NamePros: Back In 15 Minutes (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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3

I was checking in on the important NameJet thread on NamePros this afternoon when I saw a maintenance message on the website. I visited from a couple of browsers, and I saw that the site was down and it wasn’t a browser error on my end.

I reached out to NamePros CTO Paul Buonopane, and he let me know the site will be back in about 15 minutes – potentially sooner.

I am not a regular contributor on NamePros, but I am a regular reader. I shared some advice for NameJet a couple of days ago on my blog, and I strongly urge the company to have a third party audit that is shared with the public. In a press release last night, the company “confirmed that there was suspicious activity relating to certain names being sold on NameJet,” and I think bidders and sellers deserve to know the extent of this with an audit conducted by a non-stakeholder.

Update: NamePros is back up. Here’s what I am told happened: “Logs for our new backup system took up more storage than expected, and the database system shut down to prevent data loss. We’re adding more storage space, at which point the site will be back online.”

Some Advice for NameJet

Elliot Silver
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26

I have been following along the NamePros thread and article on TheDomains.com about alleged bidding irregularities at NameJet. I have also been in communication with NameJet General Manager Jonathan Tenenbaum, asking to receive updates as the company addresses the allegations and investigates the situation.

A few minutes ago, Jonathan emailed me a statement with a status update from the auction platform:

“In an effort to keep everyone current as to where we stand on this matter, I wanted to share the following update. There have been some inaccuracies and misconceptions that have been brought forth by such a spirited discussion. And it would be a challenge to respond to all of them – therefore, I want to bring the discussion back to the heart of the matter.

As stated earlier, we take the issue of shill bidding on NameJet very seriously and we are conducting a thorough investigation, keeping in mind that the integrity of our platform is of utmost importance to us. As I have said repeatedly, we do not condone shill bidding of any kind. We would never encourage, promote or otherwise be involved in any such thing and our position is clear – it is never allowed on NameJet!

In our current investigation certain auction activity has come to light that we deem questionable and a possible violation of our terms. This kind of activity is not acceptable to us and we are taking steps to deal with it. We have suspended several accounts while working through the information we have available.

I thank everyone for their patience as we work through these issues. Our goal is to best serve our customers and we are working hard to that effect.”

When it comes to auction venues and domain name marketplaces, trust is the most important component. As a NameJet customer and someone who writes about the domain investment business, I want to share some advice for NameJet:

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Beware of “Invoice Scams”

Elliot Silver
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0

I regularly use my email to discuss domain names with a variety of third parties. For over fifteen years, I must have exchanged emails with tens of thousands of different people at various entities. This morning, I received a personally addressed “invoice scam” email, and it is something people need to be mindful about.

Most spam emails I get seem to be hastily created. There may be spelling errors or the email may not really be addressed to me. This particular email was addressed to me and appeared to be from an authentic email account. The tip off for me was that the “from” address was different than the “reply to” address on the email. It was clear that the sender wanted me to think he was someone I communicated with via email at some point in time.

I did a quick search for the “from” email, and I see that I had once communicated with this entity several years ago regarding a domain name. My assumption is that this entity’s email address was hacked, and the hacker harvested

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Personal Info May Be Used When Selling a Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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0

When I am negotiating the purchase of a domain name as an investment, I might do some cursory research to learn more about the seller. If I am trying to buy a one word .com from a guy who owns a $15 million townhouse in San Francisco, I can probably forget about gradually increasing my offers by $5k every few months.

My presumption is that most buyers of domain names will also do research to discover potentially helpful information about the owner of the domain names. In fact, I would imagine the research done by buyers and their brokers may be much more than cursory information. This information can be used to determine the owner’s financial position and may also be used to establish some rapport with the domain owner.

It is probably pretty easy for someone to find out a domain owner’s personal details – like a home address. This may give a buyer a general idea about the person’s affluence. I would imagine if the domain name is owned by a company, this information may be more difficult to obtain. In general, I would imagine trying to prevent a prospective buyer from uncovering this type of information is likely a losing battle and would take a ton of time and effort.

Investigating social media is a good way for a prospective buyer to gain intel on a domain owner. Many people publish various telling

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Search Google Before Buying a Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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9

Most people do some sort of due diligence before buying a domain name. They want to make sure the domain name was not stolen and that it is being sold by its rightful owner before agreeing to buy it. There are several other things I look at when buying a domain name, and there are a variety of tools that I use to do this due diligence.

One of the easiest ways to do cursory due diligence is by using Google. I simply visit Google.com and type in the domain name. Obviously a Google search is free, and it pulls important information from a vast number of sources, many of which I may not even have considered looking at.

Some of the things I consider before buying a domain name, besides the provenance and ownership history of the domain name include:

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Your Used, Expired Domain Name Will be Bought

Elliot Silver
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7

I would encourage every business owner, non-profit organization, individual, or any other domain name owner to renew the domain names they use indefinitely. Whether a domain name was used for a commercial website, private information sharing website, or even if it was simply used as a placeholder, it will almost certainly be bought by someone after it expires.

Every day, I scan the list of domain names coming up for auction as pre-release and pending delete. There are a ton of domain names that get auctioned that seem to have no generic meaning. NameJet, GoDaddy Auctions, DropCatch.com, and other expired domain name auction venues seem to sell hundreds (or maybe even thousands) of domain names each day that had been used in the past. Some domain names are bought because the buyer wants to build a business, others are bought for investments, and others are bought to either monetize with advertising or monetize by using for SEO value. I would imagine that nearly every domain name that has been used will be bought by someone else after it expires.

The cost of a domain name renewal is very small. Most domain registrars sell their domain names for less than $15/year. This is a small amount of money when compared to the potential issues a dropped domain name could cause.

Once a domain name expires and is bought by a third party, there

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