Beware Of Paypal Orders From Email Addresses From Another.com And Rock.com ??? - DNForum - Domain Sales, Domain Forum, Domain Appraisals, Domain Registrars

**ComScout.com** · 11-17-2003, 06:51 AM

Hi People,
I got this suspicious email ( a few) regarding Popmusik.net and UsamaBinLaden.net (no offence)

This guy saying he is from ROCK.com saying he wants my names and is willing to Pay $2500 each for them.

Anyhow, I am very wary of this guy, becuase in 3 different emails his surname is different.

I get the funny feeling he might well pay for the names through paypal.com, then I transfer the names to him and then he writes an email to paypal.com saying someone fraudulently used his account or credit card, thus getting the names for free AND his money back.

I have been burnt by this trick before, not for domain names, but by people ordering Traffic/Hits off my website ineedtraffic.com, the reason I got burnt, is because being based in Australia (not America USA) I am not covered by fraudulent transactions.

I would like to warn non-usa paypal account holders to be very wary of this ingenius scheme.

I have included a letter I wrote to Paypal.com about this trick at the bottom of this post, and also the emails I just recieved from this "Anthony" from Rock.com

I would like to know if anyone else has had similar emails or have been ripped off.

I am still waiting to hear from "Anthony" from rock.com regarding the sales, I will keep you informed! if it is genuine.

I also got a little suspicious when he asked me for an appraisal from certain websites and not from Afternic.com, maybe he owns the other domain websites and the emails are a form of spam? So that way I will spend money getting appraisals at his websites.

I am definately not stupid!

Be sure to read the emails below

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

RE: POPMUSIK.NET

Hi there,

After doing a keyword search on Google.com I have found your domain for sale. I prefer to make all deals direct without domain brokers so I've decided to contact you via email. (I've found your email address via WHO IS).

Is this domain still available for sale? I'm interested in purchasing.

If it's still available for sale please email me your asking price.

If you have other good domains for sale feel free to email me the full list with asking prices.

If I can afford your domain I'll contact you. Please don't send me multiple emails if you don't receive a reply from me and keep my email address confidential.

Just email me your asking price. If I decide to buy I'll contact you as soon as possible.

I can send you money via PayPal. If you don't have a PayPal account I can send you the funds by a certified check.

Best Regards,

Anthony Challis
awhitts@rock.com

http://www.Rock.com

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

William

I don't want to overpay. Do you have an appraisal certificate for your name? I need an independent and professional valuation. Please note that I don't trust free or unprofessional appraisals. I don't want to overpay. It can be an appraisal certificate from www.GreatDomains.com or www.DomainSultan.com or HollywoodDomains.com. It does not matter because I trust all these companies.

After I receive your appraisal I can send you money via PayPal. If you don't have a PayPal account I can send you the funds by a certified check.

If you wish we can use escrow.com to secure the transaction.

Looking forward to your reply.

Best Regards,

Anthony
awhitts@rock.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------

William

Afternic tend to overprice valuations in favor of the seller in my experience - this usually results in more sellers going to them for appraisals, hence their reason for doing this.

It is your choice though - if that's all you have, then I can take a look at it if you like.

Look forward to your response.

Anthony Whitts.
awhitts@rock.com

N.B: My name is actually Anthony Whitts (not Challis) - we have an Anthony Challis working here and we are still ironing out a few bugs in the signature line on the emails when it comes to individual accounts.

http://www.Rock.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

RE: USAMABINLADEN.NET

Subject: Interested in UsamaBinLaden.net

Hi there,

I'm a domain investor. After doing a keyword search I have found your
domain for sale.
I prefer to make all deals direct without domain brokers so I've decided to
contact you via email.
(I've found your email address via WHO IS)

Is this domain still available for sale ?

If it's still available for sale please email me your asking price.

If you have other good domains for sale feel free to email me the full list
with asking prices.

If I can afford your domain I'll contact you. Please don't send me multiple
emails if you don't receive a reply from me and keep my email address
confidential.
Just email me your asking price. If I decide to buy I'll contact you as
soon as possible.

Do you have a PayPal account ?

Best Regards,

Anthony Griffin
angriffin@rock.com

http://www.Rock.com

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Rico** · 11-17-2003, 07:20 AM

This is a scam.
I got several emails from this guy too, asking for an appraisal.
Luckily i was warnt for this guy on other forums.
This person is a thief.

**cyphix** · 11-17-2003, 07:32 AM

Thanks very much for the info!

http://www.dnforum.com/t43624

Guess I can throw that out the window.... got the exact same email as you did, I haven't heard back from hime yet either. I was suspicious at first, but since the inital email didn't ask for an appraisal I thought it was genuine.

Oh well....

**wvspecialkvw** · 11-17-2003, 09:00 AM

I too got the email from Anthony Griffin from Rock.com...
Someone needs to stop this punk....

**Duke** · 11-17-2003, 09:23 AM

He is spamming everyone. He is also not from rock.com. That is a free email address and anyone can get one. His aim is to get you to buy worthless appraisals from his site thinking that will get you a big sale. Just another con artist.

**.com.net.org** · 11-17-2003, 09:24 AM

Email you got from www.rock.com is scamming to sell their 'professional appraisal' certificate.

btw, wrong forum ? :-D

**doubledee999** · 11-17-2003, 11:30 AM

lol,

I got one this morning from this dink.

Banned: Delete · 11-17-2003, 01:13 PM

I hate that. Somebody did that to me once on a domain I had. I'll tell you a trick. Contact your registrar and say you did no authorize the transfer. They will give it back to you. I had the same situation when somebody ganked me about a month later i got a paypal reversal. The domain had already been transferred to godaddy and within 30 days the domain was back in my account at network solutions. (and never pay for an apprasal. If they want it appraised have them pay for it)

**Chosen** · 11-17-2003, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by william sherman

I have been burnt by this trick before, not for domain names, but by people ordering Traffic/Hits off my website ineedtraffic.com, the reason I got burnt, is because being based in Australia (not America USA) I am not covered by fraudulent transactions.

www.ineedtraffic.com

It will be interesting to see what paypal answer to this.
If non US-citizens are not covered by fraudulent transactions, then paypal is of no use.

Are there other solutions?

Thanks

**Steen** · 11-17-2003, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by william sherman

I would like to warn non-usa paypal account holders to be very wary of this ingenius scheme.

I wouldnt call it ingenius :-D

**seeker** · 11-19-2003, 01:53 PM

I just got an 'offer' from this Anthony Griffin guy as well.

Beware people!

Thanks for the warning posted here, I saved myself some serious time.
Or should I take him for a ride?
Should I tell him that I am asking $1.5m for the domain?

lol

**ComScout.com** · 12-01-2003, 09:13 AM

**ComScout.com** · 12-11-2003, 08:35 PM

Bump! Anyone else hit by this scam?

**Sharpy** · 12-11-2003, 09:32 PM

These guys are all tied in together with allfordomains. They've been doing this for a couple of years. I like to play along with them for my own amusement.

Here's my lates from a new hussy, Tina Oliver

Return-path: <tinas.mail@xxxxxxxxxxx.com>
Hi There

I am a reseller of domain names, I have been asked by my client to purchase a domain name for their new venture. We have 4 names that we like and yours is the one most suited I am hoping the details I have on the domain name are correct and up to date and that I have the correct contact for this name.

Please could you first advise me if the name is still owned by yourself and if it is still for sale. If the answer to both these questions is yes please could you provide me with an asking price.

Regards

Tina Oliver

Now I've seen this form letter several times under different names, griffin, kennedy etc so I am 100% sure it's a scam, but reply professionally anyway:

Hello Tina, and thanks for your interest in SharpWebs.com. Yes I own it. Yes it is for sale. No, I do not have an asking price in mind. I am assuming as a domain reseller, you need to realize some profit on the transaction as well as I, and ultimately satisfy your client.

Make an offer and I will consider it. Should we proceed, I accept Paypal or will use escrow.com with the purchasing party paying all escrow fees. Should we proceed and use paypal, the buyer will send funds after which the name will be transferred to you or any third party you designate. References for myself are available if required.

If you wish an appraisal on the name there are many 3rd party domain appraisal organizations that could provide you one at a minimal cost. (bet she hasn't had that suggestion before lol)

Thanks again,?

now just sit back and wait for the suggestion of three name appraisal sites , one or more of which is hers, but how will she handle my suggestion that she get an appraisal if she wants one

Her reply:

Hi Bruce

Thank you for the reply, my buyer would really like to move this along as quickly as possible, payment would be in the form of a Bankers Cheque, Bank Transfer or Paypal, we do not deal with Western Union or Bid Pay, as you have stated Paypal this would not be a problem. Has the name ever been used, if so is it listed on any search engines and which key words were used?

My buyer is willing to pay $2000 more than a professional appraisal which I do believe will come out nearer to $11,000. My client has approached me to do the work for him and find a suitable name, it would be down to myself to obtain an appraisal, something I am not in a position to do for two simple reasons. The first is that I have 4-5 names on the go at anyone time and it would prove costly. Secondly I have been caught out twice when the name came back around $10,000 more than the asking price so the seller pulled out and sold the name to someone else and I was left out of pocket. The recognized services for my client are the professional ones that provide online proof like:

www.valuations4u.com

www.greatdomains.com or

www.backoftheenvelope.com/

Your domain name is first choice and we would like to go with it but I guess the decision now is up to you...

Regards

Tina

Oooooo the decision is up to me.

I reply:

OK great I'll check it out, Thanks. I'll get back to you ASAP.

Are you under a time deadline with your client? What will they be using SharpWeb.com for? (I misspell the name on purpose)

Her reply:

Dear Bruce,

Great, yes get the appraisal ASAP and we can finalize this major deal. I assume PayPal is still OK? Are there any restrictions on the amount of a PayPal transaction? (oooo the hook!)

Regards

Tina

All this for a measly scam of $20 lol

My next reply, I get my own felonious appraisal, but with good reason.

Hi Tina, it seems that www.greatdomains.com does not do appraisals.

www.backoftheenvelope.com/ is way too expensive, considering domain appraisals are like figure skating judge scores lol.

www.valuations4u.com is cheap but they've only registered that domain name in November so I'm not sure why you would list them as reputable? Maybe you were thinking of someone else?

Anyway I went and had one done at my own appraiser, DNA, and this is what they came up with. http://www.257.org/SharpWebsApprasial.htm

You were a little high on your appraisal but still a good value. I would be willing to sell it to you, as a fellow domain reseller, at the low level of $5k. What ever you can get for it over that is your business.

I guess the decision now is up to you...

Cheers

It's been almost 24 hours, do ya think I've lost my major deal?She still hasn't replied

Hehehe

Her ip addy just happens to be from the exact city that www.valuations4u.com's whois shows lol

EDIT: She replied lol

Hi Bruce

Many thanks for this but my client will not accept any appraisal unless it was from one of the mentioned, although Valuations 4U are fairly new online they do have a bricks and mortar business which has been in operation for quite sometime,(what? people walk in off the street to get their domains appraised??) they used to operate under another name but they are expanding out into other area's. I know all this because several magazines ran an article recently and the team behind them are very good.

I have taken a look at the site you used and there is just no way we can accept anything from them, it looks like it is run by someone sitting at home on their computer with absolutely no experience in the industry... *sorry*

Tina

"it looks like it is run by someone sitting at home on their computer" ya me lol. all she had to do was check the whois on 257.org and that would have told her that.

My reply:
Hi Tina, ya I guess it does look pretty mickey mouse. It was free lol. I just don't feel like spending the money on an appraisal from anyone, as I find they are usually bogus anyway. But I guess if your client will only look at an appraisal from the ones listed I'll have to do it.

Since you said you've used them before, could you maybe send me a copy of a previous appraisal they have done for you, or point me to a url(s) where one or two are posted? I would feel allot better about it if I could see the quality of their work. I might even send a bunch of my names at the same time to be appraised if they look that good as you say. After all they do only charge $20. I wonder if they would give me a deal on 25 names if I sent them in bulk. Do you know anyone there well enough to ask for me?

Waiting to hear from you,

Cheers

I wait....

Reply:
Hi Bruce

I do not know anyone there(lol) but they do have an offer of 1 free for every 2 ordered, I bet they would give you a discount if you asked, there is a lot of business out there, they would be silly not to. For an example they do have an online one but if you would prefer a real one then http://www.valuations4u.com/appraisal/~34u1103.htm As you will notice the 34U is the domain name and the 1103 is November 2003, yours when complete will look something like sharpwebs1203
and another:
http://www.valuations4u.com/appraisal/%7Esaucy4u.htm

Best Wishes
Tina

...hmmmm what shall I send next?....

**ComScout.com** · 12-11-2003, 09:43 PM

Man that is so funny, thanks for taking the time to write and reply to my thread!

**Sharpy** · 12-11-2003, 10:08 PM

Well we've got the nigeran scam emails. I got the idea of playing along from the guys at Scamorama http://www.ladsfromlagos.com/ If you have an hour one day just pick one scam and read it through its entirety. You'll piss your pants

**Manu** · 12-12-2003, 11:33 AM

I also got a couple of offers from an Anthony @ rock.com, a whois on rock.com came up with the owner (Steve) Rock.com also provide free emails so 1+1 = 4

If you're unsure about a buyer ask them to send a cheque and you'll wait for that to clear, then transfer the names.
Alternatively ask for a Drivers License / Passport / Utility Bill to show proof of residence - all these can be used to track down someone that participates in fraudulent activities.

**ddent** · 12-14-2003, 04:39 AM

Cheques can be safe given enough time, but even that can be a bit risky IMHO.

The only safe payment method IMHO is a wire transfer.... when a sale gets into $xxxx its what I use. Why risk it?

**sasu** · 12-14-2003, 08:16 AM

I also got an email from this Anthony Griffin wanting to invest
in one of my names... also telling me to get an appraisal...

Was not going to do it and now found this thread...

sasu