scam scam scam

pendragon · Feb 8, 2009

This screams scam to me. What do you think?

Subject: solariumhire.com
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> My name is Jeffrey Burnstein and I'm very interested in your domain.
>>
>> Investing in domains is a profitable business.
>>
>> Please let me know your price for the domain in the subject line. If you
>> have other good names just send me the list with prices.
>>
>> Looking forward to do business with you.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Jeffrey Burnstein
>> CEO
>> OBS LLC

To which I replied make an offer but not interested in brokered service. The response came back......

Thank you for the fast response.

Can you accept 3,000 USD for solariumhire.com?

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:
007 Sites - Free web hosting

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.

To which i sent him my opinion on domain valuation services!! And told him his offer was far too low

. A complete scam in my opinion.

What do you think???

rob · Feb 8, 2009

Yes - classic scam

run away very fast....

Systreg · Feb 8, 2009

Yes, typical appraisal scam.

You can Google any passage of text from the email and come up with similar scam where the text was used, for example:

Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain
appraisals. Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price.

Gives these results:

http://www.google.com/search?client...+sale+price.&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

aZooZa · Feb 8, 2009

That's an old one.

pendragon · Feb 8, 2009

looks like it's doing the rounds. Not had one before but you'd think they'd try and use gramatically correct english and rewording. Why do they bother?

bb99 · Feb 8, 2009

pendragon said:
Why do they bother?

Unfortunately, I think they bother because some people fall for it. From memory there's been at least one person come on to this forum having paid for the appraisal and then heard nothing back.

Maybe Nominet could put a page on their website warning domain name owners of classic scams like this one? I guess it won't help those domain owners who know nothing about Nominet but if it stops one person being ripped off then it would be worth it.

aZooZa · Feb 8, 2009

bb99 said:
Unfortunately, I think they bother because some people fall for it. From memory there's been at least one person come on to this forum having paid for the appraisal and then heard nothing back.

Maybe Nominet could put a page on their website warning domain name owners of classic scams like this one? I guess it won't help those domain owners who know nothing about Nominet but if it stops one person being ripped off then it would be worth it.

They work on percentages.

joned · Feb 10, 2009

Thanks for the heads-up on this. Very timely, as I just got one of these this morning for my domain projectfinance.info

I was all excited till I read it and recognised the wording from this thread

In case anyone else gets one, the from-address was "[email protected]"

Cheers, Jon