legal New scam?

[DanB]

Got this, from names@php-mysql-hosting.info. First time I see this one.

"Hello!

I represent a big investor from the Emirates who is going to buy your [domain name].

Please respond and specify a desired price in the subject line.

My client has $417,000 budget for 30-40 domain names. He is very interested in financial, shopping, adult, gambling, mobile phones and weight loss related domains.

Please let us know your preferred payment method (PayPal, Western Union, escrow etc.). If this is your first time domain sale I may help you with the sale/transfer process.

Are you a member of domain seller communities/forums? Probably, we know each other under some nicknames?

Regards,

Johua Edelman

Switzerland
Geneva
Av. Louis-Casai 71
Phone: 41 22 3614246"

 

[dkdomainer]

A quite common appraisal scam.

 

[katherine]

Old scam.

 

[stewie]

Old scam, New Targets.

delete and don't look back. :yo:

 

[Johnn]

Tell them to send payment to my Paypal and I will take care of the transfer:
john@fbi.gov

 

[Jack Gordon]

Send them here for your offer: http://goo.gl/sLuhNs

 

[GeorgeK]

It's an old appraisal scam, as others have noted. See message #14 in the thread at:

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-in...watch-out-domain-name-appraisal-scammers.html

which actually mentions an email from someone at php-mysql-hosting.info, that time pretending to be representing someone from Qatar. Message #17 is similar, too.

 

[GeorgeK]

P.S. If you do a search in Google for the text:

"Are you a member of domain seller communities/forums? Probably, we know each other under some nicknames?"

you find lots of informative threads, e.g.

https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/is-this-a-scam.2679332/
http://www.dnforum.com/f77/isaac-ka...aisal-scam-noobs-take-note-thread-503210.html
http://www.dnforum.com/f79/appraisal-scam-alert-aaron-anderson-thread-503881.html
https://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/809930-scammer-warning-admin-php-web-hosting.html

I think they prey on newbies who are isolated (i.e. not part of any domain community), because anyone with experience or a member of domain forums usually recognizes these scams.

 

[Theo]

If you receive any billion dollar offers from Sergei Putanov, you'd better give him the domain or he will 'break leg'.

 

[DanB]

Yes, I knew it was a scam, I receive appraisal scams every week, it's just that this is the first I've got with this approach - "I represent a big investor from the Emirates who is going to buy your domain" - that actually made me laugh... I just wanted to post it because when I did a quick search I didn't find the email on any other forum.
I'm not a newbie though, however, I changed the DNS of that domain back to Sedo's 1-2 days ago I think... Is there a way they can monitor domains that change to Sedo's parking and automatically send these emails?...

 

[grcorp]

Yes, I knew it was a scam, I receive appraisal scams every week, it's just that this is the first I've got with this approach - "I represent a big investor from the Emirates who is going to buy your domain" - that actually made me laugh... I just wanted to post it because when I did a quick search I didn't find the email on any other forum.
I'm not a newbie though, however, I changed the DNS of that domain back to Sedo's 1-2 days ago I think... Is there a way they can monitor domains that change to Sedo's parking and automatically send these emails?...

I'm pretty sure that domaintools offers something to this effect.

In any case, that's absolutely the strategy. Think about it... when you were first starting as a domainer, you probably got on Sedo right away, right? For every Frank Schilling you might send an email to, pointing a domain to a Sedo nameserver, there will be dozens more newbie investors who are ripe to be susceptible to this scam.