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If
you have a good domain name and you want to sell it, be careful of
scams at work. There are various scamsters at work whose imagination
knows no boundaries. I recently came across one variation of this scam.
This may be called domain name appraisal scam.
This works like this: You have a domain name and with an intention to
sell, you list it for sale on some sites like eBay. The scamster knows
this and contacts you saying that he is willing to purchase the domain
name and asks you for the rate at which you want to sell this name.
At this point itself, you must know that this is a scam. Because, you
would have specified the price also at the site where you have listed
the domain for sale.
Please look at one of the mails I got when I listed one of my
domains(not this one) for sale. For convenience purpose, let’s say I
have specified a price of $10,000 for this domain and listed it on
eBay.
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Hello,
We are interested in example.com
Your name was listed in online auction. What is your price for the name?
Our company is involved in software development/support business.
Now domain invetsing/reselling is just an additional direction of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Richard Johnston
President
TNG Software Consulting
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As you can see above, in scam messages, usually there will be some
spelling mistakes. Whether it is intentionally done by scamsters
themselves or it is a genuine mistake no body can tell.
But, one thing is certain. Any
person who seriously wants to do business with you will check his mail
twice to see if there are any spelling mistakes or other mistakes. The
fact of spelling mistake itself shows that this guy is not serious
about doing business with me.
To the above mail I replied like this:
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Sir,
Thank You for your interest in my auction
listing. But, my price was already specified in the
auction. The minimum price I have specified for the
domain name example.com is $10000.
Regards
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After seeing my reply, the scamster showed his true colours. He gave the following reply to me:
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Sorry for some delay. We were celebrating newborn child of my brother.
Now let's talk about the deal.
Can you accept 9,000 USD?
Do you sell domain with a web site or just name?
If just name it's ok. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domains appraised already? Can you show me your valuation
certificates? As fas I know it's a common practice to show appraisal of
domain name (even without traffic and web site) before doing business.
Without 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
(intentionally left out by me)
Just check this posting.
If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly.
I also hope you can give me 10% - 15% discount of the appraised value.
After I get an appraisal from you we'll continue our negotiations.
How do you prefer to get paid: www.escrow.com, www.PayPal.com check or
wire?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply. |
Go through the above reply carefully. You will notice that he is
already asking for 10% discount straight away. But, he is saying that
if the appraisal comes higher, I can give him 10%-15% discount.
If he is really serious, he should have made an offer. But, since this
is a scam, he is asking me to appraise my domain at the appraiser of
his choice. This is because the appraiser is a front for this scamster.
When you pay for the appraisal normally not less than $150, it goes
straight into his pocket. Being satisfied with this money, he will not
contact you again.
Look again how he stresses his
point to say that he wants real manual service so that he can exclude
the companies I may propose. Also, when I checked out the forum, his
name was appearing in the forum. But, when I checked after a time
gap of four days, the page was totally different. When he gave me the
archive page link, it should remain as it is. But, since the page has
been specifically created for me, as soon as the scamster knew that I
am not obliging him, he changed the page for another target.
One question looms in my mind. That is, if he is at the risk of over
paying, then how he has offered me $9000 in the third sentence of his
reply? And then he goes on to say that he may over pay. If he is really
a businessman, he should not have offered $9000 in the first place.
By carefully reading his letter, I knew that he is not serious about
purchasing my domain. But, how to get rid of him? Keeping this in mind,
I replied him like this:
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Sir,
Thank You very much for your interest in my domain name.
But, I have
already found one buyer for this domain who is willing to pay $11,000
without any domain appraisal whatsoever.
Thanks and Regards
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After I replied as above, I have not heard from him. If he is really a
serious businessman, he would have pursued the matter further. But, he
knew that I am having knowledge of this type of scam. When the target
is having knowledge, the scamsters normally avoid spending time on that
target and move on to the next easy target.
Kindly note this scam and be careful. One tip I want to give you is
always list your domain with trusted third party sites or
auction sites like eBay.com, and be careful to CONCLUDE your
transaction using their services. If you do not want to pay for their
fees and directly develop contact with the buyer, you are at a greater
risk.
Other pages on the same topic : Domain Valuations Domains Domain Mistakes Domain Basics Cheap Domains
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