@TheLegendaryJP has helped people recover stolen domain names, and he sure remembers about that 2-letter domain stolen (the thief ultimately went to federal prison). You remember JP, that DG called you back from a Skype virtual number, impersonating the domain owner to convince you that everything is alright. It was an elaborate ploy.
What I mean here, the information you received over the phone, even the screenshot could be a smoke screen unless you are positive it comes from escrow.com.
@Kate
Kate I remember like it was yesterday, DG did in fact spoof phone numbers to try and trick me but what he couldn't do is spoof his own NJ accent
I caught onto that in the first minute and was part of the evidence putting him in jail and actually lead tome uncovering another LL he stole that I had returned as well to the guy in SF I believe. That ploy did not work nor did his fake paypal transactions, busted.
I see what you mean, just like Booth could fake an escrow screen shot, Rebecca could fake or lie about a call, fair enough.
What I like to do though is examine all the evidence as a whole, if I had to negate individuals over the "any document or call can be faked" idea than there would be literally dozens upon dozens of people and hundreds of domains I helped recover still with the thief or resold and resold. If I just threw my hands up in the air and said well I cannot believe anyone because it is possible that all the information provided may be fake then the last 15 years +/- of recovery help would never have existed.
In this case as mentioned above it can hinge of who was paid, right? We are giving Booth the benefit of the doubt, he was duped or his friend he says lead him to the domain was duped, either way. I do not want to believe or believe at this point Booth did anything malicious at all.
If he firmly believed he paid Rebecca then common sense dictates he should have no issue showing her the escrow transaction he claims was done with her. If for some reason he believes Rebecca is making this whole thing up that is another story but I don't think he does or he would gladly show he paid her.
If for any reason he believes he may not have or didn't than he needs to work with her to verify that and return the name.
I certainly gave weight to Rebecca making this whole thing up, agreeing to sale at $25k then claiming it was stolen and tying to recover it, I really did. But when I look at the story as a whole, email changes, added forwarding from an odd email, failure to produce escrow agreement showing she was paid, failure of a first escrow transaction by a buyer because of suspicion, timelines and yes my gut to a small degree I do not believe she did.
I then thought about it logically, would someone risk their domain after 22+ years and likely better offers as the name does exceed a market value of $25k imo with the plan to try and recover it again via this claim it was stolen. Factoring in time, expense and the biggest risk, success. The answer is simply no, makes little to no logical sense.
If our default answer to victims or potential victims to domain theft is now simply, get a lawyer, go to court then the community is lazy. Sometimes that is the only answer I can give people depending on circumstances but in this case, dealing with a long time domain broker with a good name who knows what's what... go to court should not be a default answer.
