After listing my domain for sale in Sedo, I was contacted by someone on my email, offering me a lot of money (5000 USD) for my domain. On the same email, he mentioned that he is a businessman, and in order to avoid risk, he needs me to get an “Manual Appraisal” for the domain. This sounded suspicious already. When people offer you a lot of money, but first you have to pay a small amount, you have to suspect that they’re going to disappear after they you paid this small amount.

Since I suspected, I told him that I am not sure I’m ready to pay for a an appraisal service, and he responded that it is a must. He also referred me to a link of a bogus forum thread about domain appraisals in which they recommend a specific domain appraisal service company. At that point I started searching Google for some sentences he wrote in my email and found several blog posts warning about this scam. I also looked for the company name on the signature of the email, and found nothing.

If you got similar emails,please post them here as a comment to help people find this post in google and warn them about this scam.

_________________________________________________________________________

Here are the emails we corresponded:

_________________________________________________________________________

It’s a standard practice to show independent valuation to buyers/resellers.
Nobody will do business without it. I’m a businessman and have no intention
of changing rules which help both parties to avoid additional risks.

Of course, investors never take into account auto-generated valuations. So
manual valuation is a “must” too.

I read the following information about appraisals at:

http://www.domainexplorer.org/Archive/85162904.htm

Without the independent valuation from a trusted source we don’t spend a
penny. This is our financial policy. So our offer is just a rought estimate.
If the appraisal comes higher we are ready to offer a bit more. If it comes
lower we will discuss the price with you again.

Thank you for understanding. I’m looking forward to do business with you.

—– Original Message —–

From: Eran

To: ‘Pendzinski’

Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 4:29 PM

Subject: RE: pageslanding.com (sent 03/10/10)

I am not sure I’m ready to pay for an appraisal, but these 2 pieces of information might give us the right neighborhood:

1.      I saw that landingpages.com is on sale for $15,000.

2.      I also saw that landingpageoptimization.com was sold for $4,006.00 on May 7,2009.

I’m willing to sell these 2 domains below for $13,000 together:

pageslanding.com

alandingpage.com

Regards,

Eran.

From: Pendzinski [mailto:pendzinski@thedomaininvestors.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 10:40 AM
To: Eran
Subject: Re: pageslanding.com (sent 03/10/10)

Can you accept 5,000 USD?

Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?

Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.

Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain appraisals. Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It’s very important for me in terms of reselling too. But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources I and my partners trust.

To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies.

Please check this blog with suggestions from other sellers and buyers:

http://www.domainexplorer.org/Archive/85162904.htm

If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly.  It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% – 15% discount.
After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we’ll continue our negotiations.

What is your preferred payment method:  Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.

—– Original Message —–

From: Eran

To: pendzinski@thedomaininvestors.com

Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 1:48 AM

Subject: RE: pageslanding.com (sent 03/10/10)

Hi Frank,

I don’t have a price for it yet, I was thinking of auctioning it.

What would you be willing to pay for it ?

Regards,

Eran.

From: pendzinski@thedomaininvestors.com [mailto:pendzinski@thedomaininvestors.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2010 12:33 AM
To: eran
Subject: pageslanding.com (sent 03/10/10)

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,

Frank Pendzinski

CEO

Smart Internet Investment LLC

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