Domain Empire

warning The scam attempt I'm currently experiencing on Flippa

Spaceship Spaceship
Watch

Coconut Label

Established Member
Impact
38
Hello, I'm a web developer trying to progress in life, This is the scam attempt I am experiencing since 2 days.

First I want to say thank you to @FlippaDomains support because I have to say they are really helping me on this, and that I recommend flippa to buy and sell websites always that you use Flippa Escrow.

Also I have been reading many complaints about Flippa with the scams etc..

I have bought different sites on flippa before, and all them have always gone very well and finished in positive deals. But as in all internet sites there are scammers and people who think they are more smart than the rest of the world, you simply have to avoid them, since they are not difficult to differentiate from the rest of the vendors, I have fallen into one of them just because I liked a lot the website and the trick he used has been something surprised for me.

I am sorry for such long history, But I guarantee it's worth reading it, as I think it can help avoid scams as it's a pretty new style of scam quite smart.


HERE IT GOES :

Introduction:

Almost 15 days ago I saw a web site on flippa that ended without bidders and that was there for a month on flippa waiting for offers.

The website seemed interesting because it is similar to a project I wanted to do soon, and I thought it would help me to make my project thanks to that website current web traffic and its position on google.

I sent an offer to the seller, but never answered, until 6 days ago that after a private message sent to him the day before, he seemed to return online to flippa after 1 month of inactivity.

He told me that he would not accept less than 2000 dollars, after several messages we got a deal for 1800 USD, 800 more than what he signaled as a minimum offer on flippa.

4 days ago the seller relisted the site on flippa and put a ‘’Buy it now’’ price for 1800 and I proceeded to buy it.



The Flippa Escrow Begins :

Yesterday 29th, I proceeded to pay it, the seller was online and we started almost instantaneously transferring the site to my hands, I was happy that I had managed to buy the site that I was almost 1 month looking thinking that the seller would not return to flippa, You can imagine.

The process started already strange, He sent the password of the domain registrar, without email, and the password of the Administration Panel of the site.


The registrar is domains.ucoz.com, and the website is also hosted in ucoz using the ucoz website builder, all using the same account evidently.

For me this already seemed bad, because I thought that the web page was of its own code since he indicated such thing, but hey, nothing happened, I would manage (I told to myself)

I asked him to please also tell me the email so I could log in on the register and see the domain.

He gave it to me, and I have to say that ucoz should update that page immediately, I do not think it would be even safe.

Ucoz.com is better, but domains.ucoz.com is a complete mess and almost half of the functions do not work.

I asked if it was possible to transfer the domain outside of ucoz, he said it would be a lot of work and he did not recommend it and he started to send me messages one after other, saying good things that the website has thanks to the ucoz platform, like unlimited disk space (which is Lie, since it has only a normal plan of 7 dollars a month which puts the limitation that has in megas quite clear) He also said that the site had antivirus and seo platform and more things thanks to the ucoz platform...

So I Tried to create an account in ucoz own to move the domain to my own account, but was canceled by him, I don’t know why, although I imagine. (By the way: I did not realize at that time that the transfer had been canceled by him, I thought it was a site error)

He asked if I also wanted to buy another domain that he has, I was so busy with such a web page and its platform, that I said no for the moment.

After my attempt to move the domain had failed, I asked him if I could change the domain to another register


he answered, '' no no, as soon as you want to use it, I will also give you the email address ''

And he sent an email address, which was not the one that was actually registered with the domain previously and that I had proceeded to delete to add mine.

I wasn’t noticing of all that was happening because, in the end, I was seeing I had deleted his email account, changed the password and everything that could be done, so why not use the original account of him, if all the details have been changed to mine? I wouldn’t expect anything weird...

While I was still thinking about if everything was already done, the user didn’t stop at any moment of send me messages, telling me that or this… in one of them he asked why I had deleted the mail address of the registry and that he told me also ‘’ I think you have seen enough ‘’

I replied that the sales area is not for trying to look at anything, It is to transfer the website to the new owner to proceed to release the escrow.

Here I was noticing strange things and I told him that I was going to transfer the domain to namecheap since I did not like ucoz at all, he replied asking me how much time It would take, because he was in a hurry, etc.

I told him not to rush me that I was a user of 3 years and with 100% positive feedback, to please do not worry.

Ten minutes later after realizing that I could not do anything else, but that it would not be supposedly possible to him to do anything strange against me, I released the the escrow, and he said thank you in his language, since he is from Romania.


I Release Escrow :

I said thank you too, and began to think about what I would do with my life now, whether to watch TV or to continue working

But 10 minutes later I receive a mail saying someone has comment on a article of the site, I just thought it was some normal user, but I clicked to read it and I saw that it was this person, the vendor has used his administrator account that was no longer an administrator but a normal user, to comment on an article of the site to say only '' :) ''

I was like ‘’wtf?’’ , because I did not understand why he was doing such thing, why had to logged in to the site using his account that used to be an administrator after release escrow and finish everything, which kind of intention he could have.

(If someone is not understanding all this of the accounts, it is a little weird, it is like a wordpress, you may have the domain on wordpress.com but later you have another type of user accounts to handle the administration panel and post new articles on the site and for normal users to be able to comment on the site.)


I got a message from him saying that I did not do something right since he still has access to the site.

I replied him that I have seen his comment on the site (hoping he would tell me that why he had do so) and that he would tell me what things he had access to, since I knew he could comment on the site, but hey, I did not know what else he could be referring to exactly.



I was worried about is that the seller had not already gone to another chapter of his life and forgetting about the site, why he was still there checking the site and saying this or that, what he cares?

His answered by only saying '' yes '' referring to the ‘’I have seen your comment’’, but he did not answer my other questions.

I moved his user to the blocked list, and I told him to try again, and he responds pasting a warning that he got from the website that tells him that he no longer has privileges to do that, and tells me that I have broken the website by putting Two smiling faces at the end.

I say no, I explained him that I just moved his user to the blocked list.



(I was still without understanding what the guy was doing with his life there instead of celebrating that he had sold a website with a junk code for 1.8 k.)

He replied ‘’ ok’’



This is where the situation gets worse:


5 minutes after all these, I receive a message in my mail saying that my email has been deleted from the domain registrar domains.ucoz.com and that they have added another and I see that it is the old mail he had before, which I imagine is his personal mail.

I go to the window tab where I have opened the session on domains.ucoz.com (which luckily I had not closed yet, If you don’t understand yet why I say ‘’luck’’, later you will understand it for sure.)

And I add my email again and delete the one from him once again

I send him a message saying, ‘’please do not change the email of the domain register’’

I go to try to change the password, but it tell me that my old password is not the current one, so I can’t change it...

I send a message, saying that please do not do what he is doing, that the payment has not yet been really processed and that it is very possible that I even can cancel it with the bank or with the support of flippa.

He responds by saying, '' Do you think I want to do that? ''

And then sends me another message saying,

'' I just told you something wrong ''

and another message more saying

'' Something you did not do well I do not know what it is I have access ‘’



I was thinking if this man thinks people are fool or maybe he wasn’t in his best mental state.



I was really nervous at the time because I could not understand, how was possible that the seller could have deleted my email, Put his mail back and change the password, if he did not know which was the password that I had put.

He Sends me another message telling me the password, but the password is wrong.
At the same time I was writing another message telling him to please log out of domains.ucoz.com and to give me the current password.

He responds saying the same wrong password again and sent me in another message more



"I do not think he'll fix anything with the bank. Because you released funds in plippa.com. Try to take more care in the future’’


and once again he Send me another message saying



'' worked ?? Did you succeed to restore? ''



I answer him, asking him again what is the password once again as the one he told me wasn’t working.

And responds by saying the password this time correctly.

So, I Change the password, and I stay thinking, thoughtful, not knowing what to do.

I get a message from him asking me



''Did you succeed or not? ''

I answer him by asking him:



'' Yes, but I do not understand why you have to change the password and the email ''

His response leaves me quite baffled, I did not know if this man was trying to scam me or what he was doing:

'' Because I have seen that it may be, in the future, be careful in what you do. Look what flippa.com says

"How can I get a refund?

Once the funds are in the Flippa Escrow vault, you would need to file in the listing's Sale Completion Area. Upon resolution of the dispute, Flippa will advise on how the funds in the vault will be disbursed and can potentially return funds to the Buyer.

Please note: When you release funds to the Seller, you acknowledge that you have received the assets as described in the Flippa listing and are happy with them. If the funds have already been released ‘’


I did not know what to answer, I did not understand what this man was supposedly doing, but in any case, he was not being a good person.

I answered him saying that although flippa says that, that does not give him the right to steal any domain that he had sold receiving the money that he had requested, and that there was no need to do that in any case.

He replied that he did not want to do anything bad and that I should have a good day and that I should be careful.

I did not answer him anymore, because for me, the sale was broken already, even I released the escrow, I knew by a friend I Have who is a seller on flippa, that he would’t receive the payment in some days because flippa doesn’t pay instantly and that of course this vendor is a new user without feedback and that he should pass some verifications before get the money.



So at this point I had already done several things, had opened a ticket in flippa, and answered another ticket I had for other reasons to take advance to see if I receive faster support from flippa, in addition to opening another on ucoz asking to please move my domain to another account since I had been hacked.



So my intentions was that flippa held the escrow until the domain register replies my ticket and move the domain to my new account where this person wouldn’t be able to do again a bad thing.

I did not understand how it was possible that this man was able to delete my email and pasword etc.. as I said before.

4-5 hours after, I realized that ucoz has no expiration limit in the session, so, no matter if you take 1 day without doing anything on the site, you will never be disconnected, I realized that what he had done, it was simple, keep his session Active, delete my mail, add his mail, request a new password, and boom, took money and domain.


I received a reply from the ticket on flippa asking me to explain what he did to me, and I answered explaining the process the best I could.

After a while they banned the user and informed me that they would try to stop the escrow, since only they had spent few hours and like The user is also new, has no previous transactions and his identity has to be verified yet


(Thank you @FlippaDomains , that showed me you are honest)

One of the administrators, told the user to make sure I had the domain, the seller got online again shortly after been banned and the user replied that he was sure that I have the domain.


I decided not to answer since I had already answered the ticket of the moderator and I was waiting for a reply.

The seller returned to reply in less than 1 hour saying


'' I think the complaint should be closed. Otherwise I will make a complaint at ucoz.com, they have copies of my registration documents, such as the website was mine, and many more that I have with them, I will announce that my website was stolen in the flippa.com ''

And another message more saying

'' Not to mention the ips that appear on the login page ''


What he said of the IPs trying scam flippa, gave me an idea, if it is true that the site has a public record of actions with ips , like facebook style, I would been able to prove that everything I am saying he did, he really did it and that he also did it after release the escrow.

And There it was, I found the option and I could see all his actions perfectly, he had added his email, deleted the mine, disconnected his session to be able to use the lost password option and restore the password (What he didn’t know is that I was also logged in and had not disconnected at any time)

I noticed that after recovering the password, he also disabled the auto renew of the domain, and after that he also changed the password once again, that was the password that he gave to me again and which was the same that he gave me to Beginning of the transaction but with a new symbol.



Which makes me understand that he intended to steal the account, but seeing that I realized right away and that besides that I had not disconnected of ucoz.com as well since I deleted his email back, he decided to change the password again for basic one, since the one he put was probably a password Which he uses on other sites.


I also saw on the record of actions that it was him, who canceled the transfer of the domain to another new account, which has produced an error and now does not give me the option to try again.


Another flippa manager comments on the sales area asking me whether the seller solved the problem or not.

I answered, explaining that no, that everything is a trick, and explaining everything that has happened step by step, not as detailed as here, but rather well explained, providing screenshots of the record of ips and their actions and explaining each one separately.


The seller responds fast by saying

'I have shown you this problem, and I have announced to you that I still have access to the site. You asked me to check If I'm no longer logged in’’

And another message saying

'' You are the admin now, finish with the nonsense. You are ashamed, those are logged last night ''


I respond by telling him, to please read my previous message, (although I wrote that to prevent the administrator from not seeing it), since in the previous message is where I provided evidence etc, and it is where it is clear that the seller is a scammer, so well, In the message I tell him that he has not disconnected from the site and that he is still online (since there is no record that says the user has disconnected, and I have already tried several ways, and in all of them I always leave the record of having disconnected )
And I also told him that the logs are from the same night since the transaction is only a few hours ago.


I actually realized that he was just trying to confuse the flippa support, which I hope he doesn’t get it , I told him also to please take his website again and cancel the transaction, since the domain is locked on his account and there is no possibility to move it.

He Answered me

'' I'm not logged in anymore, the escrow is over. You broke my website, or worse, you wanted to see how it works. You're a thief. ''

And sends another message more as he used to, saying

'' Now that you've copied the entire website, or you've installed a hidden script, you want to give it back to me, in no case. Flippa.com can not do this because you have agreed to release the funds. You checked the website for hours, you had all the admin passwords you needed. Now you're doing the fool after you've destroyed my website, and you still want money back. NO NO ''

I want to make it clear that I have not touched the website of this man at any time, since even though I wanted to do great things with it, I have not touched anything, since I have not had the opportunity evidently because of everything that is going on And the website has the same look and feel as 3 months ago, verifiable with archive.com

I answer him already desperate, since nothing he said makes sense to me.

'' Oh my god, let's wait flippa support ''

And for now that’s the thing on the sales area, there have been no more messages.

Current Situation :


I have received a message on the ticket saying that they are happy to inform me that the escrow is being held and safe, and that I should please resolve the case, specifically they have told me:

'' You will now need to resolve any issues with the seller and either resolve the dispute or cancel it by returning the goods in the condition you were provided and lodging a dispute. '

I answered to him, explaining that it is not possible to complete the sale since the domain is locked in the personal account of the seller which he still logged in it, and as I see the situation, it will not go away either, And that I want to cancel the transaction and forget about this

So I asked the moderator on the the ticket to advise me how I can now give the seller my access, without he later being able to say that the access does not work, if it is possible for a flippa administrator to check the access and then give it to the seller, so we finish with this weird thing.

And so far, that’s everything at the moment.

I am waiting to see how can I give out the login detail to the vendor without he complains saying any lie..

Thank you very much for reading me.

I post this to hear your recommendations or experiences and also to give you my experience so maybe in future you have a similar problem , you be able to resolve it easier .



Thanks
 
Last edited:
16
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
No need to get defensive and resort to veiled attacks. You have yourself stated that the story is a mess as have others. If I was the only one, it would be easy to say that I'm not accustomed to reading stories. You don't know me and please don't presume to know me. You have zero ideas on how much I am or am not accustomed in reading nor my language and comprehension skills. Looking at your post, I can, safely, state that it is better than yours.



Not interested anymore. Good luck with your problem


Lol, I haven't been on the defensive and I haven't attack anybody omg, don't feel like that, because what you said, can be taken as offensive as well.

I just told you that you are not right about ''Half of what I wrote was incomprehensible and impossible to follow'' because is not like that, I am used to chat with people from india and I can tell you this is not incomprehensible english.

also you said you are agree with the rest with that, but you are the only person who said such thing, I know is long and that's what the people are saying, that is long and the story is a mess I know, but the english is not bad so please don't confuse, I am not going to say my english is perfect, because I don't consider myself perfect in anything like you seems to be, but is not incomprehensible and impossible to follow, so again, maybe your understanding level is not that high. And of course I Haven't attack you, I Don't see where is the attack, I am trying to talk to you with education.

about this '' Looking at your post, I can, safely, state that it is better than yours.''
Good for you, I am happy you are sure of yourself, I can , safely, state as well, that this post is also better than yours... Lol, because this is just talking.

Anyway is ok, next time try to have more patience and read good the story , before say is incomprehensible because I am sure you tried to read all within few seconds, and that's like everything, if you try to study a book about history of roman in few seconds, you will miss the story.

Regards
 
Last edited:
0
•••
You probably should have asked about that platform upfront, presale. Right? The embellished sales pitch on many flippa websites are inflated. The details and hockeystick charts of growth in revenue are a joke. The sellers omit details as well. Live and learn.
 
1
•••
I read most of the post. I believe He mentioned the site runs under UCOZ whatever that is, but i assume its own proprietary platform like weebly or wix, which if i understand him, he cant move it. If I read that correctly.


Thank you for read most of my post, I know is long, I'll try to make my post shorter the next time. I was just trying to Relieve myself by expressing how I feel with all these stuff , that's why I extended the story that much.
 
0
•••
Get your money back, while you can.
 
1
•••
Option number 2, get your money back.

Yes but vendor don't want that, he keeps insulting and inventing stuff on the sales area...

for you make an idea, he is now saying he never have change the password after the escrow, (and lol, you can even read his messages confirm it on the sales chat)

Is just like a man who steals in a shop and is recorded with a video camera and he keeps telling to the police he hasn't steal in that shop.
 
0
•••
0
•••
But Flippa, they should intervene here on your behalf, if you used paypal you can also alert them.
 
0
•••
But Flippa, they should intervene here on your behalf, if you used paypal you can also alert them.

Used flippa escrow, they have suspend the user and held the escrow, but now they told me I need to agree a solution with the vendor, or well cancel or well finish the deal.

So there we are now.. but is not easy, because the vendor, a new user, which any education and respect and with the ability of say lies all the time without any problem apparently for his tongue.
 
Last edited:
0
•••
So you can cancel it? Do it now. Find another website to buy. This is a mess. I have avoided dealing with legal issues with great success by walking away and losing and lost opprtunities and money for those customers who were problems or dishonest and have 27 years in business. The aggravation and complexity of your story shows no good faith on the sellers part, or reason to believe this matter will solve itself. Good faith is the cornerstone of good business. Get your money back. The negative Emotional energy you consume could be redirected to positive energy.
 
Last edited:
2
•••
So you can cancel it? Do it now. Find another website to buy. This is a mess.

I can't cancel it myself, vendor and me must reach an agreement, so the escrow will take a direction, I am telling him to cancel everything, but he doesn't wants.

I have contact ucoz to try to move the domain to a new account which I have create myself using my own email, but as I said, they don't reply, so I am not sure what is going to happen.
 
0
•••
Call Ucoz on the phone. Forget the emails. I would send a zip file of all your info to flippas management.
 
1
•••
Call Ucoz on the phone. Forget the emails. I would send a zip file of all your info to flippas management.

My friend, they don't have phone number apparently

The website is based on Russia, at least that's what they claim, here They have this Ukrainian number, and an address from Road Town, located on Tortola, is the capital of the British Virgin Islands.

See:
http://domains.ucoz.com/support/contact-us.php

Which kind info you mean you would send in a zip archive?
 
0
•••
No need to get defensive and resort to veiled attacks. You have yourself stated that the story is a mess as have others. If I was the only one, it would be easy to say that I'm not accustomed to reading stories. You don't know me and please don't presume to know me. You have zero ideas on how much I am or am not accustomed in reading nor my language and comprehension skills. Looking at your post, I can, safely, state that it is better than yours.

Do you always come down on new members in this way? This is supposed to be a forum to help people, not to bad mouth them.
 
Last edited:
2
•••
Do you always come down on new members in this way? This is supposed to be a forum to help people, not to bad mouth them.

Thank you, I appreciate the back up
 
0
•••
Do you always come down on new members in this way? This is supposed to be a forum to help people, not to bad mouth them.

Go ahead and look at my past posts. You'll see how I behave with new members.You'd not believe me if I just say so anyway so look at the past posts to form your own opinion.

I was neither rude nor attacking to the OP. And if you don't perceive his veiled attack on me, I can't convince you. Anyway, I'm out of this thread. Not worth the time spent already
 
0
•••
Go ahead and look at my past posts. You'll see how I behave with new members.You'd not believe me if I just say so anyway so look at the past posts to form your own opinion.

I was neither rude nor attacking to the OP. And if you don't perceive his veiled attack on me, I can't convince you. Anyway, I'm out of this thread. Not worth the time spent already


veiled attack, Lol, Is ok, don't worry, For my side everything is fine.

I just do not agree with what you said and I express my opinion about it, just as I do not like users who start their posts with '' agree with the rest '' or ''as everyone says'' when nobody actually says it, it does not seem right for me and I just say it.

And about your last sentence, yes, I agree with you that you should not waste any more of your valuable time here talking to us, After all, that only means respect.

Regards and I will try to not make future ''veiled attacks'' on you
 
0
•••
i don't get it... why pay $1.8K for a site built with a free online site builder?
why not just sign up and make a copy of it for free using same templates, widgets etc?
 
3
•••
Longest post on Np i witnessed, read most of it, you got signs of scam right from the start only so you should have been alert and not release the escrow funds, i really hope you get your money back. you got the lesson and can learn from this experience thanks for sharing. it can be useful to me and others too. and Welcome to Namepros :)
 
2
•••
To OP, I really hope you get your money back. Maybe you should have known better, but it happens. To those who say that maybe it's a newbie, I would have to disagree. Even a newbie wouldn't purposefully keep changing passwords and give the wrong passwords to a buyer, why would they even think to do that at all? Fumbling with certain things and having issues is one thing, but if you bought a domain from me and I manually cancelled the transfer after receiving the funds, it would most definitely be a scam.

It also seems Flippa would rather keep hoping for their commission than to resolve this issue. It makes no sense if they agreed this guy is a scammer (obviously, since they're holding the funds), that they would make the victim resolve the issue with said scammer.

Just sayin'...
 
2
•••
Sorry, I had to give up after reading for about 15 minutes.
 
0
•••
i don't get it... why pay $1.8K for a site built with a free online site builder?
why not just sign up and make a copy of it for free using same templates, widgets etc?

Hi, I am interesting on the site because of its position on google, when you search for the niche term, it is the first result you get, with 200k visits per month, it is useful for me for make the project I want.

So my idea, as a website dev I am, it was to rebuilld the site 100% after its purchase.

Hope you understand now
 
1
•••
0
•••
Longest post on Np i witnessed, read most of it, you got signs of scam right from the start only so you should have been alert and not release the escrow funds, i really hope you get your money back. you got the lesson and can learn from this experience thanks for sharing. it can be useful to me and others too. and Welcome to Namepros :)


Thanks for read me, I appreciate it.

Well, I never could imagine that after change the mail and the password, he could get access back using a site bug, I thought that like mostly all domain register , the session would end up for him once I change the password.
 
0
•••
To OP, I really hope you get your money back. Maybe you should have known better, but it happens. To those who say that maybe it's a newbie, I would have to disagree. Even a newbie wouldn't purposefully keep changing passwords and give the wrong passwords to a buyer, why would they even think to do that at all? Fumbling with certain things and having issues is one thing, but if you bought a domain from me and I manually cancelled the transfer after receiving the funds, it would most definitely be a scam.

It also seems Flippa would rather keep hoping for their commission than to resolve this issue. It makes no sense if they agreed this guy is a scammer (obviously, since they're holding the funds), that they would make the victim resolve the issue with said scammer.

Just sayin'...


Hello,

Same thoughts here.

Flippa messaged me telling me that they are holding the founds and that I should reach to an agreement with the vendor so we finish doing the deal or canceling it.

But the vendor keeps saying nonsense like everything I am saying is lie (even there are proof all over the sales area chat)

For example, I told him the whois is on his name yet, because uCoz support doesn't reply to the tickets and they have not change the whois information manually like the website advice , because it seems the website doesn't works correctly, and they have to process every change you want to make manually.

And his reply is that the who.is website is not updated , but is nonsense because who.is you can check the information is fresh as you can click on refresh so the website will update the given information

The only thing with sense and without disrespect he told me is that he is going to wait I solve the problem with uCoz.com but hoping is going to be quickly (he doesn't understand or he doesn't want to understand english, because he just talk always avoiding all my questions and things I tell him.)

What can I do, uCoz do not answer to my tickets, I don't know how to contact this people , I don't even know if they are not a scam as well.

What I would like is that @FlippaDomains would takes the time to really analyze the situation by reading the messages on the sales area, the proof I gave to them, the things the man is saying and the things the man is doing.
So they would notice this is not going to finish good for me, because I feel that one time flippa pay this man, he just will take the domain back.

I Would like just give all the site info to some flippa moderator , who verify it and give it back to the vendor so the transaction get canceled.
 
Last edited:
0
•••
Did the seller stated the fact in the auction listing that the domain transfer will not be possible until 28th of July? Or is this due to the 60 day lock because the owner info was changeg after buying the domain?
You stated that the whois info didn't change - so the transfer should be possible!?
What's the domain name?
 
2
•••
  • The sidebar remains visible by scrolling at a speed relative to the page’s height.
Back