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Interesting Possible Domain Acquisition Scam Attempt

Elliot Silver
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26

Yesterday morning, I received an email that was supposedly from a person who worked at a multi-national bank, and his company wanted my help in acquiring a ccTLD domain name. The person said he had trouble getting in touch with the domain owner, and his company needed the name for an urgent project.

Based on the email’s url, it appeared to be from a person at that bank, and upon my reply, he asked me to either put him in touch with the domain owner or to negotiate on his behalf. I told him I don’t offer negotiation services, but I would try to get in touch with the owner for him and put him in touch.

I reached out to the owner via email, and I was able to get a reply from him within a few hours. I thought it was a bit strange that I could get a reply so easily but the person from the large bank couldn’t. Nevertheless, I emailed the guy from the bank to let him know I was able to get in touch with the domain owner, and he asked me to offer him up to $1 million for the domain name paid using an escrow service.

At this point, I really felt something was fishy, and I looked at the email headers to determine that the email hadn’t originated at the bank, and in fact, the url in the original email was spoofed. I again reiterated that I don’t do negotiations and I have not heard back from the guy.

I don’t know where the scam comes in with this, but it’s clear there was an attempt made. Perhaps they were going to ask me to front some money or send me a check that is in a greater amount than a deal I could strike, and I would cash it and send them the difference, which wouldn’t be noticed until the check didn’t clear, and I would be out that money. Whatever the case is, it appears that this is a new scam.

If you get an email like I received, keep in mind that it could be a scam.

Vuvuzela: World Cup Horn Trademark?

Elliot Silver
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2

Before the 2009 Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, most people outside of the African continent probably had never heard the persistent buzzing of the vuvuzela, a plastic horn that is constantly heard during soccer matches. Announcers and broadcasters have had to make big changes to compensate for the buzz, which apparently generates a sound with decibel levels greater than a chainsaw.

Because of the phenomenon, people across the world, including in the US, have taken to the vuvuzela. In fact, a guy was kicked out of Yankee Stadium the other day because he wouldn’t give up his vuvuzela.   Of course as a result of this, people have been registering vuvuzela-related domain names to capitalize on the craze.

These registrants need to be careful of their registrations, as these domain assets could potentially become liabilities for some domain registrants. According to an article in the New York Times, the vuvuzela was created by a man named Neil Van Schalkwyk after seeing a tin trumpet in a soccer match, and in 2001, he created the first plastic vuvuzela, while trademarking the word.

Interestingly, a look into the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) shows a dead trademark for the vuvuzela, which was filed for in 2005 and abandoned in 2008, according the the record.

The battle lines continue to be drawn, and it’s probably only a matter of time before domain names come under scrutiny, perhaps after the 2010 World Cup has finished. With speculation about the horn’s place in the the 2014 World Cup already taking place, this could be a playing field in which domain owners should stay away.

Alleged Domain Name Renewal Scammer Indicted

Elliot Silver
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15

There’s an article in today’s Salt Lake Tribune about an indictment against a person who allegedly created companies that allegedly tricked businesses and individuals into paying around $1.8 million for “phony renewal services” for domain names.

The Acting US Attorney in Utah sent out a press release announcing the news that a 24 count mail fraud and money laundering indictment was issued for Ronald Robert Scott of Draper, Utah. The mail fraud charges carry potential penalties of up to 20 years in jail each, and the money laundering charges potentially carry penalties of up to 10 years in jail for each charge. The indictment also seeks a return of $1,864.484.51.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune article,

The indictment alleges that Scott created two fictitious entities, DomainNameUSA.net and Netsolutions.net, and obtained mailing lists of entities throughout the nation and their domain names.

He then allegedly created invoices telling the registrants that their domain name was about to expire and asking for renewal fees ranging from $25 to $199 for periods of one to five years.

I have received plenty of official-looking letters in the mail regarding domain name renewals, but since I know my domain registrars very well, I have always thrown these letters in the trash.

From what I’ve seen in Google (searching for domain name renewal scam, there are a number of companies that send similar letters in the mail. Andrew has an article about one, PC World discusses an email-based domain renewal scam, and even CatholicWeb.com has information about something that sounds similar.

Keep in mind, as the press release further notes, “an indictment is not a finding of guilt. Defendants charged in indictments are presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty in court.“

Do Real Estate Agents Get It?

Elliot Silver
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72

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve had some good success selling geographic (city/town .com) domain names lately. In many cases, I emailed real estate agents in the area offering to sell the city or town .com domain name to them rather than to domain investors, and the response rate was horrible. In fact, I only received a couple replies in total.

Based on this, I have to ask if real estate agents get it when it comes to generic geographic domain names. The one reply that actually gave me a bit of insight was, “the domain name is too broad” which makes some sense, but considering that I hadn’t even mentioned the price, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me. If the name was cheap, why not take the broad domain name and use it for more narrow purposes?

In some cases, I’ve noticed real estate agents own some great city or town .com names, but even some of those people don’t seem to “get it.” Case in point, a Realtor who owns a bunch of town .com domain names wasn’t interested in buying one of my domain names in his area (he was the second reply with just a “no thanks”). This was a town that is listed on his website as an area he services, and he has listings in that area. When he replied that he wasn’t interested in buying, I figured he might want to sell some of his names, so I asked if he’d sell his names, and he said no to that as well.

If the guy doesn’t think the names are valuable enough to buy more of them (he didn’t even ask the price of my name), why wouldn’t he be open to offers to sell these assets that aren’t valuable enough to buy? It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

I know people either use direct navigation or search engines to research the cities and towns in which they are considering a move. A Realtor could use a .com geodomain name to supply information on real estate and town information, and it would probably rank high in the search engines for the search term. IMO, this would be good for lead generation, and it would certainly be easy to remember on a business card or yard sign.

This leads me to the question asked in the title of this post – do real estate agents get it when it comes to domain names?

What has your experience been?

Saturday Update – USA USA USA .XXX

Elliot Silver
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5

Much like most of you I assume, I am going to be watching the US soccer team today as they play Ghana in the World Cup. I played soccer for many years, and it’s amazing to see World Cup fever hit the US. I am sure it won’t last much beyond the end of the World Cup.

On to some updates:

  • People frequently ask me what types of domain names I’ve been selling lately. Over the past two months, I’ve sold a number of city .com domain names of all sizes. I am working on small margins on most of the names, but they aren’t names I would get a chance to develop, so it’s better to sell them.
  • I am away for the weekend in Cape Cod, and we passed through a number of nice towns like Mashpee, Abington, Weymouth and a few others. I also ran in the Harwich 5k this morning. Some of the geodomain names I sold in the last 2 months include Mashpee.com, Abington.com, Weymouth.com and Harwich.com.   I am keeping (and re-developing) Newburyport.com!
  • I think .XXX   is going to be very telling when it comes to gTLDs. I know it’s not just for adult sites to use, but I can’t see many others using them. The adult industry has always been at the forefront of technological advancements, and it’s going to take a strong marketing effort to get people to learn about .XXX and to adopt. I think a lot of other gTLD registries should pay close attention to how .XXX is marketed and adopted. Sure, .XXX isn’t really “needed,” but the same can probably said about any future gTLD that is introduced.

Always Have a Back-Up Plan

Elliot Silver
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2

I learned a valuable lesson this past week and want to share some advice with you based on what I learned. Everything worked out for the best, but it’s a good lesson in preparation.  

For those of you who use the services of an accountant at tax time, you probably have been asked a lot of questions about your business. I gave my accountant the Domainer Tax Guide, and he found it very helpful since my business is not the traJditional bricks and mortar business that he usually represents.

Last week, I had a meeting with a company about one of my domain names, and because of the nature of the proposal, i needed some tax advice before doing anything. Unfortunately, my accountant was nowhere to be found. His voicemail box was full and i couldn’t get in touch. I was a bit panicked because this proposal was unlike anything I had ever done, so his opinion was essential. I had no back up accountant to ask, and still don’t know of any accountants that would be able to jump in and advise.

Long story short, after a few days of trying to get in touch, I was finally able to reach him. He was taking the continuing education classes that are required annually and wasn’t checking messages regularly. Fortunately we connected, because he advised me that the proposed deal wouldn’t be as beneficial as I anticipated, so his advice was certainly appreciated.

For legal issues or questions, there are several great domain lawyers I trust in the event my attorney is out of reach, but I didn’t have an accounting backup plan. If you take domain investing seriously, you should have a legal and accounting backup plan in the event that you have a pressing situation. It would be smart to have a back up programmer and designer, too, but those probably aren’t as critical when a situation necessitates a professional opinion.

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I’m posting this from my iPad in Cape Cod so my apologies for any typos. I love this business! 🙂

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