Received offer for domain don't know if real.

[azy141]

So i have a 3 character domain and was recently sent an email from a so called hosting business asking to buy it for a very high price. The only thing is it seems to be a scam or something to me as I don't see the domain ever being as valuable as he has offered and his name or domain that he sent the email from don't come up with anything on google. His domain redirects to investors.com and Whois for his domain comes up with domains by proxy??? So Im baffled and was wondering if anyone has any input.

 

[Zak_A]

3 char domains are very limited, thus rare, thus highly valuable.

If they agree to process the transaction through an escrow service, you should be safe.

 

[azy141]

3 char domains are very limited, thus rare, thus highly valuable.

If they agree to process the transaction through an escrow service, you should be safe.

I understand that their rare but he's offering high 5 digits for a domain that valuation sites only offer low 2 digits for

 

[Zak_A]

Valuation sites are completely BS.

Is your 3 char domain letters only with a top tld (com or net) ? If it is, then the offer is not that shocking.

But anyway be careful if you decide to deal with them, make sure to use escrow and drop it if anything start to smell fishy.

 

[azy141]

It's a .org but to me it's useless but apparently I'm wrong . Either way I'll take your advice and go along and if things go well it's escrow otherwise i'll stop.

 

[LBrown]

Does it have numbers or dashes? If it has just letters than nothing sounds fishy here. If there are numbers and/or dashes that might be odd. Still, if he pays through an escrow service who cares why he wants it.

 

[azy141]

Does it have numbers or dashes? If it has just letters than nothing sounds fishy here. If there are numbers and/or dashes that might be odd. Still, if he pays through an escrow service who cares why he wants it.

There is a number in the name but yeah I guess I'll have to wait and see

 

[helpnub]

So (s)he'll ask you to do an independent domain valuation for $99.95 at a suggested service, get you to pay and then they'll back out of the deal and pocket the valuation fee ... probably, maybe ...

 

[azy141]

Was the valuation scam as suspected. Thanks for the help guys

 

[Oukast]

What kind of scam? Who was he? Did he ask you to sell him that domain or vice versa, it's not clear from your first post. Just curious..

Just the typical: offer way more than the domain could ever be worth, but on a condition that you pay for appraisal on a company of their choosing (aka. their own, cloacked company), after which they turn down their offer for whatever reasons.

 

[MatthewWoodward]

Just have a conversation with them on the phone and feel them out - but please ensure you do the transfer via Escrow to protect yourself. Costs a little more than PayPal but its worth every penny.

 

[saber210]

This is scam i think, try to find out the real value of 3 characters .org domain, if they are requesting to appraise to, its a scam.

 

[pelicule]

Total scam.

 

[OldSchooler]

Rule of thumb everyone -

> If the email looks to be spammy like sam11242 @ gmail or if the email is from a domain, check the domain's whois - creation date - if its within a year - 99.9% scam

> If the offer seems to good to be true, it's a scam. VAST majority of legit initial inquiries will not contain an offer amount. Legit inquiries with an offer amount will usually be lowball. 9 out of 10 times the inquiry is something like "Hey is this Domain for sale?"

> NEVER buy a valuation even if you're not asked - there is no domain valuation service that is worth paying a dime for. Save your money.