Member Brokencode - domain thief and scammer

[Credit]

Last week (Wednesday) I purchased 4 nnnn.com domains from the member Brokencode.

Because he seemed rather desperate to sell, I was somewhat suspicious and convinced him to push the domains into my account before sending a payment. I then updated the thread expressing my concerns and asking the mods to verify his authenticity.

His PayPal email address was dominios@GRUPOITNE.COM while the actual ownership group was GRUPOITNET.COM

He explained that the other PayPal account was simply limited, and actually sent me multiple emails from @GRUPOITNET.COM, which confirmed that he had the access to the account.

I apologized to him and asked him to wait until the morning, to see if the mods or anyone else would say/suggest something. In the morning the thread was closed and I, assuming that it was closed with good reason, went ahead and sent the payment.

Just saw in my GD control panel that the domains are on hold..pending dispute. (No notice regarding this was sent from GD)

Contacted the dispute department, they said it will take about two weeks to resolve.

Any suggestions/comments will be appreciated.

Members, please beware.

[Melly]

That stinks. Did you do a chargeback via paypal?

[CureCancer]

another case of aholes harming and damaging our free trade

[zip]

Was about to close $2.8K deal with brokercode today. Thanks for the heads up.

[stock_post]

That stinks. Did you do a chargeback via paypal?

Looks like he never paid for the domains - He is smarter than our usual crowd

---------- Post added at 01:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:36 PM ----------

Was about to close $2.8K deal with brokercode today. Thanks for the heads up.

You are lucky... Thank Credit

[zip]

You are lucky... Thank Credit

I PM'ed Admin asking to check brokencode's IP in the morning as there was a thread about his a/c being compromised in past. Meanwhile this fella meets my target price for LLL.com and keeps insisting on paypal and doing everything "quick". I wasn't going to shell out $2.8K via Paypal anyway but I did another search on his username and to my luck Credit's thread popped up. That was the last that broke camel's back and the guy went immediately offline in Skype. Thanks Credit, you are the man.

[mvl]

... and actually sent me multiple emails from @GRUPOITNET.COM, which confirmed that he had the access to the account ...

Being able to send emails from an emailaddress unfortunately doesn't prove anything. The fact is that you can choose an arbitrary 'From' address when you send an email. I can send mail to you from osama[at]whitehouse.gov, from any emailaddress from any of your domains or even from non-existing tlds like admin[at]hotels.baghdad.

If you want to know if someone controls a certain email address, you should send him an email and ask for a reply quoting the email you sent. But be careful, this only proves that someone controls a certain email address, not that he is the actual owner.

[Credit]

Being able to send emails from an emailaddress unfortunately doesn't prove anything. The fact is that you can choose an arbitrary 'From' address when you send an email. I can send mail to you from osama[at]whitehouse.gov, from any emailaddress from any of your domains or even from non-existing tlds like admin[at]hotels.baghdad.

If you want to know if someone controls a certain email address, you should send him an email and ask for a reply quoting the email you sent. But be careful, this only proves that someone controls a certain email address, not that he is the actual owner.

Did that. Sent an email to the domainadmin@grupoitnet.com asking verification and he replied.

Even tried calling them, but the number was busy/disconnected.

[draggar]

If you want to know if someone controls a certain email address, you should send him an email and ask for a reply quoting the email you sent. But be careful, this only proves that someone controls a certain email address, not that he is the actual owner.

Even easier - ask them to change something in the WhoIs - but as you said, this only verifies that they have control over the domain.

[zip]

So how is that possible then to know the guy is genuine? A real domain owner could turn up and raise dispute with registrar at any time, even when Escrow is over and you enjoy your new purchase. Any tips?

---------- Post added at 02:11 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:08 PM ----------

I'll list domains offered by brokencode. Hope this helps someone else doing search here b4 buying:

BQG.COM 3/14/2011
BRJ.COM 6/29/2010
CGF.COM 2/23/2011
CJG.COM 12/3/2010
CJZ.COM 3/15/2011

These were aggressively priced @ $3.5K a pop.

[Biggie]

http://www.dnforum.com/f16/package-n...ad-413713.html

[Credit]

That stinks. Did you do a chargeback via paypal?

Yes, started dispute resolution process and referred this thread.

[copper]

I PM'ed Admin asking to check brokencode's IP in the morning as there was a thread about his a/c being compromised in past. Meanwhile this fella meets my target price for LLL.com and keeps insisting on paypal and doing everything "quick". I wasn't going to shell out $2.8K via Paypal anyway but I did another search on his username and to my luck Credit's thread popped up. That was the last that broke camel's back and the guy went immediately offline in Skype. Thanks Credit, you are the man.

$2.8K for LLL.com
That should tell you it's not right instantly.

[Credit]

PayPal closed the case because:

"Our investigation into your claim is complete. As stated in our User
Agreement, the claims process only applies to the shipment of goods. It
does not apply to complaints about the attributes or quality of goods
received. Therefore, we are unable to reverse this transaction or issue a
refund."

I just lost low x,xxx ....... any suggestions? :(

[bmugford]

Paypal did the same with me in the past. Since then I refuse to keep any money in my Paypal account. The are basically enabling the sales of stolen goods then telling you tough luck.

Paypal tries to act like a bank without any of the normal protections or safeguards of an actual bank. The way they handle this is BS.

Brad

PayPal closed the case because:

"Our investigation into your claim is complete. As stated in our User
Agreement, the claims process only applies to the shipment of goods. It
does not apply to complaints about the attributes or quality of goods
received. Therefore, we are unable to reverse this transaction or issue a
refund."

I just lost low x,xxx ....... any suggestions? :(

[INFORG]

If you used a credit card to fund payPal, you can reverse the transaction through them. PayPal will likely suspend your account though.

PayPal closed the case because:

"Our investigation into your claim is complete. As stated in our User
Agreement, the claims process only applies to the shipment of goods. It
does not apply to complaints about the attributes or quality of goods
received. Therefore, we are unable to reverse this transaction or issue a
refund."

I just lost low x,xxx ....... any suggestions? :(

[mjnels]

PayPal closed the case because:

"Our investigation into your claim is complete. As stated in our User
Agreement, the claims process only applies to the shipment of goods. It
does not apply to complaints about the attributes or quality of goods
received. Therefore, we are unable to reverse this transaction or issue a
refund."

I just lost low x,xxx ....... any suggestions? :(

if you paid with a credit card, do a chargeback directly through them. most of the time they will side with the consumer. if you didnt fund the paypal payment using a credit card then you are out of options. always, always always use a credit card when paying for anything via paypal.. this leaves you 2 courses of action.. 1) dispute with paypal, which they will always deny for intangible goods. 2) dispute directly through credit card which is almost always your best bet.

---------- Post added at 04:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:20 PM ----------

PayPal will likely suspend your account though.

this is no longer true. they used to have this policy back in the very early days and got sued because of it. all buyers have credit card chargeback rights and they now acknowledge this...

[zip]

Credit, check your PM.