What a SCAM!!!

I am so annoyed!!! Internet scams really exist! and I fell for one!!

My brother-in-law and I discuss the Internet all the time. He’s a really big eBay fan and is always researching various things online. He bought a few domain names recently in hopes of selling them and making a profit. So pretty soon after he registered one of his new domains, he was contacted by a potential buyer. Of course he was so excited since it happened so quickly. The buyer said he needed to see an appraisal for the domain before he can make an offer and suggested a place where he could have it appraised. The website was www.easynamesale.com. He even pointed him to a forum where people were discussing having used this service so of course my brother in-law thought he was doing all of the proper research. He ended up paying for an appraisal and it came back with a great amount. The buyer was now eager to not buy it but HELP my brother-in-law sell it and he said he would just take a commission for it. I in turn, decided to get one of my domains appraised at the same place. When I was doing it something just didn’t seem right. I don’t know if it was the look of the website – not very consistent and not as professional as it could have looked. The fact that it was overseas threw me a bit. The fact that when he go his appraisal sent to him from a hotmail account with a different url in the message. This time they were referencing www.domainsecondhand.com. I didn’t listen to my gut and went ahead with it anyway.

The next day I got the appraisal back and it was for an exorbitant amount. On one hand I was so excited but on the other, it just didn’t sit right with me. I decided to do some research. UH!!! There were tons of references as to how this was a total scam!!

Here are a bunch that I found:

• http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/311/ripoff0311140.htm
• http://www.dnforum.com/f209/striking-down-easynamesale-com-thread-291335.html
• http://paulenderson.com/2007/10/12/toughguynet-domain-name-appraisal-scam/
• http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/401699-domainsecondhand-com-is-a-scam.html

I just couldn’t believe it!! I immediately called the credit card company to dispute the charge AND to have my card locked and to get a new card sent to me. I can’t believe that people have nothing better to do with their time than to scam others.

My lesson learned here was to always go with my gut instinct. If something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. I hope by writing this I will at least have saved one other person from making this same mistake. Please pass this post on to anyone who may be considering a domain appraisal or sale of their domain. Would love to hear from anyone that had a similar experience.