Feb
17
Domain Scammers On The Loose. Be Safe. Here Are Ten Tips!
February 17, 2008
If you troll around the forums, you’ve probably encountered a couple threads with people claiming they’ve been scammed by a particular forum member. OK. It happens. But when MULTIPLE people are getting scammed (and when people continue doing business with these bastards even after threads have been posted about them), there has to be something going on. C’mon.
Over the past week or so there have been NUMEROUS “I got my domain jacked” threads and people claiming they lost 20+ domains. Other people come in and start saying this same person scammed them. Others come in and post threads from two weeks ago saying that they already mentioned they got scammed. That initial “I got scammed by so and so” thread should have made a light bulb turn on with the others. Oh wait… we don’t like to search and see who our buyer is.
Here are some things to look for. Although this can never work 100% with virtual items and sellers online… damnit at least do it so you don’t become scammed victim #4 or #6.
1. Check iTrader
iTrader is the first and obvious thing that should be checked. Good history? All positives? Lots of iTrader? Alright.. move on.
2. Check Reputation Points
I say check reputation points because sometimes it makes a difference. Getting tons of rep is harder than getting itrader. 10 itrader looks attractive, but if you have a lot of rep points, that is pretty impressive also. Right? Check it anyways. You don’t want to deal with someone that has 20 green itraders yet red rep.
3. Previous Threads/Posts
Look at previous threads/posts. Check out the style of their talk. dU deY tAWk LyKe Diz in thuR PozSts??!?!!?!?!? or do they talk normal? Is the person you’re dealing with writing in the same style? Proper English? Etc. These are all stuff you should look out for. I’d be hesitant to deal with someone who can’t at least use the Firefox built-in spell checker…
4. Got sites in the forum sig? Whois them.
If you’re dealing with someone and they have sites in their signature, check the who-is on them. See if the name on the who-is matches their Paypal account name or the who-is on the domain they are trying to sell. Sometimes people sell their sig links, so this doesn’t always work. But it’s a decent tip.
5. Again: If you know they own a site, WHO-IS (domain you’re trying to buy!)
There was recently a person selling LLL.us and he agreed to sell it to me for $35. I thought what a steal! Wait–I call BS. Checked the who-is and the person lived in “Hawaii.” Alrighty then… I called the number but no answer. Decided to PM a moderator and ask for the location of the IP with the logins. It was confirmed that the person was in fact living in India and NOT in Hawaii through the IP. I made it clear in the PM that if the sale wasn’t done through escrow, no way I would buy it. Never received a reply.
6. Call the who-is number
I already mentioned above about calling the number. Don’t be shy… if you plan on spending $100 on a domain, why not call just to be safe. $100 is good money that can be put to good use. Pick up the phone and call. Make sure the person you’re dealing with online is the actual owner.
7. If you’re selling the domain, go with escrow.
Escrow/Sedo are pretty safe to sell your domain. They act as a middle-man and they get BOTH–the money and domain–then send to each appropriately. Escrow is also good if you are buying. This way if the domain isn’t in the sellers control, you don’t lose your money.
8. Google their name
See what’s going on with the sellers name/username/email by running a quick Google search. Takes 3-4 seconds and you can even just check the top results and see what happens. Stuff on Digitalpoint/Namepros gets indexed so quick that if anyone dealt with the person and started a thread about it, you can find it in Google within 10-15 minutes.
9. If it’s too good to be true, it usually is
Fan.net for $500? Yeah, uhuh. I called the who-is number and asked questions. They were NOT selling this domain. I knew it. Try to sort through scams and just plain out good deals.
10. Use a credit card if buying
Sometimes using a credit card is a smart choice when buying something–especially if you have a good fraud protection program. Sadly, these are usually abused and is one of the reasons why a post like this gets started. I’m not going to get in the technical stuff with all the crap thats been going on with the charge backs recently, but if you’re buying using a credit card might be smarter in case you never receive your domain/goods.
Fweef. Made it to 10 tips. Hopefully these scammers get bit in the ass. Can’t really say much else because there’s always people going around trying to take advantage of honest people, but just try to protect yourself as much as possible. Spread the word on the tips. Seriously, some of them might make a difference in whether you get your domain or if you lose your money!
Buy your domains safely from reputable people/places. Namepros and Digitalpoint forum scams scammers aren’t worth losing your money if you can just do twenty minutes worth of research on who the person is.
Comments
4 Comments so far
Great post there, but there is the other side of domain name scammers when those I call them retards call you up and want to get the domain name for free - I have personally gotten at least 1000 calls.
They use all kind of crap story’s anyone can think of (I own over 3500 domian names and I have over 400+ domain names for sale and I no longer answer calls from those IDIOTIC pathetic so called domain name buyers that want to get the domain name for free and even then they would complain and talk crap).
You should have mentioned this side as well since scammers work both ways.
Damir
I should’ve made it more clean in the beginning, but I added it in that you can get screwed buying and selling. Lately its been the buyers doing charge backs.
Thanks for the comment!
I may be missing out, but I do not buy or sell domain names. It just does not seem worth the hassle of dealing with.
I havnt noticed much activity going on with chargebacks, I will say though that the market is becoming a bit saturated with lowballers. All in all I still love the business.