CEO of Pool.com Gives Advice To Prevent Getting Scammed

Posted on | April 14, 2008 | 1 Comment

I wrote a post a while ago about domain scammers, but just recently ran into a pretty good advice post that the CEO of Pool.com, Richard, gave to Namepros readers on a “Help Pool.com (fraudulent)” thread.

So, how can you protect yourself from these scammers? Here are a few ideas.

First, if they only just got the name themselves (check the whois data) then you might question why they are flipping it so quickly? Yes, domain names are in great demand and appreciate but you wouldn’t think to get a good return on investment in just a few days.

Second, consider asking for all the information that we would ask for to confirm their identity and use that information to contact them directly. If they are a legitimate seller you would think they would be willing to establish direct contact. And that would include a phone number. At least with a phone number you have some recourse although these guys can always buy temporary mobile phones.

Third, use a reputable third party to broker the deal and insist that identities are verified.

Fourth, ask for the domain history. Who did they buy it from and when. And then perhaps you can follow up with the previous owner just to make sure they were in fact the owner and conducted a legitimate sale. On our case, for example, Pool can verify how long the account has been a customer and if we notice a “quick flip” we can investigate as well. Believe me it is to all our advantage that we stop some of these guys.

The unfortunate part of the message is that the legal authorities are not much help. We launched an investigation on one similar occasion that was a much bigger use of fraudulent data and we got nowhere in catching the guy.

So, the best offence is indeed a good defence! Buyer beware, and do some homework before you write the cheque.

Cheers

Richard

Always best to do some sort of research on the seller/buyer…

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Comments

One Response to “CEO of Pool.com Gives Advice To Prevent Getting Scammed”

  1. Chris
    April 17th, 2008 @ 1:18 am

    Pool’s CEO posted that because of a scam, where POOL is taking domains to get their PROFIT back.
    The scheme is easy: a scammer buys with a stolen credit card a name at pool, he resells it to a domainer, when the payment for the domain is backcharged to POOL, they take away the domain from the buyer that becomes the scammed person. It takes the money of the original auction for the domain + $10 for the person to get his domain back, he would end up paying it twice price. So basically, Pool.com have people scammed because they’re doing nothing against that. And when the domain is taken back, they have no loss, so they don’t go after the scammer. ISN’T THAT PERFECT BUSINESS ??
    POOL.com : we watch you, and this information is gonna be passed up through all the internet, you have to change something in your business!

    Chris’s last blog post..Belgium coupon code at Eurodns

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