How to avoid scam on flippa
- Thread starter davie9x
- Start date
- Jul 8, 2010
- 3,994
- 823
get the "meathead1234" Course module just $90 it's awesome simply you will learn flippa from Scratch
kvmcable
Supreme Member
- Dec 28, 2010
- 1,354
- 2,823
I haven't read meathead123's book but here is my Short List after researching hundreds of sellers and thousands of listings.
Don't believe any attachments that contradict 3rd party tool results. Seller attachments should re-enforce 3rd party tool statistics, not contradict them. What the hell am I talking about?
1.) Alexa that shows unranked for a domain means the website has no traffic. I don't give a damn what attachments the seller put on the listing. Alexa over 20 million means it has less than 20 visitors a day. Don't try to figure out how Alexa numbers relate to real traffic just know Alexa 0 means no traffic.
2.) Ignore all "potential" claims. All are BS.
3.) Ignore reason for selling site. All are lies and most are getting pathetic. One seller says his kid has cancer and needs an operation as his reason for peddling template websites with fraudulent numbers and lies. I only wish Karma would pay him a visit quick.
4.) Learn Flippa site rules. If a seller is violating rules, don't bid. Here is the rules list I watch and you'll find 70% of listings violate one or more of these 3 rules;
a. No Potential Traffic or Revenue Claims are Allowed in the Title - EVER
b. If the site has earned less than 2 months of revenue (less than 2 mos old) then NO CLAIMS of revenue are allowed in the title or description. It doesn't matter how many fake paypal screenshots the seller posts. Unless a site is more than 2 months old it CAN'T have 2 mos of revenue so any claim violates Flippa rules.
c. Fake aged domain claims in the title or description. In January this year, Flippa revised their domain age claim rule and, in essence, it says domain age is calculated from the time the website in it's current form went live. You will see many listings where sellers are picking up dropped and auction domains, tossing a template website on it and claiming revenue and traffic for a period they weren't even the owner of the website. I'll discuss more a bit later how to bust these idiots.
4.) Pass on any website that has "claimed" traffic or revenue with nothing but non-descript screenshots. PayPal screenshots not showing anything but dollar amounts are all fake. If a seller is serious they'll have screenshots with urls, dates, paypal email address, balance and all the details except buyer's names showing. Pass on any listing just show awstats unless it's cheap enough. Template sellers typically don't ask a lot of money and don't offer detailed analytics. Just buy those sites as no traffic sites.
5.) Learn to read Alexa data, how to find the source of traffic, audience, how percentage of traffic is from search engines. Again, 3rd party tools should re-enforce seller's screenshots. If the seller has a description that says organic traffic and Alexa says less than 1% of the traffic is from search engines then you know the seller is a damn liar.
6.) Always look at the wayback machine to see if archive.org has screenshots of the website from years past. Many times you can see the website before the current seller owned it and rebuff his claim of being an owner for years with his new template.
7.) ALWAYS look at the Google Analytics PDF file. A common trick on Flippa is to claim a high number of visitors and then attach a Google Verified PDF that completely contradicts the Verified Traffic Details in the right sidebar. I've seen sellers post verified analytics saying they get 1000 visitors a month and then opened the verified GA PDF file to see the file says they get 3-5 visitors a day. Don't be fooled by the Verified Traffic Box is the point. Those numbers are entered by the seller.
8.) ALWAYS look at the seller's account for linked accounts and feedback. Don't believe any BS about those linked accounts the seller offers. If those suspended or banned linked accounts weren't valid the seller would of bitched until they were removed. Consider all of them valid and this seller is owner of those accounts.
Ok, I'm out of time. Last trick. Get yourself a domaintools.com free account for 7 days. They take all the CC info but you really can use it for 7 days and cancel without being charged. Before you spend any serious money on a website you look up that domain and check it's history. See if the seller is being truthful or doing like one member here did last night when he stepped on his dick (Kingt***) and claimed a website was his for a year before someone contacted the real owner and had him post on the auction he owned the website until June this year and why is this seller claiming he owned it when he didn't. You'll see all that BS with a paid version of domaintools. If you're buying websites for serious money you're a fool not to own this tool and know a domain's history.
Ok my short list is longer than I planned. No time for proof-reading so ignore the errors please.
Don't believe any attachments that contradict 3rd party tool results. Seller attachments should re-enforce 3rd party tool statistics, not contradict them. What the hell am I talking about?
1.) Alexa that shows unranked for a domain means the website has no traffic. I don't give a damn what attachments the seller put on the listing. Alexa over 20 million means it has less than 20 visitors a day. Don't try to figure out how Alexa numbers relate to real traffic just know Alexa 0 means no traffic.
2.) Ignore all "potential" claims. All are BS.
3.) Ignore reason for selling site. All are lies and most are getting pathetic. One seller says his kid has cancer and needs an operation as his reason for peddling template websites with fraudulent numbers and lies. I only wish Karma would pay him a visit quick.
4.) Learn Flippa site rules. If a seller is violating rules, don't bid. Here is the rules list I watch and you'll find 70% of listings violate one or more of these 3 rules;
a. No Potential Traffic or Revenue Claims are Allowed in the Title - EVER
b. If the site has earned less than 2 months of revenue (less than 2 mos old) then NO CLAIMS of revenue are allowed in the title or description. It doesn't matter how many fake paypal screenshots the seller posts. Unless a site is more than 2 months old it CAN'T have 2 mos of revenue so any claim violates Flippa rules.
c. Fake aged domain claims in the title or description. In January this year, Flippa revised their domain age claim rule and, in essence, it says domain age is calculated from the time the website in it's current form went live. You will see many listings where sellers are picking up dropped and auction domains, tossing a template website on it and claiming revenue and traffic for a period they weren't even the owner of the website. I'll discuss more a bit later how to bust these idiots.
4.) Pass on any website that has "claimed" traffic or revenue with nothing but non-descript screenshots. PayPal screenshots not showing anything but dollar amounts are all fake. If a seller is serious they'll have screenshots with urls, dates, paypal email address, balance and all the details except buyer's names showing. Pass on any listing just show awstats unless it's cheap enough. Template sellers typically don't ask a lot of money and don't offer detailed analytics. Just buy those sites as no traffic sites.
5.) Learn to read Alexa data, how to find the source of traffic, audience, how percentage of traffic is from search engines. Again, 3rd party tools should re-enforce seller's screenshots. If the seller has a description that says organic traffic and Alexa says less than 1% of the traffic is from search engines then you know the seller is a damn liar.
6.) Always look at the wayback machine to see if archive.org has screenshots of the website from years past. Many times you can see the website before the current seller owned it and rebuff his claim of being an owner for years with his new template.
7.) ALWAYS look at the Google Analytics PDF file. A common trick on Flippa is to claim a high number of visitors and then attach a Google Verified PDF that completely contradicts the Verified Traffic Details in the right sidebar. I've seen sellers post verified analytics saying they get 1000 visitors a month and then opened the verified GA PDF file to see the file says they get 3-5 visitors a day. Don't be fooled by the Verified Traffic Box is the point. Those numbers are entered by the seller.
8.) ALWAYS look at the seller's account for linked accounts and feedback. Don't believe any BS about those linked accounts the seller offers. If those suspended or banned linked accounts weren't valid the seller would of bitched until they were removed. Consider all of them valid and this seller is owner of those accounts.
Ok, I'm out of time. Last trick. Get yourself a domaintools.com free account for 7 days. They take all the CC info but you really can use it for 7 days and cancel without being charged. Before you spend any serious money on a website you look up that domain and check it's history. See if the seller is being truthful or doing like one member here did last night when he stepped on his dick (Kingt***) and claimed a website was his for a year before someone contacted the real owner and had him post on the auction he owned the website until June this year and why is this seller claiming he owned it when he didn't. You'll see all that BS with a paid version of domaintools. If you're buying websites for serious money you're a fool not to own this tool and know a domain's history.
Ok my short list is longer than I planned. No time for proof-reading so ignore the errors please.
axus_auto
Power Member
- Jul 13, 2011
- 515
- 506
Try to use verified stats for Adsense, Google Analytics and other financial or traffic stats. Try to use Escrow only. Also, it may take quite a bit of experience in terms owning websites and buying and selling websites to be able to tell which listings look fishy. Basically, you will need to understand how some of the websites make money to be able to tell if it is genuine and worth the price or not.
You may want to look at some alternatives to Flippa:
http://cashjournals.com/top-10-places-to-sell-your-websites-online/
You may want to look at some alternatives to Flippa:
http://cashjournals.com/top-10-places-to-sell-your-websites-online/
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Another thing you need to do to avoid Flippa scams - read kvmcable's latest thread.
Seadragon
Regular Member
- Apr 13, 2012
- 389
- 272
Untrue!!!! Alexa ranking means shit!
Alexa only tracks traffic that has there own toolbar installed. Fair to say i do not have this installed. and i bet you many millions haven't either.
I have a insurance site that has a alexa ranking of 15 million, but still get's over 100+ visitors a day, just because the people who are visiting haven't got that crap of a tool installed.
Codythebest
Senior Member
- May 29, 2009
- 1,136
- 907
Ask "to get in". Get in the GA, in the PP, in where the numbers are shown. Everything else is photoshopped...
jox51
Regular Member
- Oct 16, 2011
- 228
- 65
Be watchful with sites that there BIN ends in 7. Most of these are rehashed templated sites. For ex, look at some the SEO, FB Fans, Twitter Follower related sites for sale. Most of them end with a BIN of 197, 297 and offer more bonuses than anything.
What you want is sites with proven revenue, don't pay a dime to the seller until they screen share their earnings and revenue through Paypal or whatever other payment method they use. Also, have them show you the backend of their site showing you orders that come in and have them show you their GA acct live.
What you want is sites with proven revenue, don't pay a dime to the seller until they screen share their earnings and revenue through Paypal or whatever other payment method they use. Also, have them show you the backend of their site showing you orders that come in and have them show you their GA acct live.
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kvmcable
Supreme Member
- Dec 28, 2010
- 1,354
- 2,823
You're wrong, but sound just like a true Flippa seller.
From their website:
"Alexa's data comes from a large sample of several million Alexa Toolbar users and other traffic data sources"
I have many websites that get 100 visitors a day and all of them rank under 1m. Maybe your analytics can't decipher bots from UVs. 15m means you get roughly 10 UVs a day in my experience.
I built my own Alexa bot and can drive Alexa to under 1 million with 40 - 50 visits a day in about a week with no Alexa toolbar installed in the browser. How would you explain that? Hint: Quirk Searchstatus
Lastly you confirmed what I said rather than argued my point. On Flippa you'll see websites claiming 20-200 UVs a day but Alexa claims unranked. Those seller traffic stats are pure BS.
You claim you get 100 visitors a day and have a 15m rank. That's not the same as unranked.
Over 20 million means less than 20 visitors a day is what I said. You have 15m and have more than 20 visitors a day, this supports what I said although I think 15m is closer to 10-15 visitors a day.
Unranked means no traffic. 15m is closer to 10 visitors a day than 100 visitors a day. The visitors to my websites can barely operate a computer so I know damn well my visitors don't have Alexa toolbars installed. I just checked my websites that have 60 UVs a day and Alexa says 1.8m. I checked more of my websites that are in the 30-35 visitors a day range and Alexa says 3.6m and all of these websites are many years old.
If you have a website getting 100 UVs a day and Alexa rank at 15m you have a problem. I sampled more than 50 of my websites across 10 very different niches and don't have anything like that. Not even close.
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mistras1980
Newbie
- Jun 25, 2011
- 10
- 0
avoid flippa
Typlo
Supreme Member
- Sep 22, 2010
- 1,356
- 516
Great tips.
Flipping sites is a risky business.
The one that frightens me most is after the buyer bought it and was given all the site materials, he files a dispute with PayPal.
The one I hate most is buying a site template from a person who has Personal Use Only rights only, which he bought from WF.
Really a heart-ache dealing with such scammers.
Your tips are really telling me to pay attention on what I do best, rather than dirty my hands on something I know less about.
Really appreciate it.