Suspicious Escrow deal, should I be worried?

[yoodom]

Hi all, complete newb here... hoping you can help. I bought a domain through Sedo escrow a few days ago. It is a very good deal, almost too good to be true, so I am suspicious, but proceeding carefully and using the Sedo escrow.

I paid Sedo by Paypal, and now Sedo claims that they have the domain in escrow and want to transfer it to me. But the whois for the domain does not list Sedo, or the supposed seller-- Should I be worried? Would a domain that sedo is holding in escrow normally list Sedo as the registrant?

I feel that I am somehow being scammed here but I cannot see how!

 

[ninjadomain]

Appears that the seller hasn't pushed to Sedo. If the seller doesn't push to Sedo, you will get a refund.

Best of Luck! %%-

 

[yoodom]

Hi Ninja, Thanks. But Sedo told me they have the domain 'in their escrow account', so they seem to think the domain has been pushed already! That's why I'm confused... could they be tricking Sedo somehow?

 

[DU]

Hi Ninja, Thanks. But Sedo told me they have the domain 'in their escrow account', so they seem to think the domain has been pushed already! That's why I'm confused... could they be tricking Sedo somehow?

If this was via email then I would be suspicious.
If you were told this in Sedo as part of the transfer agent communication then I would not worry.

Check the WHOIS of the holding registrar and not a WHOIS somewhere that may have an older cached version.

 

[yoodom]

It was not email, it was through the sedo transfer center.

I think now I've identified the scam. The domain I bought has a letter "o" in it. The similar domain with a number zero "0" in its place shows Sedo in the whois. Therefore I suspect that Sedo didn't notice that they were transferred the wrong domain. I've notified my transfer agent to have them double-check.

This is scary.... so much for escrow safety.

 

[NetOctave]

It was not email, it was through the sedo transfer center.

I think now I've identified the scam. The domain I bought has a letter "o" in it. The similar domain with a number zero "0" in its place shows Sedo in the whois. Therefore I suspect that Sedo didn't notice that they were transferred the wrong domain. I've notified my transfer agent to have them double-check.

This is scary.... so much for escrow safety.

Check the name that you actually bought. Maybe you bought the name with 0 (zero) in it and not the o. This has happened before with many people when in a hurry the o and zero gets confused..

 

[DU]

It was not email, it was through the sedo transfer center.

I think now I've identified the scam. The domain I bought has a letter "o" in it. The similar domain with a number zero "0" in its place shows Sedo in the whois. Therefore I suspect that Sedo didn't notice that they were transferred the wrong domain. I've notified my transfer agent to have them double-check.

This is scary.... so much for escrow safety.

Make sure you update this thread - I'm totally interested in the outcome of this. I hope this all gets resolved for you.

I have a feeling that you bought the "0". When something is too good to be true, it usually is.

 

[yoodom]

I will update when I hear something. I checked my records and I definitely did not misread anything, the PDF sales contract says "o" not "0" and is even hyperlinked to the "o" domain.

 

[yoodom]

Update: My guess was right, they were trying to sell the "0" (zero) domain as if it were the "o" domain. The escrow agent apparently didn't notice, but after I pointed it out they canceled and refunded me.

Close one!

 

[DU]

Update: My guess was right, they were trying to sell the "0" (zero) domain as if it were the "o" domain. The escrow agent apparently didn't notice, but after I pointed it out they canceled and refunded me.

Close one!

Wow. I wonder if Sedo would have refunded had the transfer been completed.

It's an interesting scam. Thanks for pointing it out. This was a pretty brazen attempt.

Glad you didn't lose anything and for pointing out that you can't rely on anyone else to protect you!

 

[Domainace]

This is a common enough mistake for new domainers, but I'm really surprised that Sedo let it slip by. I would have though they had software in place to prevent just that.