discuss Who makes these Purchase Inquiries via Whois?

[Optinom]

I often get inquiries via whois service, to buy a domain. Most of the time it's from free email like Gmail. Sometimes, the inquiry comes with a reasonable initial offer.

But when you reply, none of them respond.

Who exactly are they?

1. Some brokers trying to identify the owner of the domain?
2. Other domainers trying to identify the domain owner?
3. Something else?

Any idea?

 

[biggie]

Hi
maybe some are tire kickers, doing price checks


imo…

 

[Optinom]

Hi
maybe some are tire kickers, doing price checks


imo…

I don't even respond with price in the mail.

The only thing they get from doing this is my email id.

 

[D Haynes]

Pretty sure they're some sort of bot/spam. The ones I get have exactly the same wording just with different domain names. Only started happening recently.

 

[BaileyUK]

Probably some sort of data gathering. Very easy to automate the outbound. Businesses are still willing to pay large amounts for bulk verified email addresses particularly those that incorporate any sort of business angle. Look-up the whole return email address on google.

I personally don't reply to any email enquiry where I can't identify a genuine interest, even less so if it's a repeated source for different domains.

 

[Optinom]

Yeah it appears to be some kind of data gathering. I wonder what's the purpose. There's no correlation of these queries to the quality of the domains either.

Almost all the email ids have this format <firstname><lastname><3 digit random number>@gmail.com

 

[D Haynes]

It's only happened to me in the last few weeks. I wonder if it correlates to the changes in the whois system.

 

[DomainNature]

Yeah it appears to be some kind of data gathering. I wonder what's the purpose. There's no correlation of these queries to the quality of the domains either.

Almost all the email ids have this format <firstname><lastname><3 digit random number>@gmail.com

From my exp this are bots, don't give them attention, only those who reply count.

 

[korganian]

I have been getting these and none have responded. I imagine a lot are front runners. I think we should start requiring people to identify themselves and who they represent before we give them a price. It is detrimental to us to give front runners any info.

 

[Daniel Owens]

Be careful because if they ask you to buy an appraisal and claim the bank needs it for them to buy it's a scam. However, if they don't try and scam you to buy an appraisal then it's pretty much still sketchy. If they do reply, ask to use a trusted escrow company IMO. If they don't reply move on and keep it listed on various marketplaces. If your bin is low, you might consider raising it after getting the interest or putting it back to make an offer. Just my thoughts.