Monday, June 16, 2008

Beware of this Domain Appraisal Scam

by: Brian Holland

I recently received several e mails from domain sellers who had fallen victim to a domain appraisal scam. The scam starts with a mail the seller receives concerning a domain they own and the scammer showing interest in buying it.

The scammers find information about their targets on Ebay and on Whois.

In the first mail they tell you that they are a new player wanting to invest money in the domain market as a side business and inquire how much you want for the domain.

Next step is the mail in which they accept your asking price for the domain. The scammers tell you that they want you to get the domain appraised as they don’t want to make a bad investment. The scammers want the appraisal from a certain manual appraisal website which they believe to be a good one, ofcourse this appraisal website is part of the scam. This appraisal website gives a highly inflated appraisal value and asks a high fee for it ( up to over a hundred dollars) as they know you need the appraisal to sell the domain.

The end of this story is that once you have mailed your appraisal you never hear from your buyers again. leaving you one hundred dollars poorer and an absolutely useless appraisal richer. This is a very cunningly operated scam and to show you how such a scam mail looks i give you a real example of such an email below.

Email 1:

Hello,

We ‘ve found your domain name listed for sale..

If you are still interested in selling please send your quote and I will

consider it with my partners.

Main direction of our business is software development and technical

support.

Domain names is not our business but a new way to earn on reselling. We are

going to buy domains to resell them at higher prices since we have a large

database of clients interested in good domains.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,


Email 2:

You want 13,500 USD. Ok.

Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?

If it’s just the name it’s ok. A web site is not necessary.

Have you had your domains appraised already? Can you show me your valuation certificates? As far as I know it’s a common practice to show appraisal of domain name (even without traffic and web site) before doing business.

Without an appraisal I risk to overpay. In other words I won’t be able to make a profit on reselling this name. It’s very important for you and me to know the current market value of your domains.

Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging an appraisal company with REAL manual service. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate auto-generated appraisals. I will only accept appraisals from independent sources I trust. To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies in a forum. (they now give you a link of a forum you have to check out)

Just check this posting.

If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. I also hope you can give me 10 discount of the appraised value.

After I get an appraisal from you we’ll continue our negotiations.

How do you prefer to get paid: Escrow.com, PayPal.com check or wire?

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.



So if you ever get an email like this, you know what to do. Scrap it. Just remember this wise saying that if something sounds too good to be true it probably is.

1 comment:

  1. I To received that email today. After reading your post this was my reply. All made up :)

    Hi,
    Thankyou for your fast reply. We have had our domain appraised recently , i always have new domain purchases appraised, and we were valued at $24,600.
    Please feel free to have your own REAL appraisal carried out to check this out. Once you have had this done and confirmed our price we will refund you the appraisal price and give you a 10% discount on the sale price (which we would estimate to be about $22,000 to purchase).
    You may deposit via paypal this amount to ********@*** Once you have confirmed.

    Looking forward to your reply

    Phil
    CEO 4me Adult Group.



    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    From: ceo@eliteinvestment.net
    To:
    Subject: Re: Offer for sextoys-america.com (sent 09/01/2008)
    Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2008 00:36:02 +0400




    Can you accept 8,000 USD?

    Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?

    Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.

    Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain appraisals. Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It's very important for me in terms of reselling too. But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources I and my partners trust.

    To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies.

    Please check this blog with suggestions from other sellers and buyers:
    http://domainblog.007sites.com/Archive/420689.htm

    If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% - 15% discount.

    After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we'll continue our negotiations.

    What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?

    Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

    Looking forward to your reply.
    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Phil .
    To: ceo@eliteinvestment.net
    Sent: Tuesday, September 02, 2008 12:17 AM
    Subject: RE: Offer for sextoys-america.com (sent 09/01/2008)


    Hi,
    Feel free to submit an offer for this domain. If your offer is reasonable and we like it we can start to negotiate a price that is acceptable to us both.

    Regards

    Phil





    > From: ceo@eliteinvestment.net
    > To:
    > Subject: Offer for sextoys-america.com (sent 09/01/2008)
    > Date: Mon, 1 Sep 2008 01:42:13 -0700
    >
    > Hello,
    >
    > Your domain name has been found online.
    >
    > Please let us know your price.
    >
    > We make money on selling and buying names and sites. Now the domain
    > business is very attractive.
    >
    > Looking forward to do business with you.
    >
    > Regards,
    > Robert Gardos
    > CEO
    > Elite Technologies

    ReplyDelete