With the booming of domain name economy, there is a growing tendency of cybercrime aiming at domain investors. In additional to the notorious domain name stealing, a new kind of fraud in domain name transactions is now going on somewhere in the world. Some of the investors have already been duped and suffered the loss.
Here we have a story of Mr. F., one of the unfortunate victims of such fraud just a few days ago. Mr. F is a frequenter of domain name forums. He met one guy peddling domain names in some online domain forum the other day, and showed his interests in one of the domains. The price of the domain name was below the market average price and Mr. F thought that he had got a good bargain. But the seller told him the domain name was registered at a small registrar and cannot be transferred out at present because of the 60-day lock, so they would have to transfer the domain name via PUSH. Mr. F registered an account at the website the seller sent him. The website was simple and rough but as the seller was pressing him, Mr. F did not check the website carefully. Mr. F paid the transaction via an escrow website. In a few minutes the domain name was shown in Mr. F’s account. Mr. F even contacted the customer service of the registrar via instant message to change the registrant’s contact information. After the first deal was done, the seller offered another similar domain name with a good price. Very satisfied with the first deal, Mr. F did not hesitate to accept the offer. This time the seller asked him to make the deal directly through Alipay (the most popular instant online payment service provider in China) for it could be faster and cheaper. Mr. F sent the funds without a second thought and the domain name was transferred successfully into his account soon. The two transactions were both completed in less than half an hour.
Everything looked nice till that time. However, when Mr. F came back to check the newly bought domain names a few hours later, he found the website cannot be opened any more. He searched the information of the website and found the so-called registrar’s domain name was just registered that morning! And the two domain names were not relative to the website at all. They were registered at another registrar and the real registrant had no idea about what had happened. Mr. F immediately called the customer service of the escrow website and froze the funds in the escrow transaction. However the money paid via Alipay could not be retrieved any more.
Actually this kind of fraud is not that new. I have come across such fraud website myself one year ago. It was a website of domain name broke service. One of my clients asked me whether the website was reliable. I searched the information about the domain of the website and found the domain was just registered a few days ago, but the website said it had already made hundreds of deals.
I feel pity for Mr. F in the story. In fact it is not hard to debunk such fraud if you are cautious enough. There are several lessons we can learn from this story.
First, keep cautious about the trading partners if they are strangers. If you have met one on a forum, it is advisable to check the time his account was registered and how many posts has he ever made. If the account is very new and links to no posts, then you shall watch out!
Second, do not be penny-wise but pound-foolish. Be extremely careful about offers with abnormally cheap price. Double check the information of the website, the domain name and the seller when the seller attempts to hasten the deal.
Third, escrow service is essential in transactions with unfamiliar trading partners. Mr. F lost the money he sent through instant pay, but retrieved the funds in the escrow transaction. If you use DN.com in the transaction, we will have the seller to verify his identity, check the domain whois and compare the information with the seller’s. This kind of scam is not likely to have its way.
Have you ever met any scam or fraud in your investment experience? How did you debunk the cheater or solve your problem at last? Anyone like to share his or her experience? Maybe we can learn from each others’ experience and reduce the chance to be taken in.
Here we have a story of Mr. F., one of the unfortunate victims of such fraud just a few days ago. Mr. F is a frequenter of domain name forums. He met one guy peddling domain names in some online domain forum the other day, and showed his interests in one of the domains. The price of the domain name was below the market average price and Mr. F thought that he had got a good bargain. But the seller told him the domain name was registered at a small registrar and cannot be transferred out at present because of the 60-day lock, so they would have to transfer the domain name via PUSH. Mr. F registered an account at the website the seller sent him. The website was simple and rough but as the seller was pressing him, Mr. F did not check the website carefully. Mr. F paid the transaction via an escrow website. In a few minutes the domain name was shown in Mr. F’s account. Mr. F even contacted the customer service of the registrar via instant message to change the registrant’s contact information. After the first deal was done, the seller offered another similar domain name with a good price. Very satisfied with the first deal, Mr. F did not hesitate to accept the offer. This time the seller asked him to make the deal directly through Alipay (the most popular instant online payment service provider in China) for it could be faster and cheaper. Mr. F sent the funds without a second thought and the domain name was transferred successfully into his account soon. The two transactions were both completed in less than half an hour.
Everything looked nice till that time. However, when Mr. F came back to check the newly bought domain names a few hours later, he found the website cannot be opened any more. He searched the information of the website and found the so-called registrar’s domain name was just registered that morning! And the two domain names were not relative to the website at all. They were registered at another registrar and the real registrant had no idea about what had happened. Mr. F immediately called the customer service of the escrow website and froze the funds in the escrow transaction. However the money paid via Alipay could not be retrieved any more.
Actually this kind of fraud is not that new. I have come across such fraud website myself one year ago. It was a website of domain name broke service. One of my clients asked me whether the website was reliable. I searched the information about the domain of the website and found the domain was just registered a few days ago, but the website said it had already made hundreds of deals.
I feel pity for Mr. F in the story. In fact it is not hard to debunk such fraud if you are cautious enough. There are several lessons we can learn from this story.
First, keep cautious about the trading partners if they are strangers. If you have met one on a forum, it is advisable to check the time his account was registered and how many posts has he ever made. If the account is very new and links to no posts, then you shall watch out!
Second, do not be penny-wise but pound-foolish. Be extremely careful about offers with abnormally cheap price. Double check the information of the website, the domain name and the seller when the seller attempts to hasten the deal.
Third, escrow service is essential in transactions with unfamiliar trading partners. Mr. F lost the money he sent through instant pay, but retrieved the funds in the escrow transaction. If you use DN.com in the transaction, we will have the seller to verify his identity, check the domain whois and compare the information with the seller’s. This kind of scam is not likely to have its way.
Have you ever met any scam or fraud in your investment experience? How did you debunk the cheater or solve your problem at last? Anyone like to share his or her experience? Maybe we can learn from each others’ experience and reduce the chance to be taken in.
...I think i know the person who cheated him ......They send same message to everyone.
