Patrick Burns Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Not sure if this is for 'community,' but I've had this email conversation recently about purchasing a domain name and I want to know how I should go about completing the process if it is indeed legit: Hello,I am writing because I see on Google that your operation relates closely to our domain [domain].com. We recently received an offer for the domain and before proceeding with the sale, we wanted to inform all potentially interested parties of the opportunity to acquire the domain. If the domain is of potential interest to your operation, please contact us immediately in order to make an offer before we proceed with the current one. Paul Martin Sincerely, Starr Consulting [phone number] Hello,Thanks for contacting me -- I am interested. May I know the standing offer by any chance? All the best, Patrick Hi Patrick,The current high offer is $1,600. Regards, Paul Hmm -- it's a good opportunity but I can't afford a higher offer. If, for any reason, the higher offers fall through then you can count on me for $350.Best of luck, Patrick Two weeks later: Hi Patrick, Congratulations on securing [domain].com for $350. For payment I would recommend one of two options: 1) Escrow.com - slight cost involved, holds funds until you instruct them to release to us (after you receive the domain.) 2) Direct wire For domain transfer, we can either have you create a free account at the current registrar or unlock the domain and provide you the EPP transfer code to transfer the domain away to your preferred registrar. The transfer at the current registrar is free and instant. The EPP method takes about 3-5 days and costs around $10 depending on your registrar. Please let me know which of the above options you prefer and we will get started right away. Regards, PM I'll probably call the phone number provided in the first message after I get off from work today, but it still feels a little fishy. Any thoughts on the simplest way to vet this and make the transfer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argle Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Were you the one who looked these people up for the purpose of buying the domain name, or did they come to you? If the latter, it looks like an obvious scam. The escrow and direct wire payment options are an extreme giveaway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
djpretzel Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Looks like they contacted you. Looks potentially bogus. Starr consulting? Is there a way to verify the current owner of the domain via WHOIS or other means? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XPRTNovice Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 I'm wary of anyone who only accepts a wire transfer and some other form of obscure escrow; everyone else does credit cards, paypal, etc... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Burns Posted September 27, 2013 Author Share Posted September 27, 2013 They came to me. WHOIS has an address in WA state, 9999999 as the phone, and an email. I just sent a message to that email asking if they're aware of the situation. I will call this "Paul Martin" later today, but the problem is I still wouldn't be totally convinced if it seemed ok on the phone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 It's a scam. OCR gets emails like these all the time, "we're a domain registrar in hong kong and some one applied for ocremix.co.hk, do you want to get it before they do?" I would not conduct the purchase of a domain name through an email exchange. Like XPRT said, any time you see the word "escrow" that's a massive red flag. Just ignore this guy. Don't even waste your time calling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avaris Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 I'm wary of anyone who only accepts a wire transfer and some other form of obscure escrow; everyone else does credit cards, paypal, etc... Agreed. Dude this is def a scam. Stay away. To add more fuel to the fire, nobody would turn around and sell a domain for 21.9% of a previous offer without waiting awhile for a better offer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chernabogue Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Really smells like scam. Plus they cannot say the contract is up with just an e-mail like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Obvious scam is obvious. C'mon, Pat! Don' do DAT! Can someone (read: ANYONE) who knows how to obtain a domain the correct way walk Patrick through the proper steps? I'm sure it would be informative for others with the same question of how to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexstyle Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 Go to Name.com (or any other legitimate registrar) and see if your domain is available. Purchase it. Direct it towards the nameservers on your hosting package (if you don't have one, I recommend Hostgator). Profit! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Burns Posted September 27, 2013 Author Share Posted September 27, 2013 Well, I was going to give it up, but here's a response from the email address listed on WHOIS: Hello, someone working for a purported "Starr Consulting" has contacted me offering to sell me [domain].com. As the email listed on the WHOIS database, are you familiar with this situation? I'm trying to vet the person claiming to sell the domain.Thanks Paul? Yes he is authorized.Also Paul will likely instruct you to remit payment to our parent company: LEVEL2 I've registered a few domains before, but always one that was new -- never a transfer. Could they actually have the domain and still be scamming? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 (edited) Yes. Dude, seriously. It's not worth your time. It's a classic scam. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_scams#Fake_trademark_protection For all that is good and holy, stop. Do not give these guys any money. Do not give these guys any money. Do not give these guys any money. Do not give these guys any money. Do not give these guys any money. Edited September 27, 2013 by DarkeSword Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liontamer Posted September 27, 2013 Share Posted September 27, 2013 (edited) Yes. Dude, seriously. It's not worth your time. It's a classic scam.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_scams#Fake_trademark_protection For all that is good and holy, stop. Elaborating: "Although less common than domain slamming, another domain name scam primarily coming from registrars based in China involves sending domain owners an e-mail claiming that another company has just attempted to register a number of domains with them which contain the targeted domain owner's trademark or has many keyword similarities to their existing domain name. Often, these domains will be the same as the one(s) owned by the targeted individual but with different TLDs. The scammer will claim to have halted the bulk registration in order to protect the targeted individual's intellectual property, and if the email recipient doesn't recognize the entity attempting to register these domain names, that they should respond immediately to protect their trademark. If the scam target does respond by email or by phone, the scammer will then try to get them to register these domain names for several years upfront with the registrar running this scam. Other variations of this type of scam include registrars that target their own existing customers with similar made-up threats of another entity trying to register the same domain as theirs under different TLDs. As well, some domainers are known to search for available TLDs for already registered domains, then emailing the owner of the registered domain and offering to sell the unregistered variations to him/her for a marked up amount. If the target agrees to the deal, the domainer will then purchase the domains on the spot for the regular $7~20 registration fee and immediately sell it back to the victim for a few hundred dollars." Patrick, you can buy the domain name from ME, at least I'll put the coin to good use! (i.e. Nintendo World Championships 1990 gold NES cartridge) P.S. You're trollin' us good, orrrrrrr... Edited September 27, 2013 by Liontamer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Burns Posted September 27, 2013 Author Share Posted September 27, 2013 ok ok until we meet again, patrickburns.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Burns Posted November 1, 2013 Author Share Posted November 1, 2013 ok --- so I ignore this guy for a few emails, but he was persistent and I couldn't resist I looked into using Escrow.com and it seemed relatively straightforward and easy to verify -- so I agreed to the terms on the escrow contract, put the money up, created an account with the registrar he was using, gave him my account username, he pushed the domain to me, and I released the funds to him. Then I just transferred the domain to my registrar of choice, just to be sure. I'm not sure what the take away is here, but now patrickburns.com is mine -- locked up at my registrar for the next few years. Typical of me to ask for advice and not take it, and there were a ton of red flags, but it worked out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenogu Labz Posted November 1, 2013 Share Posted November 1, 2013 (edited) ... ... .... Darke, maybe that last one shouldn't have been in white text... Edited November 1, 2013 by Kenogu Labz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Burns Posted November 1, 2013 Author Share Posted November 1, 2013 (edited) ...... .... Darke, maybe that last one shouldn't have been in white text... I would feel bad if I promoted an unpopular business practice, but at the end of the day he did provide a service to me in that I couldn't accomplish on my own -- he brought the domain to market. It was previously held by some construction business owner who wouldn't respond to inquiries and just kept renewing, so I gave up a while ago. It was very helpful to me hearing about the different ways to scam in this area, though. I learned which questions to ask, and how this guy might be legit. Also, the registrar used appeared relatively well-established, and I was allowed three days to verify the transfer before I had to release the funds from escrow. Hey -- I was never able to come up with an alias I liked, so besides the several musician Patrick Burns floating around the web I'm also competing , after all. He's even got a wikipedia page :-/ Edited November 1, 2013 by Patrick Burns Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Damned Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 Just... Fuck, really? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Strader Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 So it worked out positively? That's.... unusually lucky, but congrats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bejack Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 Fun fact : in the French language the word " escroc " (the last c is mute) pretty much pronounced like escrow means crook, scammer. As for reading through this whole thread, the ending really leaves me speechless and confused... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie Felis Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 Yeah, you done got scammed even if it seems legit right now. It's like those "Buy gold for WoW" scams where they contact you. Sure...you get the gold sent to you, and then a month later you log in to find your characters naked with every last thing sold. It seems cool now, but wait. Just wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Legendary Zoltan Posted November 2, 2013 Share Posted November 2, 2013 I may not be understanding everything perfectly but it doesn't seem cool to me even at this moment. Isn't the result of this simply that he paid $350 for a domain? Domains usually only cost around $50. So even if he got what he bargained for, he got it at seven times the normal price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Burns Posted November 3, 2013 Author Share Posted November 3, 2013 Yeah, you done got scammed even if it seems legit right now. It's like those "Buy gold for WoW" scams where they contact you. Sure...you get the gold sent to you, and then a month later you log in to find your characters naked with every last thing sold.It seems cool now, but wait. Just wait. I was that lazy guy who paid for gold once. Never received it. Big surprise. I may not be understanding everything perfectly but it doesn't seem cool to me even at this moment. Isn't the result of this simply that he paid $350 for a domain? Domains usually only cost around $50. So even if he got what he bargained for, he got it at seven times the normal price. A domain that has yet to be registered costs ~$10 for a year's registration. If someone already registered it, all bets are off; it just depends on how much people want it from the person who's already got it and how much they negotiate between themselves. An example from the extreme end of the spectrum: the domain "eBet.com" was reportedly sold privately for $1.3 million dollars this year. (see this list) Maybe I could have negotiated a lower price with these people, but I was so amazed that it might actually work for $350 that I just went for it. According to this census inference tool, there might be 300 people named 'Patrick Burns' in the US alone, so . . . you get the picture. I'm sure if you got those people in a room together and started auctioning it off, I think it would sell for a lot more than $350. (That's what the guy selling to me tried to do, I assume. I guess he didn't get through to a lot of people, or they assumed he was spamming.) There's certainly interest on some level -- patburns.com, pat-burns.com, patrick-burns.com, patrick-burns.net, patrickburns.net, patrickburns.org, patrickburns.biz are all already registered. Of course, it's just a name. It's either worthless or valuable depending on how you use it. To answer your question, I might have paid too much, I might have gotten it for a steal. Depends on your perspective, and depends on if I make good use of it. Domain names are certainly losing some meaning in the age of social media, and Google is also improving it's ranking algorithm to favor quality content and quality backlinks over perfect domain name keyword matches . . . but. Whatever. It's easy to say, remember, and spell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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