Beware of the “Must-Have Appraisal” Scam
Beware of a scam going on by potential buyers of your domain names. If you get someone who is very interested, and then after a couple emails says he must have an appraisal, he may be scamming you. You’ll know it if he forcefully suggests an appraiser that is not one of the biggies. He could have a deal with the appraiser and have no intention of buying your domain.
A friend of mine ran into a guy like this, did some research and realized that he was indeed pulling a scam. He’s been reported to the FBI.
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The same thing happened to me. I posted in one of the domain forums about an appraisal and he sent me an email interested in buying it. The price was ok. I said we could do it, but he said he needed an appraisal. It started smelling bad though (if both of you agree on a price, why do you need an apprasal for, right?).
So guys, beware. Scammers are getting out there.
Gonzalo
I recently fell victim to a variation of this scam and decided my form of revenge would be www.DomainAppraisalScam.com(almost fully developed).
Just found this thread now and agree, after searching the web, there wasn’t really a home-base for info on this scam.
Hoping to do my part to educate the domain seller and expose the scammers!