Domain Appraisal Scams

[Randall]

I have been getting PM's and emails from everywhere about Domain appraisals.

People wanted to know how much their particular domain name is valued in the market.

This recently also happened on our forums itself.

As the admin of this forum it hurts me when someone from our community gets scammed by this kind of people.

Let me explain you a small situation. And then imagine if you are in the same situation or not.

Mr.Names is contacted by a person Mr.X

Mr.Names owns a domain name or a number of domain names.

Mr.X makes an unbelievable offer stating he can pay anything from xxxx to xxxxx but he would like to get this domain name appraised first from so and so appraisals providing company.

Now what happens is that the Mr.Names gets hooked up and falls for this one. Gets the domain name appraised from that company. Pays some dollars for the appraisal and a lousy certificate of appraisal which in real has no value at all.

Mr.X now vanishes in thin air and is never available through his email or his IM.

In real Mr.X is some how affiliated with that appraisals company from where he is getting the money of the people who go there and get their domains appraised.

So please beware before you just go for an appraisal of a domain name.

I am not saying that all domain appraisal companies are like this. There are some good appraisal companies. But you need to know which is good and which is just scraping off your money.

Do some research. If you have any problems then post a thread in the Help Wanted Section of this forum of ours. Ask for help from others. Who knows someone with similar experience might be able to answer your questions and you might be saved from getting scammed for some hard earned dollars of yours.

Read the threads. Go with proper companies. Don't look for cheap and easy ways to get money. Because believe me there is nothing like easy or free money in this world. This are all the things that the scammers will show you to rip you off from your money.

Another note. What would an appraisal software or utility would know of a domain name. I think the best domain name appraisals are the free domain appraisals that you get from the other people who have experience in this field.

 

[babydomains]

yes i was contacted by one person he was asking me to get a certified domain appraisal from one site but at that time i didn't had 35 dollars so i tried to look for work to get 35 dollars and get my domain appraised and sell it to that person. but i didn't got 35 and so i didn't got it appraised. this is a good thing to know that this people are doing this kind of things also.

 

[domainstations]

I was scam here also. Im referring to securenamesale. Im reallly disappointed on what they did to me.I already ask for support from their CC verifier and they told me that securenamesale owner doesnt want to return the money as they deliver the service on time and rightfully. The point here is that they will act as if they buy the domain and ask for appraisal but in the end they wont but it anyway. For detailed conversations I made, I can post here or via PM their "modus operandi"

BTW is their any way we can "make them pay" on what they did? They are damn pretty smart in "trapping" n00bs just like me. They are hot discussions from different forums regarding domain scams.

 

[nielsencl]

If you have the emails where someone acted like they wanted to buy the domain and you can make the connection from them to the appraisal company, then the CC company should give you the refund. If the buyer told you to use that appraisal company, then that should be enough. Just tell the CC company the URL for this and other scam threads so they can learn about this problem also.

After you get your money back or if you can't, you should post the information about the company and exactly what happened to keep this from happening to others.

 

[domainstations]

Hi nielsencl,

I already told the CC company. I even forwarded some of those messages to them and even directed them to forums that has the same story with me. I even told them that if this continues the credibility of their company will be jeopardize as many people got scammed on this way. I give them detailed explanation and to no avail, they will not give me the refund

Take note that I got messages that's exactly the same as posted from other forums. If you're interested on what Im talking, google the word securenamesale. Im really disappointed on their way of doing business

 

[nielsencl]

If you can find some people like yourself that are not getting any help, you could band together and get their attention. You could also issue a press release and create a web site.

The trick in these kinds of things is to get a company's attention. One person rarely makes them listen unless you really make a lot of noise, have perfect documentation, and keep at it.

Sometimes it's not worth the effort, but sometimes it is. I write emails, and if they aren't helping I write more emails, but as I write more emails, I start adding more email addresses to the CC and sometimes BCC. If they are being jerks, I copy the president, CEO, VP, marketing, sales, service, HR, investor relations, the webmaster, the CEO's secretary, and so on. After that, I start CCing their PR company, their hosting company, and any partners or clients that are listed on the site.

I stay very professional, I don't threaten anything, but I do explain what I am doing and why, and what I will do next in some cases. If the emails are hard to find, I search in google for things like "visa.com email" without the quotes. Many times I can find listings where someone has used their email address. You can also call and ask for someone's email address. "Hi, I need to send a document to Mr. Trump, but I don't have his email with me, can you give it to me, or let me send it to you so you can forward it?" If you give them the option of giving their email (to protect the boss) they will usually just give you the address you want. Also, if you have some email addresses and can find the names of people in management, you can often figure out what their emails will be, like bgates@, george.bush@, tonyb@...

The other thing I would suggest in these situations is to try and find out who is behind the scams. That company securenamesale does not have their information listed in Whois, but their may be ways to find out who they are. You really cannot hide on the web very well unless you really know what you are doing. And if you really know what you are doing, you don't have to scam people for a few bucks...!

But I would create a web page or Word file that dcuments everything and then put it up on one or more sites. Even if your money is gone forever, I think we should help alert others so it doesn't happen to them.

securenamesale.com is on the same IP as allfordomains.com. There are only 2 domains hosted there. While the first site has the whois protected, the second on is not. While the owner of the second domain may not be the owner of the first, it might be. For sure they know each other!

securenamesale.com on same IP as allfordomains.com

allfordomains.com
Forces, Soft
SForces, 3041 S. 6th St
Kalamazoo, MI
49009 US
+1 509 271 0875, Fax: +1 509 271 0875
info [at] softforces.com

The address and phone match. The contact email info is:

softforces.com
Administrative Contact:
Cooper, Thomas info [at] softforces.com
3041 S. 6th Street
Kalamazoo, Michigan 49083
United States
(509) 2710875 Fax -- (509) 2710875

Another way to gather information is to search in Google for their phone number.

Posting this kind of information keeps people from hiding and can help you to gather even more information, get others to send emails, and help to get your money back from the scammer. AND I assure you that NO payment system wants to deal with scammers that cause them problems!!!!! And if the CC closes their account and freezes their funds, they will never get an account with them using the same information.

Good Luck!

 

[domainstations]

That was very kind of you nielsencl for giving me new ideas. Yes even I can't get the money,what's important is that many people will be aware of these scammers. There is already a person who created a forum to discuss this things but those scammers was somewhat able to post automated porn links until the site was somewhat looks unreliable. Anyway Ill try to contact other people who got scammed and will look for any solution to this problem

 

[nick]

Try http://www.bbb.org

I think they might help you.

But as the company has already delivered the services which were promised to you. Then there is nothing illegal that they did from their side.

Now if someone who is scamming you then he is culprit over here.

 

[jaybrown]

Thanks for this informative post. This is very helpful for people like me hehhe who easily trust people.

 

[Randall]

Thanks jaybrown you can trust people around here on our forums. We thrive to be a cool and nice little community over here.

Help yourself with the other info posted by our users and if possible then also contribute your experiences so others can learn from it.

 

[nielsencl]

It's good to be able to trust people, but not good to trust them easily. We have many good people here, but that does not mean all can be trusted 100%. And remember that some scams work with you doing a small transaction with the scammer that goes well, then you trust them with a large transaction and have to cry. Only trust as much as you can afford.

I trusted a contractor to create something small for me. On purpose I paid them all the money up front. What they provided was not correct and I asked for changes. I got the changes and it STILL was not right.

I am now waiting for the changes again and it's been a while. If they do not deliver, I will be unhappy. But it was a test. So really I will be very happy I did not use them for a $2,000 project for a client, only a $35 project for me.

In the case of this domain appraisal scam, if they were a little smarter they could be doing this forever and not get caught. No, I'm not going to say how. But most that would use scams are not very smart. They only have to find others that are not as smart -OR- others that are trusting.

They are pathetic humans in my opinion. The have some skills and they use it to hurt others rather than find a non-harmful business of some kind.

 

[domainstations]

I believe Im really a trusting person. That's why Im deeply hurt when this happened.

What made me deal with him because we are constantly in contact through email.

I guess its a lesson for me to be careful next time

 

[Randall]

I believe Im really a trusting person. That's why Im deeply hurt when this happened.

Same here friend.

People who cheat and stabs a dagger in your back there are no words for them.

They can cheat one day for some amount. Next day for some more. They can keep cheating till they die. But I know that they cannot cheat my luck and my destiny.

 

[Earthbreaker]

I was contacted by a "potential" buyer some time ago as well.
He asked me for the price I want to sell my domain name for and immediately demanded an appraisal certificate.
Further, he sent me a link to a forum where he, apparently, asked for suggestions regarding reliable domain name appraisal services.
I noticed one provider that was mentioned more often than the others: securenamesale.com. Also the page didn't look like a thread, created by a forum script.
This made me suspicious so I offered him two appraisal services which were not mentioned on the page itself. He wasn't willing to accept any of those and suggested securenamesale.com.
Thereupon I wrote an email, stating that we won't get to an accomplishment and since then I've never heard of him again.

After, I looked up the WHOIS record of securenamesale.com and found the contact address hidden by a proxy server. In my eyes, a trustful domain name appraisal service wouldn't need to hide this piece of information.

If you're being contacted in a similar way, it's worth to be suspicious and check potential buyers before making any deals.

Earthbreaker

 

[Chocokriz]

Earthbreaker, it is good to hear that you were not scammed or cheated out of your property.

I think that it is important for the seller to do some research and make sure that the domain is being listed for a correct and reasonable amount. I am glad that you brought this thread to my attention because the information in it is very valuable - I would not have thought that there would be posers claiming to be part of a domain appraisal company.

This is one of the reasons that I am most interested in the appraising side of things because, this way, I know that I can estimate the worth of my projects and I will have a greater say in my own sales.

 

[Earthbreaker]

Earthbreaker, it is good to hear that you were not scammed or cheated out of your property.

I think that it is important for the seller to do some research and make sure that the domain is being listed for a correct and reasonable amount.  I am glad that you brought this thread to my attention because the information in it is very valuable - I would not have thought that there would be posers claiming to be part of a domain appraisal company.

This is one of the reasons that I am most interested in the appraising side of things because, this way, I know that I can estimate the worth of my projects and I will have a greater say in my own sales.

I also think this thread is very useful.
When I was contacted by the person, I did some research on the Internet, but couldn't find any similar scams.
So maybe this thread will save people from making deals with scammers.