There is another new domain name appraisal scam being emailed to thousands of domain name owners. The email may first appear to be someone interested in buying your domain name but upon you replying, you will get a email that questions the valuation. This is where the scam comes into play, as they own the "appraisal" company and once they get you to pay for the appraisal you never hear from them again. They never truly held interest in purchasing the domain name.
The domain name used in this email is from TheDomainInvestors.com . The name used at the start often the email address varies but this time included hopkins@thedomaininvestors.com .
The initial email looks similar to this:
Hello,
We buy and sell domains and web pr®jects. What is your price for the domain?
If you have other domains for sale feel free to send your list.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Stephen Hopkins
Vice President
Intellectual Investment Strategies LLC
If you were to reply, the second email will look similar to this:
It’s a big risk to proceed without professional valuation. I already spoke
to industry experts and they prohibited me to do business without
valuation..
Without manual valuation nobody will buy. You’ll sit on your domain for
years in this case, paying renewal fees to your registrar. Just think about
it. So sooner or later, you’ll have to obtain an appraisal. Why waste time
now?
As a seller, you can use a valuation certificate to sell names to other
buyers. I cannot do the same because I don’t keep control over your domain.
I’m still interested in your domain. Hope you’ll change your position. I
simply don’t want to take additional risks.
Thank you for understanding. I’m looking forward to do business with you.
The email will include links to domain name appraisal services they own. Again, they are really not interested in your domain name, they simply want to get you to pay for a domain name appraisal and you will never hear from them again. NEVER pay for a domain name appraisal because somebody is interested in your domain name. Never! You can read more stories right here on DotWeekly.com about other domain appraisal scams that I have written about in the past. This will show you this is not something new and happens often.
Greg from DropZone.us
Thanks for the heads up Jamie. My wife just got this email and because of the information that you have provided I was able to quickly answer her questions about this email.
I became the knowledgeable hero but you really deserve all of the credit
Jamie Zoch
Glad I could be of some help Greg! You still had to be wise enough to read DotWeekly or do a search… so you still get credit
vbb
I got this mail a month ago..but the concerned domain was less than 60 days old,so i didn’t reply.Now i come to know..this was a SCAM..great and thanks for info..I was going to reply after some days!
KD
I just got one this morning lol.
Shaun Dunne
I just got this email, did a quick search on the company name, hit this article, just replied with a link to this article saying, if you want to buy my domain it’ll be $1 billion dollars paypal only. Thanks.
Tan Shagar
i THOUGHT it was odd that 3 days after making a domain, someone would offer to buy
thank you very much!
Tan Shagar
LOL Shaun Dunne, I asked for $3,000 + his wife
Lori
I just got this email this morning. In fact I had listed several .com domains for sale with contact info, so I didn’t think it odd. I’m glad I checked them out. Your post in first ranked in Google when I placed “Intellectual Investment Strategies LLC” in the search line.
Good to know since I had already replied to them. Thank you!
Pandarian
Got the sae email today for my Dictionary info domain. I started Google and found this. Thanx for the pre caution
jay
just got an email from them today…
thanks guys!
very glad i googled the sender first.
Jeffrey Fisher
I was not as lucky! I paid out some money (less than $200) and I’m now in the process of requesting a refund Usually I pick up on these thing!!
At any rate I have immediately requested a refund and I’ve paid via Paypal so I will go through what ever I have to do to get the funds reversed.
Not fun!
Jeff
Steve
Got mine today. Lucky i always google when things seem to good to be true. Cheers for the heads up. I think i’ll have some fun with the guy a bit now.
Jamie Zoch
@Jeff,
Sorry to hear that. Keep us informed if you get the refund and how Paypal handles it.
Steve
Wow, had me going till I checked his site thedomaininvestors.com then found this page.
Thanks for the heads up!
Tommy
Looks like everyone here has received the email and did the same thing – googled and ended up here. Now I wonder if it’s worth answering.
rj
I just went thru the whole string of emails from this sleezy ploy , what a scabby move . I should use there service then do a chargebcak , people do not realize when an online merchant has a merchant account ,,the customer is KING , if you get scammed or did not get the service you ordered then simply call your card company and do a CHARGE BACK , your bank will do it 99% of the time ,, remeber always pay online with a CC , then you are safe .
rj
Mr Fisher ,show paypal this forum page , they will get your money back .Do not stand for internet scammers !!!
Rock
MR FISHER PLEASE POST THE NAME OF THE COMPANY THAT CHARGED YOU THE $200 HERE OR EMAIL IT TO US ,WE ACTUALLY HAVE FUN SHUTTING SCAMMERS DOWN
richardebizman@gmail.com
Mohit
I figured this out from initial communication. Just needed a confirmation.