Another online scam has been found that is known as an appraisal scam into making you think that they are interested in your domain, but first they want to “appraise” your domain to see its worth. This is all just a scam to get you to pay an appraisal server that the scammer mostly owns or works with to make profit. Heres and example of one of the most recent ones:

Hello,

I’ve seen your domain for sale. Then I’ve found your email via WHO IS to
contact you direct. Please email your price.

If you have a list of other domains for sale, please send the list with
prices in plain text. We prefer “dot coms” and easy-to-remember names.

Regards,

Daniel Sullivan

Vice President

Web Hosting & Mail Guide and Services
================================================== ======
NOTICE – This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
================================================== ======

Be wary on what type of people contact you, always use search engines to figure out if they’re scammers! A number of these letters have been found with different emails, names, and sometimes websites. If you’ve fallen for a scam like this, consult into a dispute with your CC company or even if you used Paypal. Stay safe!

Search Engines

A simple way in finding if the seller or buyer is already blacklisted on forums for known scamming, that is very easy to find out by searching up their username (on where you found them), name, email, phone number, or even address (if they give you that much information). Some scammers aren’t very bright and use the same name every time they scam. Most terms are better searched in Google because Google has better results and also I guess every likes Google better than Yahoo and MSN (from what I’ve heard ). I would recommend to search on all major search engines just in case, some may have difference results and could return positive/negative results. Most deals are done in forums, so usually there is a username involved, so search the username first, you can never be too sure on what you might find online.

Internet Resources

I love the Internet, don’t you? It is filled with information and many online resources that can positively help you. All you have to know is what to search for and what to look for (specifically). Many services are offered free to check ownership, pagerank, domain details, and much more to find truth in deals. Some of the services I’ve used that are useful in domain deal situations are:

• ReversePhoneDetective – This is one of the best phone searches I have used before. When talking to a serious buyer or seller, and when it is over a large amount of money, ask for their phone number (trust is very important), and also get their location (at least the City & State), to see if the number is around the area, usually if they give you a cellphone number, the service should be around the area or in the area they live. For example, if they say they live in California, and the search comes back as it came from China, you know you have a serious problem there now.
• DomainTools – The best online domain check service to see the Whois, Registrar, and more. If the owner name and email matches the WHOIS, unless they have the protected name services feature to hide their information, which in this case, makes the searching a little harder. What you can usually do is ask to prove their ownership, and also see if the domain is on any black lists.
• dnScoop – One of the best tools to search Pagerank, Linkbacks, domain age, and traffic range, as well as IP Reports with the domain. Great to see all this info in one place, while it may not be updated every minute, it is still useful to see a range of information for a specific domain.
• LoookUp – A useful tool to do a reverse IP on a internet service or any IP you have. If you have the sellers or buyers IP (for some reason), you can a reverse IP on them and see what ISP they use and location. Upon entering the site you will be having your own IP checked to prove it works.

These are just some of the services that I have found. If you have developed or have found a new service that is very useful in this case, let us know so I can add it to the list. We need to stand up to these scammers, not let them go free easily. I know how it feels to be scammed, and trust me, it isn’t the smartest feeling in the world.

Payments

The biggest issue when it comes to selling and buying online is payment. Why? Because you want things to go smooth and easy without any hassle, but sometimes there is a bump on the road and make things harder, sometimes excuses like:

• ” I don’t have enough funds to buy the domain”
• “Can you wait a couple more days for me to get the rest of funds?” (and they never respond)

And my personal favorite:

• “My wife (or husband) has disagreed with me buying this domain, Im going to have to cancel the transfer”

It always comes down to payment. While many domain buyers always want to use the quick payment system called Paypal, it isn’t the smartest thing to do even if its only for a $100 domain. Here’s some reasons why it’s recommendable to avoid Paypal for huge transactions:

• Your funds get frozen (as well as your account) because of huge transactions
• ChargeBack can occur and then the scamming begins
• The person who sends you funds can screw you over by complaining big time. (also known as chargeback, but has more “investigation” and wastes your time and takes longer to get your money)

Paypal is not a good payment transaction system as many domain sellers have been scammed already using Paypal and with their “Chargeback” feature, many scammers have gotten away because of that. So what is the best choice for payment? I would always 100% agree on using Escrow which is about as safe as you can get with online goods. Escrow is perfect because it allows to do split-fee charges with the buyer and/or seller, or just have a person pay it all (can be the buyer or seller). It also lowers the chance to get scammed very drastically because the buyer or seller sends the goods to escrow, after they confirm it, you send your good and then escrow does the switch, very easy and safe. It might take a couple of days for the switch to happen, but it’s better than losing a domain and/or your money.

Another payment method would be e-gold, which is “Get Paid, Stay Paid” to prevent any Chargebacks. The only bad things about e-gold, is that its not really heard of and used, but it is still an option. This is very useful and will keep those scammers from doing chargebacks. The only bad thing about e-gold is you need to find an exchanger to exchange e-gold to USD money. Which is a hassle to do and takes time, unless you know how to do things quick.

Information & Trust

Many sellers/buyers focus on the fraud area, we all need to feel comfortable with the buyer or seller. Most likely you will speak voice to voice by phone or so, if you don’t, you should when it comes to large payment sums. It is important you request their phone number and full name, if they are serious buyers or seller, they should be 100% cooperative if they are serious. If you ever have a chance, you should research their information to see if they are telling the truth about themselves. Some questions I ask myself when I sell my domains are:

• How will I do the transaction safely? (Escrow is my answer)
• Is the buyer/seller being truthful? (You will find out when you do your online research.)
• How will I get in touch with the seller/buyer? (For trust building purposes)

Sometimes, selling/buying is best done with patience, if you do things too fast, you can face serious problems, we always want the deal(s) over with, but we need to realize that online security and threats are emerging, we need to use what we have online and also our common sense. The last thing we would want to hear is your expensive domain getting stolen. And the one thing that gets to me ticked off is that not too many registrars are very helpful and cooperative with us. We need to stand up and fight against scammers, when we give up and decide that its too much to pursue, we are letting them win. Take care of your domains! Also, if you have any nice resources to share for us so we can use (check pagerank, IP, scam database website, etc) let us know!

Many of these domain scammers (mostly all) will lure you into using a phony payment system that they either own or know someone in the inside to make you think you think their money or domain is on the way or they prefer to use Paypal to buy it quick. What happens after that is once you push the domain to their account(s) you will notice a chargeback (if you use paypl) after they have gotten your domain leaving you with no domain, no cash.

A recent email I was able to get from a person who had been scammed by these low-life scammers before was:

TGT Systems
cohen@toughguy.net
to [removed]

“Hello,
Please send the lowest acceptable price for your virtual property (domain name).

Our company develops software for multiple video systems. Domain names is not our business but a new way to earn on reselling. We are going to buy domains to resell them at higher prices. Our company has a large database of clients interested in good domains.

If you offer more domains for sale with good reselling potential please email us your list.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,

Robert Cohen, Ph. D.

CEO

TGT Systems”

This is a completely fake company and 100% scammer. Beware from any similar emails and domain as well from any sender. If you should receive a message from this scammer wanting to “buy” your domain, ignore the message. When selling or buying your domain remember a few but useful tips:

• Ask for the phone number and where they live (why shouldn’t they give it to you?), use Reverse Phone Detective to find out if they are telling the truth about where they live and where the number is located.
• Trust them before you sell, talk to them to get to know them.
• Google/Yahoo/MSN  their username and/or email to see if they have been blacklisted or have been known for scamming other people.
• Avoid Using Paypal (Use Escrow for large payment sums or transferring high valuable domains).

Hope these tips help you, I hate scammers and I hope they get what they deserve which is jail time, big fines, and a great punch in the nads. Stay safe!