Newbies - learn this first! - dont get taken by this old appraisal scam!!

[vinsdomains.com]

NEWBIES PLEASE READ AND BEWARE - old timers have probably already seen this somewhere here before, but if not, here's a chain of recent e-mails, going back, with the first here at the top.

begin

RE: SOULSACRAFICE.COM

Hello,

We noticed that you currently sell this domain (correct?).

We are interested in purchasing it. What is your desired price?

If you have other names for sale please email me your domains with prices, especially if you have financial, adult, hosting and TV related names.

We are looking forward to doing business with you.

Regards,

Mark Reitman

CEO
Website Domain Hosting Inc

end

I responded with the following:

Hello there. Thank you for your inquiry regarding the above referenced
website. Unfortunately, this is one of several sites that I own that I'm
looking to develop.
I suppose I'd consider an offer if you are really interested.

I also have some adult and financial websites that I would entertain offers
for such as...
end

The next day, I got this response:

Vincent,

What do you think about 14,000 USD for your domain name?

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://www.forum-windows-club.com/Archive/593842731.htm

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

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

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.

end

That's there scam - they entice you as a greedy domainer with a high $$$ offer, in hope that you'll order the appraisal, for which he gets a commission or perhaps the whole thing. The scam blog he references points you in the direction of two appraisal companys, both likely scams themeselves.

I responded back the following:
Hello again, I have not had the domain evaluated in the past via appraisal, although based on my experience, I no longer utilize or depend on appraisals, as I have sold domain names in the past for 50X what an appraisal had said, and I have also sold domain names that were sold for a very small fraction of what they were appraised at. A friend also recently order appraisals from two independent agencies and the difference was greater than $10,000.
At the end of the day, the domain is worth what somebody pays for it.
The domain does not currently have a website and exists as just the name at this time, parked at Sedo. As such, there is very little traffic to the site at this point, as it requires development and SEO.
With all that being said, I would accept $15,000 USD for the referenced domain name and would begin the transfer process as soon as funds have been cleared via my preferred payment method, Paypal.com. I’d also be agreeable to a potential discount/commission for you, if you secure the $15,000 price and assure that the deal is done in a timely and professional manner. Obviously you’d be paid when the transaction is finalized. Let me know if you accept and I will forward you my paypal information.

He responded with this:

As a seller you should provide me with an appraisal first. This is a reasonable practice.

I've found not all the appraisals are accurate. So I accept real manual appraisals from trusted sources only.

I don't trust $14-$20 services. Nobody will do a research for $14. We need a real manual service.
As to the most known brands: the more orders the company gets, the less time they can afford to spend on each appraisal.

I wanted to use Afternic.com but looks like this company has a bad reputation. Afternic's appraisal service has a lot of bad reviews.

I was told about manual research service from http://www.DomainMart.com. It costs - $200/hour.

Many experienced sellers suggested us http://www.AuthorizedAppraisal.com/ as a trustworthy manual service. They charge about 50 euros name not per hour. We've read only positive comments about them. And I have my own positive experience with this company
end

I responded with this and never heard back from him again:

How can I be sure this is not an appraisal scam? In fact, quick research on "authorized appraisal" indicates that they are associated with these scams.

Sorry for the length here, but good lesson to be learned!
<!-- Top Section Ends -->

 

[cbk]

If you just do a little research before, like google email, names , businesses and whois of any domains associated with this person you can turn up some great info. You will never get asked for an appraisal from a real end user that contacts you. If you contact them they may ask for one but very very rare.


But I must say two things about your response back. WAY to much info almost as if you were trying to tell him what a great domainer you are. Dont get that personal with the end user you just met.

Also you wanted to recieve a paypal payment of $15,000 without escrow from someone you just met, Really? I hope you were going to hold it for the 60 plus days until it cleared before you transferred.

 

[M.U.]

I have gotten similar e-mails before, not so many now though.

Its like they are on a break or something.

 

[draggar]

Simple - true end users will never ask for an appraisal. A simple way around it (and one will stop the comnunication) is to ask them to do and pay for the appraisal themselves and if you like the price you'll knock the appraisal fee off of the price of the domain.

 

[okater]

Uhu thanks to u guys i didnt fall in this kind of scam days before with one of my domains because happens almost the same u,u, but i send him to fly hahahaha

 

[discdrome]

Hi All,

To add to the above, these scammers are still operating and it appears they regularly operate on this forum to find domains for sale. I advertised a domain name for sale on this forum only and within 3 days had two people trying the "old" domain name appraisal scam on me.

I wasted a lot of their time stringing them along as its fun, but newbies beware.

My final e-mail to them was this.

""
I was waiting for your reply to confirm this as a appraisal scam. I am surprised you are still trying this on.
I guess there are still mugs out there who fall for this.
You must have seen my resent post,:i do hope you are not a member of the forums i use.
I will be posting our e-mail trail as a warning to others.
If i discover who you really are i will do my best to get you banned.
Please stop this scam it gives the domain industry a bad name.
""

I have also reported them to the host that currently has there sites, this wont do to much as they will soon setup somewhere else.

This particular e-mails were from Tuchman and also Fara Day

Of course not had any e-mails since this e-mail.

 

[Onward]

Hi All,

To add to the above, these scammers are still operating and it appears they regularly operate on this forum to find domains for sale. I advertised a domain name for sale on this forum only and within 3 days had two people trying the "old" domain name appraisal scam on me.

I wasted a lot of their time stringing them along as its fun, but newbies beware.

My final e-mail to them was this.

""
I was waiting for your reply to confirm this as a appraisal scam. I am surprised you are still trying this on.
I guess there are still mugs out there who fall for this.
You must have seen my resent post,:i do hope you are not a member of the forums i use.
I will be posting our e-mail trail as a warning to others.
If i discover who you really are i will do my best to get you banned.
Please stop this scam it gives the domain industry a bad name.
""

I have also reported them to the host that currently has there sites, this wont do to much as they will soon setup somewhere else.

This particular e-mails were from Tuchman and also Fara Day

Of course not had any e-mails since this e-mail.

Can you give their email addresses and names used here as well? We should try to vet them out and figure out what their DNF member names are - most likely that will not be possible, but at least those emails and names will be indexed.

 

[katherine]

To add to the above, these scammers are still operating and it appears they regularly operate on this forum to find domains for sale. I advertised a domain name for sale on this forum only and within 3 days had two people trying the "old" domain name appraisal scam on me.

Sometimes people accuse g.odaddy, se.do or whatever, but the reason is normally that the domains are freshly registered. Anybody can see the lists of new domains at least in gTLDs, and the spammers/scammers mine the data too.

 

[domainoid]

Just had a weird one here.- Sender checked out fine as the owner of a hosting website.- He offered me good money for a domain if I paid for an appraisal.Though he recommended me one he told me I would be free to choose.He is not an end-user.

- Catch is he gave me no guarantee he would purchase the domain if the appraisal did not go his way.I declined because I'd be out the appraisal fee if he doesn't buy it.-


Think this is a scam? They normally send you to an appraisal service they own or one that kicks money back to them as I've read.
-And they don't make the purchase.-

 

[randomo]

Think this is a scam?

Yes. (Demand for paid appraisal = scam.)

If it quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

 

[mjl]

Hello,

just had someone trying the domain appraiser scam on me. Trying to get me to get an appraisal at go-appraiser.com. Said he was on the forums but not heard back since I asked for his user name. Kept him going for a bit. Here are his details.

He is calling himself David Rotman and using [email protected] for an email. The domain is registered with Godaddy using Domains by Proxy to hide behind and I have written to them. Will let you know if I find out anymore.

Cheers.

 

[Eric Loiselle]

Hi guys ,
i had the mostly exact same e-mail the other day,

i was soo exited too about it the sale was for 6 domains for 2704$

i was and still dying for money so i was like oh my god i told everybody i knew that i was going to make alot of money.

it turned out the next e-mail was about the appraisal thing.

i remebered someone saying something about htis in the past so i replied to the guy: you get them appraised because your the one that are contacting me and i ended it by if your honest and not a spammer you will answer my email with a real offer without appraisal and guess what guys?

never heard from him again!

Just tought id share this aswell
Thanks
Eric

 

[amplify]

@Eric, better luck next time... good thing you didn't throw away a couple reg fees for an appraisal without response!

It could be possible that end users fall for this scam, so it continues. Put yourself in a struggling end users shoes offered $14,000 for a domain name you paid $9 for and you have $100,000 in debt. You could grab another $9 name, pay some bills and open up shop again.

I toyed with someone 15+ times before they gave up (saying I can't access the website, it's not compatible with IE, just throwing them off)... wonder if he got fired cause he wasted so much time explaining to me how to get my domain appraised. :uhoh:

 

[Eric Loiselle]

David,
You're soo right and i almost like soooo close to do it but at the last minute something in me told me huh huh something is not right.

God that money would have help me sooo much right now.

But the morale here is that on that day i went to bed having learn something new and i am proud of me for that.

" I'll never forget these words : Don't fall victim of too good to be true offers Eric "

I hope a lot of domainers reading this will take this seriously because there are scammers out there disguise as supposed to be CEO from some no good company or should i say their own good company of appraisals.

I was a said day but i learn something very big on that day aswell

Hope everyone will never have to go trough that,
Thanks
Eric

 

[Eric Loiselle]

but you know friends,

how can someone be soo bad and give false hope to someone like that, that should be allowed in my world anyway,
i just wanted to say that!
Eric

 

[amplify]

but you know friends,

how can someone be soo bad and give false hope to someone like that, that should be allowed in my world anyway,
i just wanted to say that!
Eric

That's almost every company in the world. Marketing is selling dreams, not wants.

That's like saying beer company X shouldn't show commercial Y cause I didn't get laid tonight like they implied.

Business is business.

Though their B2C approach does suck.

 

[webdom]

You hit it on the money! When I first started out I got an email like this but I fell to the trap. I replied and spent like $500. I ended up reversing the charge and I was lucky to get my money back. Do not fall for this trap and be very aware! If you wasn't a realistic appraisal just post in the DN Forum and that is the closest you will get. Remember it is all up to you and the end user how much the domain is worth.

Dave