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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! 🙂

Coming Soon: WhyPark Domain Apps

Elliot Silver
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16

I spent some time working with Craig Rowe of WhyPark and want to share some good news that some of you may have heard about in Vancouver at the Traffic conference. Next week, it is expected that WhyPark will debut a bundle of special domain apps that domain owners can add to their websites. At first, 8 apps will be available, and the company has plans to add somewhere around 30 in the near future.

The apps I am most interested in adding to some of my websites include:

  • Hotel Listings
  • Business Directory
  • Weather Report
  • Twitter Feeds
  • YouTube Videos

Craig set up one name for me, which you can have a look at to get an idea of how the apps can be used. Have a look at SwissAlpsVacations.com, and you can see I have used the Hotel Listings, YouTube Videos, Weather Report, and Twitter Feeds on the site. These apps can help keep visitors engaged on your website, can   help bring traffic (in conjunction with custom content), and can help you generate more revenue on your names as a result of this.

Probably the most exciting domain app for me is the Business Directory, as businesses will be able to sign up and pay for a directory listing via monthly Paypal subscription. Craig previously set up RateAHost.com so that people can see how the directory looks and how it works.

One reason I am excited about it is because I can add it to a site like TropicalBirds.com, and I can have a breeder directory by type of bird breed or state. It’s a great way to drive more recurring revenue, in addition to the PPC links. WhyPark already helped optimize the revenue on TropicalBirds.com, and now the new apps will bring a new revenue stream.

The second reason I am excited is that it will allow me (and others) to set up directories on their websites very easily. I would probably work with my designer to create a custom template and then add the domain app to the site. Had I not wanted to do a fully custom site on DogWalker.com, this could have been a good option to save time and money.

Since the apps haven’t been publicly released yet, I don’t have results yet, but it’s clear that it’s a big advancement for the company. Domain owners are able to build their sites individually or in bulk, just as they are able to do so at WhyPark now.

Swift Rank Investing in Hotel & Travel Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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31

As many people probably did after learning that Rick Schwartz sold SydneyHotels.com for $100k, I spent some time searching for city Hotels.com domain names to see who owns them and how many are developed. Just about all of the domain names I looked up are developed, which says to me that there is money in that business.

I was reading the comments on Rick’s Blog, and as is typical for Rick’s Blog, there was at least one negative comment alluding to the fact that the domain name has privacy guard and the owner’s info can’t be seen. For those of you who have any doubt about Rick’s sale, I can confirm that the buyer was in fact Swift Rank, and the company is an active domain buyer.

I’ve done some business with Swift Rank, having sold them some travel-related domain names last year. The company owns a considerable number of exact match geographical travel domain names in the car, hotel, restaurant, and travel verticals. Just about all of the company’s domain names are developed.

The company’s purchase of SydneyHotels.com probably isn’t their only   large recent acquisition. Swift Rank also owns the following great names, some of which were recent:

  • BostonHotels.com – Owned by Frank Schilling as of 6/21
  • LasVegasHotels.com
  • DelhiHotels.com
  • HongKongHotel.com
  • SaintKittsandNevisHotels.com
  • NewYorkRestaurants.com
  • SanFranciscoRestaurant.com

I would venture a guess that if you own any great City Hotels.com domain names (or other generic travel domain names), Swift Rank may be interested in discussing an acquisition.

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