Sedo becoming a fraudster place? Or is it just a sales tactic?

[OI2]

Hi there,

I asked this question myself many times when I was looking to buy some 3L.com domains for clients.

This is what happend 10+ times during last week:

I browsed sedo, saw some acceptable 3L.com domains and placed a bid on them. The "seller activity" indicator was most times high so I would have expected a counter offer on my bids. However, most times the offer expired and I went on and contacted the whois party listed for the domain.

Out of 15 emails I always got a reply like the recent one (was about up9.com):

Thanks for your question, but I have no interest in selling this domain. I'll check why it's listed on Sedo, as I haven't done this myself. Thanks!

The domain owner owns the domain since 2000 and never listed it himself, which makes me wonder if:

1.) someone is adding a lot of short names to sedo to commit fraud
2.) Sedo adds the domains themself to possibly sell broker services (ok, I agree that would not be the best way to do business but you never know).

I think the real problem at Sedo is ownership verification. One of our partner companies added a few of our domains to Sedo (and they did show up as being checked for ownership), but people can simply get around this by just accessing sedoparking.com/domainyousell.com and Sedo's system might just think you "parked it" so you must be the owner.

Anyways, just wanted to check what you think about such issues

In the end I am just really annoyed to have wasted valuable time for domains that are not for sale at all.

Thanks for reading!

 

[ripley]

Could be that the domains have changed hands since they were initially listed at Sedo. Sedo does try to verify that the person who listed the domain actually owns the domain at the time that it's listed, but as far as I know they don't verify periodically. Someone could've purchased it, the last owner forgot to remove it, and so it remains on Sedo indefinitely.

Just a guess, but it'd be the most logical one IMO.

ripley.

 

[OI2]

That's the thing - they did not change hands (I asked), and looking at our company partner who was authorized by us to sell some of our domains and got all of them listed without any "check", it seems like their verification system doesnt really work. The domains our partner added were "pending check" but our partner simply accessed sedoparking.com/domaintosell.com and the system "verified" the domain, which is a method many fraudsters could abuse to get names listed.

 

[dforlet]

Are you sure that your not contacting the new owner? Like whats been said it may have changed hands already.

 

[mntor]

Recently i sold a domain on sedo. After the buyer paid to sedo, i transferred the domain to sedo's account. sedo replied saying the buyer seems to be fraudulent and cancelled the deal.

I guess a lot of scammers are targetting 3 character names, since they are hot atm. Probably a scammer's handiwork.

Is all your 10+ experiences is with 3 character names?

 

[OI2]

Yes, they were all 3 character names and yes, the names did not change hands (I asked).

 

[johname]

alot of 3l.com owners have no disire to sell there name but they contantly want to be told what they are worth, maybe thats whats going on here