If you have recently received emails from a company called ‘Domain Trade LLC’ then you need to just delete this email because its nothing more than a Pure Scam. These companies keep scanning the whois records and fetch email address of the website owners and then send offers for the domains which really seem to be very high. Often website or domain owners would feel that these offers are really awesome and they would revert back. Domain owners when are emailed with offers with 200-300 times their investments would feel that this is one of the best way to make money and when the other party is recommending 3 different domain appraisal companies why not give it a try and wait if the domain is really sold for thousands of dollars.
Here is a copy of the email they send you :
Dear sir,
We are interested to purchase your domain MOBILEPHONEWORLD.INFO and offer between 50% and 65% of the appraised value.
We accept appraisals from companies such ashttp://www.sedo.com/
http://top-name.net/
http://max-apprais.com/If you already have an appraisal please forward it to us.
Please let us know whether you are interested. Upon review of your valuation and in case of an agreement we send payments via PayPal for amounts less than $2,000 and via Escrow.com for amounts above $2,000, as well as further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.
We appreciate your business,
Domain Trade LLC
Every Domainer would have heard about Sedo.com which is the worlds biggest domain name marketplace and seeing this URL in the email address they would feel that this is quite a legit offer and would try to check out with sedo.com for the Domain Appraisal Pricing which starts at 29$ for the basic package and 49$ for the Premium Domain Appraisal. Since the prices look quite hefty the domainer would check out the second link provided in the email which offers a Domain Appraisal for around 20$. Since the email states that you can get it done from any of the 3 listed companies generally people would opt for the other two cheaper options.
Once you would have applied for a Domain Appraisal you would obviously get a report from them but which is useless since the Domain Trade LLC company wont respond you back. The main intention of theirs was not to Buy your domain name but to sell their Appraisal services and this is already completed.
The following is the list of domain names which are used by these Scammers who approach people and recommend their services with a tricky style, hence make sure that you Report those emails as SPAM whenever you find them which can save up money of other domain owners.
List of websites you should avoid :
macez.com
fleos.com
top-name.net
max-apprais.com
pddomains.com
accuratedomains.com
theonlinebrokerage.com
easynamesale.com
eliteinvestment.net
toughguy.net
phreaker.net
domainexplorer.org
Sharat Jaswal says
I did receive few of those emails myself. And i did reply to one email as i was myself interested in selling that particular website. However i never heard from them again.
Now that i know their story, i will take care in future. Thanks!
BTW, i just wrote about a new domain scam on my blog as well. Some company mailed me an offer for domain priced at $199.95. I already owned that domain, yet it was listed on their site for instant sale. I received 4-5 such emails and only 1 turned out to be domain owned by me. So possible mixup or probably just another scam.
Chris Manning says
I to have received emails from these crack pots. Are these companies listed with the BBB? I’d sure like to be apart of the group which foiled their strategy for making a fraudulent income…
What ever happened to making an honest buck?
http://WWW.MYCOMPANY.INFO?
From: Domain Trade LLC (domain.trd@gmail.com)
Sent: Wed 9/23/09 1:08 AM
To: XXX
Dear sir,
we are interested to purchase your domain MYCOMPANY.INFO and offer between 50% and 65% of the appraised value.
We accept appraisals from companies such as
http://www.sedo.com/
http://top-name.net/
http://max-apprais.com/
If you already have an appraisal please forward it to us.
Please let us know whether you are interested. Upon review of your valuation and in case of an agreement we send payments via PayPal for amounts less than $2,000 and via Escrow.com for amounts above $2,000, as well as further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.
We appreciate your business,
Domain Trade LLC
Amit Bhawani says
Yes thats a SCAM, just mark those emails as SPAM and help others.
Evelyn Tribole MS RD says
Thank you for posting info on this scam–I just received the exact email for one of my domains. I was suspicious because they did not provide a company website with website contact info for Domain Trade LLC.
Sanjai says
Amit,
Valuable info. Thanks for sharing.
bobit says
great post, i got same type mails several times
virtual piano says
I got them too. Just let it flew!
krishna mohan says
we are interested to know more about domain trades,appraisals and online business.
please post more articles on these issues.
can you please kindly send us your contact tel#
To our mail: director_mohan@redifmail.com
NetworkSolutions Review says
The sites which are in the blacklist are some good premium ones, so one can get easily scammed. Need to be careful and do some diligence before talking about a deal with anyone.