Thread: Domain Appraisal Scam

Someone is trying to catch me in a common domain appraisal scam.

Here's the first email of the scam:

Hello,

Are you interested in sale of your domain? Please name your price.

We are in real estate. But we are very interested in Internet names and
web sites too.

If you have other domains for sale feel free to send your list.

Looking forward to do business with you.

I responded with this:

Yes, this domain is for sale.

I just started accepting offers yesterday and I intend to start
negotiating seriously once the domain has attracted interested from a
few serious bidders.

I look forward to seeing a bid from you.

Then came the bait and the hook:

My wife gave birth to a child. So I could not respond fast. We celebrated.

Can you accept 10 000 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:
Domain Talk

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.

I responded very plainly, letting him know that I would not be a victim of a common domain appraisal scam (or of a PayPal reverse charge scam):

I will record your offer of $10,000 USD. I will give the other bidders
a week to make their offers.

The only true valuation is "what are the buyers willing to pay". All
other valuation systems are scams meant to separate fools from their
money.

There is no web site, just the domain name.

Payment will be made through Escrow.com.

I have not heard back from him, nor do I expect to.

The URL he directed me to is a fake vBulletin archive. It's really just a landing page redirecting people to his domain "appraisal" service. It's a sharp way to separate fools from sixty euros.

You should have said that you were thankful for his advice, and then got it appraised by a different company

ha ha people who are ready to pay 10000USD cant get appraisals worth 25$ done ...

This thread actually came up on my google radar. I guess this guy is still trying to scam people. I wrote about his scam on my blog in July. You can view the post here: Domain Appraisal Scam Artist Poses As A Domain Buyer : DNPimping Domaining News, Tips, Tutorials, Videos

It is quite unfortunate that there are probably a few people who have actually fallen for this scam. I plan on emailing him back and taking him for a bit of a ride. Should be fun to waste this guys time.

@dnpimping: are you the 419 eater?

He is using blackhat method to get business for his domain appraisal service I guess, not a very wise one

LOL, I just got a chance to check the 419 eater site out. I wouldn't say that I go that far to exploit scammers. I am just a domainer who is tired of receiving emails from scam artists posing as legitimate domain investors.

Originally Posted by Loko

@dnpimping: are you the 419 eater?

I received tens of those back in mid-2008.

But they were way more "professional", using real domains for their fake forums instead of free subdomains.

I guess they don't make a killing scamming people thankfully.

Wow. I just got the EXACT same message.. But the stupid thing is.. They give a link to a site that "has been suspended for suspicious activity or complaints"
I just replied with ' Its posted on the Godaddy auctions page, If you're seriously interested in buying, use that. '

I received one of these scams in the inbox today...

Dear Sir,

we are interested to buy your domain name xxxxxxxx.INFO and offer 65% of the appraised market value.
As of now we accept appraisals from either one of the following leading appraisal companies:

sedo.com
pddomains.com
accuratedomains.com
If you already have an appraisal please forward it to us.

As soon as we have received your appraisal we will send you our payment (we use Paypal for amounts less than $2,000 and escrow.com for amounts above $2,000) as well as further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.

We appreciate your business,

Domain Resale

It was for a .info domain name. They must be getting desperate Interesting that they include Sedo in the appraisal list to make it look real.