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“sell your domain” scams

Posted on | March 25, 2009 | 2 Comments

Hello, dear clients! There’s an email scam going around that I wanted to warn you about. The other day I got an email regarding a domain I own for which I haven’t completed the website. It went something like this:

Dear sir, [Hello, I am a Miss or a Ms or a Ma'am, thankyouverymuch]

we are interested to purchase your domain name [domain name here] and would like to offer you 65% of the actual appraised market value.

As of now we accept valuations from one of these reputable domain name appraisers:

sedo.com
pozde.com
moniker.com

Should you already have an appraisal for [domain name here] please forward it to us.

We appreciate your business,

Thanks,
[name of scammer, which, coincidentally, doesn't match the "from" on the email]

Since I am ever the curious one, and was worried my clients might get taken, I set out to research further. I went to the sites listed in the email — all three charge at least $20 to give me an “appraisal”. I figured that was the goal of the spam email — to get a pile of people who want appraisals. My suspicions were confirmed here and here.

Please, people, if you aren’t sure whether or not something is a scam, ASK ME. Research Snopes.com. Do a little Googling. Or just delete it. Life is too short to get caught up in that sort of nonsense.

Category: news

Comments

2 Responses to ““sell your domain” scams”

  1. The Whole Shebang » Blog Archive » “Sell Your Domain” scams
    April 1st, 2009 @ 4:45 pm

    [...] http://www.eeep.com/blog/2009/03/25/sell-your-domain-scams/ [...]

  2. Kevin
    October 5th, 2009 @ 7:54 am

    Yeah, I got one too. And my advise is the same: Google key phrases or names in the scam email.
    That way one can find answers from articles like this.

    Thanks for taking the time and effort!

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