/Paypal_and_GoDaddy_Support_and_Protect_SCAMMERS_I_D_THEFT . If there is public awareness about what is going on maybe something will happen.

Recent events have made it very evident that both PayPal and GoDaddy support and protect internet scamming, identity theft, and fraudulent account activities. PayPal and GoDaddy are giants in their respective market segments and domainers have been using both for years. Domainers trusted their domain sales and transfers in the hands of these two corporations, but I do not think that trend will continue much longer.

Recently there have been a lot of scammers going on to forums and initiating sales and purchases of LLLL.com (4 letter .com domain names.) What happens is the scammer either creates a new username at a forum or he somehow hacks into a preexisting username and emulates another user. The scammer then sends out private messages (PM) to users that have posted their domains for sale and offers to buy them. Once negotiations have ended and a price has been established by both the seller and scammer, the scammer sends payment. Currently these scammers only pay via PayPal and only buy names that are registered at GoDaddy; of course, there is a reason for that.

The scammer sends payment via a STOLEN or HACKED PayPal account, assuming the identity of that person. Once the seller receives/confirms payment via PayPal he or she transfers the domains registered at GoDaddy to the Scammer. In order to complete the transfer of the domain the buyer (scammer) must provide the following information: Name, Complete Address, Country, Phone, and Email corresponding to the GoDaddy account where the domains will be transferred to. Usually, the account information is manipulated to match the identical information as the stolen PayPal account, preventing suspicion. Now the seller transfers the domains to the scammers GoDaddy account. Once the domains have been transferred a confirmation PM is sent and the scammer of course says everything is perfect. The seller goes to sleep happy and the scammer is grinning ear to ear because within minutes the scammer initiates a Chargeback on the stolen PayPal account. A chargeback occurs when fraudulent activity or unauthorized purchases have occurred and PayPal immediately reclaims the funds, without question. After the chargeback is completed the funds in the sellers PayPal account are $0.00. At this point the Scammer has the seller's domains and the seller has neither the money for the domains nor the domains themselves.

This is where both PayPal and GoDaddy facilitate and condone the scammer's getaway. The seller calls PayPal and asks," What happened to my money?"
PayPal responds with, "We are sorry sir but the funds you received for the following transaction were fraudulently acquired and the TRUE owner of the account denies initiating the transaction."
The seller then asks, "Well, do I get my money back? What about my domains can I get those back?"
PayPal responds with, "Actually sir because domains are an INTANGIBLE item they do not comply with the Seller Protection Agreement and are not covered by PayPal, only TANGIBLE items are covered against charge backs. We recommend contacting your registrar to see if they can help you."
Seller says, "Ok, so the TRUE owner of the account gets his money back, the scammer gets my domains and I am left with neither! I don't understand how this is possible. Can you provide me with information that you uncover about the scammer so I can contact him or her?"
PayPal representative, "Unfortunately there is nothing we can do for you on our end. Any information that we find can only be obtained by SUBPEONA. The only thing you can do is take legal action against the perpetrator."
Seller says something along the line of, "This is unethical and you will hear from my lawyers, I will never use your services again,” and then hangs up.

So that’s step one in the Scammer's getaway. PayPal is concealing the identity of the scammer; they can easily track him or her down via a reverse IP lookup to see who initiated the transaction. They protect the TRUE owner of the account and the thief but they do not protect the seller? The seller is the one that has to pay the 3.2% fees, for what, what are those fees going towards if they cannot even protect you. If a transaction is for intangible goods then you should not be FORCED to pay their fees, there is no point.

Here comes step 2 in this disappearing act. By now the seller is feeling agitated but still feels that their is light at the end of the GoDaddy tunnel. The seller checks the WhoIs.sc information for the stolen domains and sees that they are still registered to the THIEF and remain in the GoDaddy system. Surely it would be easy to reverse the transfer; it should not be that hard, you have the GoDaddy email along with all the other contact info to which the domains were transferred to...WRONG! You decide to contact GoDaddy and see what they can do. After explaining your situation to the representative they respond with this, "Unfortunately, GoDaddy does not get involved in third party disputes. This is why we have TDNAM, so you can sell your domains safely."

TDNAM is an online auction site OWNED by GoDaddy wherein the seller must pay a yearly fee of $6.95 and Escrow fees.

Seller says, "WHAT! These domains were stolen from me and they are in your system. They were just transferred hours ago and I can't get them back?”
GoDaddy, “I’m sorry sir, but since these domains were not transferred via TDNAM we have no responsibility to the buyer or the seller. Once the account change is initiated and accepted we are not involved.”
You go back and forth with the GoDaddy representative but get nowhere, there is nothing you can do, and you just got SCAMMED.
The only way to get your domains back is by legal action or reporting the problem to ICAAN.org. Or by the grace of God you find out who the scammer is and harass them to the point of forfeiture. Other than that you are shit out of luck and there is nothing to be done.

That is how I and countless other sellers got scammed and all we can do is sit here holding the bag. The scammers know every angle, they choose GoDaddy and PayPal because they know that they do not pursue or amend fraudulent transfers and charge backs. The next step is to file a class action lawsuit against PayPal and GoDaddy . All I ask is that anyone that has had this occurrence please email me at [email protected], I will compile a list of victims and their situations.

Thanks to anyone in advance who decides to help out, I know I'm not alone.

Ben

Check out how this guy got completely screwed by PayPal.

Unbelievable! I will never use their services again...EVER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr_7--e5A1g
 
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bgmv said:
Proof? I transfered the domains to the scammers account which is now registered under a bogus alias, an ICANN infraction. I have paypal screenshots and printouts, what the **** else do they need...my unborn child?

I was going by what GG said, he said and I quote

They said that me, a long term customer with 200 domain names, my word is not good enough.

I was not talking about what happened to you. .but what happened to GG. don't get my post turned around and twisted. GG never said anything about himself having proof only his word. and thats what I was refering to.
 
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angisson said:
I was going by what GG said, he said and I quote



I was not talking about what happened to you. .but what happened to GG. don't get my post turned around and twisted. GG never said anything about himself having proof only his word. and thats what I was refering to.


But still, I've been a customer for almost 4 years, and have never filed any sort of claim before. For me to say that 2 of my names were stolen, 2 names that were hand reg's by me, they should give me some sort of credibility. It's called a businees to customer relationship and yes it should grow over time and it should earn me credibility over time and transactions.

You are right, I didn't mention that I have proof. OK, let me make it clear.. I HAVE PROOF!
 
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digged :tu: hope u get the domains back
 
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thanks for the digg chandan123, rep added

Update, I posted a comment on Rick Schwartz's blog and apparently some people have seen because I got an email today from someone inquiring about the situation. I think we are making some progress
 
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Scammer in Dynadot marketplace

Some of my LLLL.Com domains are registered with DynaDot, and I put them in their marketplace just in order to entertain offers. couple of days ago I recieved some very good offers but I didnt bother replying that time and today when I wanted to reply this guy about considering offer on one of the domains he made offers on, I found out this thread on Dynadot forum when googling his mail id..

http://www.dynadot.com/resource/for...i-m-buying-llll-com-s-and-ccc-com-s-1672.html

Probably they closed his account but still we have one lesson to learn :alien:

Lesson : Google each email ID You recieve from the buyer before making any Deal :snaphappy:
 
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Netizen said:
Scammer in Dynadot marketplace

Some of my LLLL.Com domains are registered with DynaDot, and I put them in their marketplace just in order to entertain offers. couple of days ago I recieved some very good offers but I didnt bother replying that time and today when I wanted to reply this guy about considering offer on one of the domains he made offers on, I found out this thread on Dynadot forum when googling his mail id..

http://www.dynadot.com/resource/for...i-m-buying-llll-com-s-and-ccc-com-s-1672.html

Probably they closed his account but still we have one lesson to learn :alien:

Lesson : Google each email ID You recieve from the buyer before making any Deal :snaphappy:

I pretty much took every precaution I could have except for using Escrow, which was a pretty big mistake.

I posted my article in that post @ Dynadot...the more people see whats happening the better shot we have at getting the ball rolling
 
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"Song for the Dumped" By Ben Folds
Just came on as I was reading this lol.

In the song they yell
"Give me my money back!"

Sorry, found that funny :P

This sucks. I only pay/receive with paypal. Yet to be scammed, but this sucks!
 
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I just got a PM from fellow member OcatneINV, he provided me with some great info that I think everyone should check out. Also please visit the DNF link, it seems that ASH= megaDNman= Mehboob...thats a pretty big development if I follow correctly

"Hey Ben,

I'm glad you replied!

I'll start with some ideas you might want to consider for next time. Obviously none of these will fully protect you, but they should help.

1. Did you ever notice how the name "he" gave you [Michael Stearns], didn't match up at all with his email address? This is almost always a good sign of an issue. Of course, this becomes much more difficult when you are working with an email without a name in it!

2. If you looked in Ash's signature line, and did a quick whois on the few domains/sites there, you would have known that s/he always uses the name "Ashley", not "Michael" when doing their registrant details.

3. This isn't so prominent, nor is it that great of an indicator, but all of the domains owned were at eNom, not GoDaddy.

4. You should ALWAYS google an email someone gives you to use in a transaction, if you had, you may have seen GreenGamblers thread, and never dome the trade.

5. Never transfer the names first, always get the money, and then send the names. Also, when you're dealing with that much money, use Escrow.com, not PayPal.

These are just a few things you could check in the future when dealing online.

As for what I found, you should absolutely see this thread: <Snipped - Do not link to other Domain Forums here Please> "
 
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Just posting to subscribe and to keep up with it all!

Best of luck,

Ryan
 
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wow..ok....so this has cranked my eyes open. Where do we go to do transactions? If you could do it all over, and with 100% hindsight, who are the undisputed kings of parking and transfers? I have had 100 domains for at least 12 years, and I need to sell them off.
 
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I must say , I'm moving what few Domains I have left at Godaddy out as soon as possible. I traced the recent "Phishing" problem we recently had down (Indirectly) to a member on a Hacker/Crackz/Phishing forum in which their domain was registered at SLOWDaddy. This site openly advertises that they sell stolen software , Passwords that were phished , Serialz ,and gives Hacking tips (Don't bother telling me YOUR definition of Hacking/Hacks - I don't care to hear it anymore). Godaddy said unless "I" could point out something wrong with their whois etc ... They couldn't do anything.

I also contacted the advertisers allowing their sponsored ads to be freely posted on this site full of lowlifes .... They responded they would look into it But , Adbrite / Doubleclick Still has their ads on this site nearly a full week later.

Nice going Godaddy / Adbrite :td: Way to support the Webmasters making you money Everyday.
 
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Right.. I just read this thread. Somethings needs to be done ASAP. If we can come up with a plan then I will help as much as I can!
 
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bgmv said:
Honestly it is time to revolutionize the industry and develop a registrar that offers an integrated Registration, Transfers, Payment, and an Escrow type service at a fixed fee.

That's exactly what's required here. Heck of a market opportunity for someone who wants to differentiate themselves from all the other registrars out there.
 
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