Scammed, anyone?

[retired_member11]

Has anyone ever been scammed when buying a domain name?

I'm thinking about click/ ppc statistics quoted by a seller before the sale went through which turned out to have been 'optimistic' once the buyer took technical control and could then see the truth of the matter.

Ever happened?

 

[AdminAdmin is verified member.]

I have seen quite a few sites for sale with impressive stats, but when you look closer at them it is bought in traffic.

If they are selling via Sedo (as a active site), use the Sedo Tracker to analyse where the traffic is coming from, referrers section. Some I have seen show 90% of traffic from one source.

If it is a high value purchase, ask the seller to change the name into your Nameservers for a couple of days so that you can do your own traffic analysis (without the seller losing any control or ownership of the name).

Caveat Emptor as they say, "let the buyer beware", it must be impossible to get your money back if you do get scammed over this.

If they wont change Nameservers, ask them to send you the web log files and run them through a decent analyser software application so that you really understand where the traffic is coming from.

Also, try typing the domain name on the end of this:
http://www.urltrends.com/viewtrend.php?url=

and see what it tells you.

 

[aqls]

yes.

If it looks too good to be true. It is.

-aqls-

 

[retired_member11]

Scammers beware, Domain Trader Rating has arrived. We know who you are ;-).