Domain Scam

[Iamnotsatisfied]

Hello,

Your domain name has been found online.

Please let us know your price.

We make money on selling and buying names and sites. Now the domain
business is very attractive.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,
Anthony Carter
Vice President
Elite Capital Investment Group

This has been going around for a while. It is a bit similar to the Nigerian scam.

They want you to appraise your domain at a particular appraisal website, which will value your domain 10X or so its real value. In order to get the appraisal certificate or something, it will cost a couple of hundred.

After that the person interested in your domain closes of contact. Leaving you $100 poorer.

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The names will be always different. but most give this link to a forum

Domain Talk

Which they have put together themselves.

Hopefully you will be able to distinguish them with that.
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[akula]

lol nice one wish i had thought of it 1st
entrepreneurs ought to be dodgy as is, so it's only rite they get scammed now and then.
as they say; "gr8 learning experience"

[Iamnotsatisfied]

Fortunately I did not get scammed but I was sceptic to begin with anyway (luckily). I said I appraised it at Sedo (to confirm the scam), and he still persisted that I do it again at the one he "approved".

I mean how stupid do these people think we are?

[B_M_W]

Fortunately I did not get scammed but I was sceptic to begin with anyway (luckily). I said I appraised it at Sedo (to confirm the scam), and he still persisted that I do it again at the one he "approved".

I mean how stupid do these people think we are?

They think that we are all very stupid doing that.

[dcfauno]

I mean how stupid do these people think we are?

If people didn't fall for it, they wouldn't keep doing it.

[DennisChang]

Sometimes I received emails from some web hosting company that says something like they receive a report that my info in the whois database is invalid, asking me to contact them to update. Those companies are not hosting my domain.

Anyone else received such emails?

[dcfauno]

Sometimes I received emails from some web hosting company that says something like they receive a report that my info in the whois database is invalid, asking me to contact them to update. Those companies are not hosting my domain.

Anyone else received such emails?

No real company would ask you to "contact them" to update your information. They would only advise you to login to your account to do so. Anything else is a phishing attempt.

[Iamnotsatisfied]

Those "invalid whois database or renew your domain and etc" scams have been going on for a while.

unless it's your domain registrars... just ignore it. (Even then, make sure that their the legit ones)

[MrCrazy]

Hey all,

Just thought I'd add to this, I had almost the exact same experience, here are the emails that went back and forth.

This is his first email;

> Hello,
>
> Your domain name has been found online. Please let us know your price.
>
> We are in real estate business. Domain name industry is a new direction
> for us. Sometimes we buy, sometimes we resell for making a profit.
>
> Looking forward to do business with you.
>
> Regards,
> William Norcross
> Vice President
> Elite Network

To which i replied;

Hello William,

Thank you for your interest in xxxx(my domain name). The Domain name is registered at sedo.com for sale. If you would like to make an offer through sedo.com I will be happy to negotiate a price with you.

Then he replied;

Can you accept 10,000 USD?

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

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

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:
domainblog.007sites.com/486359.htm]Domain Talk

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.

I was delighted of course, the thought of it being a scam ran through the back of my mind, but i thought to myself it was a very stupid scam indeed seeing as the sites he recommends for appraisals are all different and are not clear.

Anyway my next email went like this;

I have put xxxx in for a premium appraisal with sedo.com It will take up to 3 business days for the appraisal and I will let you know when it is completed with the appraisal attached and my offer.

His last email went like this;

It's a standard practice to show independent valuation to buyers/resellers.
Nobody will do business without it. I'm a businessman and have no intention
of changing rules which help both parties to avoid additional risks.

Of course, investors never take into account auto-generated vlauations. So
manual valuation is a "must" too.

I read the following information about appraisals at:
domainblog.007sites.com/486359.htm]Domain Talk

Thank you for understanding. I'm looking forward to do business with you.

Hope we can come to an agreement fast because I'll be on vacation soon.

Of course the alarm bells rang for this email, I google'd "elite network investment scam" and found this page so i thought i'd help out and share what happened to me. Of course i did not appraise with his sites, I do almost everything through sedo so at least i'll get a legitimate appraisal out of it.

The other clue to the scam is the fact that his signature only appears on the first email, i just put the weirdness of it all down to him being foreign and not able to speak english well. but there you go scam! thanks for posting about this and i hope this helps.

Take care and good luck!