Deceptive buyer

Creature · Jul 17, 2006

Some guy from a hotmail type address offered to buy a generic single word .us name from me. The various emails seemed very secretive and deceptive.

At first I said that was not interested in selling it, however he said it was for his family start up business etc so I agreed to sell it.

Then he said his friend was loaning him the money so now I would deal with another anonymous hotmail address.

I cancelled the Escrow due to a delay in agreeing terms but mainly because the buyer does not appear to be who he claims to be.

Having done a few searches on the email address, it now turns out to be a multi million dollar brand in S. America and they seem to be buying the same name all over the globe. I do not plan to ask for more money. I am just put off selling because the deal seems to have been based on a load of lies.

How do I stand having started the escrow to sell to anonymous hotmail addresses and now cancelled the escrow? The buyer had not agreed to the terms.

Any thoughts?

Duckinla · Jul 17, 2006

Looks like you decided to sell and came to a price based on false information provided to you by the buyer? I would think you are in pretty good shape provided you have all that in writing via e-mail.

typeins · Jul 17, 2006

Microsoft once did this to me.. purchased a domain through some little sub company which covers up being the behemoth they are...

I was quite annoyed to find this out later

The price of course would have been 5 x's more had i known it was them haha

bdss · Jul 17, 2006

I am not sure how you stand with respect to Escrow agreement, but in the case of a free e mail address and you not having an agreement with the guy in written ( a binding contract) .. it does not put you in a loop.
You can always say you were not sure if the other e mail address was from the same guy and couldnt be sure to do a transaction worth $$$$ from an unknown entity.
I think you are ok ..and you are good enough to raise your price now that you know who is buying it.

Deleted member 70408 · Jul 17, 2006

Assuming it is a big company with lots of $$ to spend, they will probably come after you with their legal team (staff counsel) if they really want the name, draining you of funds while defending yourself in the process. Seeing how the highest .us sold only sold for $xx,xxx, and not knowing the name, it is probably not worth it. The whole point of Escrow.com is to protect the buyer and the seller.

Other than that, if they don't come after you, all you will end up losing is your personal reputation for backing out of a deal to try and get more money for the name, now that you know they have deeper pockets. How would you feel if someone raised the price of a name you wanted simply because the seller knew you could afford to pay more?

Duckinla · Jul 18, 2006

How would you feel if someone raised the price of a name you wanted simply because the seller knew you could afford to pay more?

You're right but he did say that he only agreed to sell the name because of the story behind the buyer (family startup company, etc). When I sold my last vehicle I gave an excessive and unnecessary discount because it was a 16 year old girl buying it herself and paying for it with an after school job. If I had found out she owned a used car lot, I would have pulled out of the deal.