I was so happy with the response I got with my post regarding the fake ICANN appraiser scam a couple of months ago, I thought it worth sharing each of the dodgy domain name practices I come across as they hit my mailbox.

This one’s old, and I don’t know if you can call it a scam, more a serious misrepresentation, and this one is no where near as bad as some versions I have seen, only hitting you for triple the real value, I have seen some that will go for ten times, so I won’t mention the sellers by name. Here is how it works, you get a spam email regarding a domain name for sale, very similar to a domain you already have registered, normally it’s a .com if you have the .net, or a pluralisation.

it certainly reads as if they are selling a domain, I don’t think there is any doubt about it, clicking on the provided link the pitch is far more honest, stating that the domain is available as opposed to for sale.

But a quick search at a registrar will prove that they didn’t own it to sell it, but were only going to register it, the name was free for anyone to own, a quick search on Google shows that the name was in use until recently, and they are guessing that you may have wanted it, so claim to own it, only actually registering it when someone shows an interest. Normal registration fees are normally a little more than $10 a year, but does this “sale” even include registration fees? inconveniently clicking on the button “Are there any additional fees?” provides nothing, as do the buttons, so we can only guess if that, and we will never know what “money-back guarantee” means to them. Of course the lesson here, if offered a domain for sale, is to always search if a name is available before you register it without having to buy it, as they often are.