Today's Posts Follow Us On Twitter! TFL Members on Twitter  
Forum search: Advanced Search  
Navigation
Marketplace
  Members Login:
Lost password?
  Forum Statistics:
Forum Members: 24,254
Total Threads: 80,792
Total Posts: 566,471
There are 835 users currently browsing (tf).
 
  Our Partners:
 
  TalkFreelance     Business and Website Management     Web Hosting and Domain Names :

Beware the appraisal scam!

Thread title: Beware the appraisal scam!
Reply  
Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 >
    Thread tools Search this thread Display Modes  
10-17-2005, 02:42 AM
#1
seen.to is offline seen.to
seen.to's Avatar
Status: unusual suspect ™
Join date: Feb 2005
Location: Lancaster, PA from London UK
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 1,814
iTrader: 0 / 0%
 

seen.to is on a distinguished road

  Old  Beware the appraisal scam!

I received an e-mail yesterday from someone saying they were interested in one of my domains. After a couple of e-mails either way they agreed to buy the domain for $10,000. I was real excited about this... we are moving soon and this would have taken care of all the expenses with enough left to buy a new tv.

The 'buyer' then mailed me saying that he'd need an independent appraisal and pointed me towards a supposed forum thread where he'd previously sought advice on this. The fake thread looks like this: http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/29016.htm

I ever-so-briefly considered getting the suggested appraisal... after all I could be in to make a decent profit here.

But things weren't ringing true. Why such a cheap name for this supposed domaintalk archive, why only an archive, why no links within the page to other archived threads or to the forums home page etc... A little more research and I found that this is a repetetive scam where they change the fake forum thread id, change their e-mail address and name but keep pretty much everything else the same.

So beware anyone that e-mails you offering to buy your domain and requiring that you first obtain an 'independant' appraisal. Chances are it's the same people and chances are that they own the appraisal sites.

The appraisal sites they suggested are alldomains.com and greatdomains.com
so if you are ever looking for a domain appraisal even without having received one of these bogus e-mails I'd suggest steering well clear of these sites.

Finally, on the fake forum, they suggest allfordomains.com, a site which has a specific heading for scams where you can read about scams... ooh, (thinks the un-educated user), I can check to make sure that this offer is not a scam... Sure you can - if you want to pay the scammer himself $59 to sign up for a month!

Reply With Quote
10-17-2005, 03:33 AM
#2
Dray is offline Dray
Dray's Avatar
Status: Request a custom title
Join date: Sep 2005
Location: Texas
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 1,139
iTrader: 0 / 0%
 

Dray is on a distinguished road

  Old

What exactly do the appraisal sites do? I'v never tried to sell a domain..so i don't know anything about this stuff... This sounds like this guy offered you a lot of money, but in the end would acquire the domain without paying you a cent?

Reply With Quote
10-17-2005, 10:15 AM
#3
seen.to is offline seen.to
seen.to's Avatar
Status: unusual suspect ™
Join date: Feb 2005
Location: Lancaster, PA from London UK
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 1,814
iTrader: 0 / 0%
 

seen.to is on a distinguished road

  Old

I don't think he's actually interested in the domain, just in getting people to spend $60 using his appraisal service.

The purpose of appraisal sites is to give an 'expert opinion' on the value of a domain name.

Reply With Quote
10-17-2005, 05:21 PM
#4
Dray is offline Dray
Dray's Avatar
Status: Request a custom title
Join date: Sep 2005
Location: Texas
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 1,139
iTrader: 0 / 0%
 

Dray is on a distinguished road

  Old

Oh, I see. And the fake forum appraises his "appraisal site" :P

Thanks for the warning.

Reply With Quote
10-19-2005, 04:31 PM
#5
DateinaDash is offline DateinaDash
Status: The BidMaster
Join date: Nov 2004
Location: England
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 10,821
iTrader: 0 / 0%
 

DateinaDash is on a distinguished road

  Old

Thanks for the heads up buddy

Reply With Quote
10-19-2005, 08:36 PM
#6
Bennett is offline Bennett
Status: Narassist
Join date: May 2005
Location: USA
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 4,469
iTrader: 32 / 100%
 

Bennett is on a distinguished road

Send a message via MSN to Bennett

  Old

I've also had someone try this scam on me too.

Reply With Quote
11-14-2005, 10:56 PM
#7
YoungCoder is offline YoungCoder
Status: Senior Member
Join date: Feb 2005
Location:
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 912
iTrader: 0 / 0%
 

YoungCoder is on a distinguished road

  Old

Very clever, I love the tricks these people come up with.

I know its bad, and a scam is a scam, but still...the things these people come up with is very interesting.

Reply With Quote
11-21-2005, 04:43 AM
#8
Timwah is offline Timwah
Status: I'm new around here
Join date: Nov 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 4
iTrader: 0 / 0%
 

Timwah is on a distinguished road

Send a message via MSN to Timwah

  Old

Theres a scam similar to this, where people will tell you that they will buy the domain from you only if you purchase Sedo's appraisal service. After you pay Sedo whatever it is to get your domain appraised, the scammer says they are no longer interested. The idea is that you will get a refund for your appraisal service off Sedo, and somehow they are trying to put Sedo out of business.

If you google 'sedo appraisal scam' you can get some more info on it.


------
Timwah (I'm at MSN .com!)

Reply With Quote
11-24-2005, 10:15 PM
#9
newz is offline newz
Status: I'm new around here
Join date: Nov 2005
Location:
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 1
iTrader: 0 / 0%
 

newz is on a distinguished road

  Old

Thanks for the infos. I heard that the list of buyers that allfordomains.co offers you to submit your domains to ( for a fee ) are just people who in return will scam you ! I think it is best to get domain appraisals at www.FinalAppraisal.com, they are generally the best.

Reply With Quote
11-25-2005, 12:55 AM
#10
cpvr is offline cpvr
cpvr's Avatar
Status: IMA G
Join date: Aug 2005
Location:
Expertise:
Software:
 
Posts: 1,694
iTrader: 0 / 0%
 

cpvr is on a distinguished road

  Old

Thanks for the heads up

Reply With Quote
Reply  
Page 1 of 4 1 2 3 4 >


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

  Posting Rules  
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump:
 
  Contains New Posts Forum Contains New Posts   Contains No New Posts Forum Contains No New Posts   A Closed Forum Forum is Closed