On Domain Name Scammers.

I’m trying to sell “mylifeinpixels.com” to raise some extra cash. I’ve owned it for about five years, but haven’t actively used it for the last two.

My friend Steve commented on how cool the domain was. That sparked my curiosity so I ran it through a few free an paid appraisal services. The results were mixed between $1,000 and $2,100. The biggest negative is that it’s a lot to type.

I started out listing on eBay but pulled it after 6 days of almost no activity. After some research I came across Afternic and decided to list. Feedback about Afternic around the web was mixed. Unfortunately domain name sale is a shady business, second only to porn and boner pills. Regardless, I decided to list for a cheap $1,000.

They next day I recieved a email from “Driscoll”:

BN Technologies
Aug 7, 2007 2:21 AM
Subject: mylifeinpixels.com

Hello,

We’ve found your name listed for sale..

If you are still interested in seling please send your quote and
I will consider it with my partners.

Main direction of our business is software development and technical support.

Domain names is not our business but a new way to earn on reselling. We are going to buy domains to resell them at higher prices since we have a large database of clients interested in good domains.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,
James Driscoll
CEO
BN Technologies

I was really excited. Being a n00b, I asked Driscoll to make me an offer:

Thanks for contacting me. I am still interested in selling mylifeinpixels.com.
It has appraised between $1,000 and $2,1000 dollars (varies between appraisal
services). I’d sell it for something in between those two figures.

Driscoll:

I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals. So I
cannot accept appraisal from each and every site. I will only accept
appraisals from independent appraisal companies I know and trust.

Fair enough. When buying a used car you should always kick the tires and take it to a mechanic.

I have an appraisal from afternic and one from leapfish. You contacted
me through afternic,
so I assume you trust them.

Here is where it gets interesting:

I thought about several companies including Afternic.com, but found very
interesting information:

http://www.igoldrush.com/links3.htm
Capsule Review: After lots of complaints, Afternic is no longer a
recommended service. We will re-review the service in the near future.

I also found the following information about them

http://www.out-law.com/page-1630

So Afternic.com is NOT acceptable.

Reading responses from experienced sellers I was impressed by one reply:
“Many Internet users are not smart enough and popular domain brokers are
using this fact to make money. They offer them cheap appraisal services.
But if their customers would have something in their heads they’d understand
experts could not make a professional research for $15-$20. These appraisals
are made by machines. Easy money for such appraisers as
http://www.Afternic.com and several other major brokers that offer cheap
auto-generated appraisals. In my eyes, all services under $50-$55 are not
manual and the results are generated by special scripts. I don’t trust
auto-generated appraisals.”

The same is true for GoDaddy and SEDO. Their services are not manual.
They are just collecting money using their well-known names.

I heard many appraisal companies often overpriced domains. So I cannot
accept appraisal from each and every site.

To avoid mistakes I asked about reputable appraisers in a forum. Several
experts recommended me DomainSecondHands’ appraisal service, http://www.domainsecondhand.com/appraisal.htm as a fast, accurate and
non-expensive manual service.

Oh snap!

One look at domainsecondhand.com and I knew I was being scammed. Would you give them your credit card. Curious, I googled Mark Driscoll and BN technologies but found nothing. That would be too easy.

Looking at the email header:

Received: from diamondoji4lze (ppp128-18.dialup.mtu-net.ru [62.118.128.18])

What CEO is using a dial-up account from Russia? Interesting…. A lucky search for “diamondoji4lze” turned up lots of hits, coincidentally threads all about people being scammed over domain sales. In fact, the first two results yielded a copy of nearly the same email I had received from Driscoll

From user “metals” on Sedo.com:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3rd email from a scam artist
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I wanted to suggest you Afternic.com as an appraiser, but discovered that
this service was not manual. Moreover they have too many complaints.

I found the following info about Afternic at
http://www.igoldrush.com/links3.htm
“Capsule Review: After lots of complaints, Afternic is no longer a
recommended service. We will re-review the service in the near future.”

So Afternic.com is NOT acceptable.

Reading responses from experienced sellers I was impressed by one reply:
“Many Internet users are not smart enough and popular domain brokers are
using this fact to make money. They offer them cheap appraisal services. But
if their customers would have something in their heads they’d understand
experts could not make a professional research for $15-$20. These appraisals
are made by machines. Easy money for such appraisers as
http://www.Afternic.com and several other major brokers that offer cheap
auto-generated appraisals. In my eyes, all services under $50-$55 are not
manual and the results are generated by special scripts. I don’t trust
auto-generated appraisals.”

The same is true for GoDaddy and SEDO. Their services are not manual. They
are just collecting money using their well-known names.

I heard many appraisal companies often overpriced domains. So I cannot
accept appraisal from each and every site.

Busted! Just for good measure, here is the same email on Namepros.com.

Needless to say I haven’t heard from Driscoll. I assume he’s moved on to an easier mark.

Updated September 10th

While reviewing my referral logs today, I noticed that since this posting, my story now comes up as the third result in google for “domainsecondhand” and “domainsecondhand scam.”

Awesome.

After more digging, the emails are alleged to originate from domainsecondhand.com themselves. The scam is to get people to get their domain appraised there, then the “buyer” mysteriously vanishes.