This should be obvious to everyone. But here is an email I got from a scammer inquiring about a domain I have listed on Sedo... And...
so scam........... keep him "exited", always reply saying you gonna do. Or that you tried and the site was not working. I kept him believing so long. HE tought he was gonna catch me, but I made him very stupid. He was so angry, lost a lot of time. Just Play
I had an identical e-mail a while back about one of my domains, the only difference was the name - it was some scandinavian name on mine. The only thing that puzzles me about this obvious scam is that he doesn't insist on a particular appraiser - the archived forum thread is a load of sh*te basically so who exactly is his appraisal company?
I got caught in the scam... sortof. I agreed to appraise using sedo, and i used up $29.99 on sedo for an apprasial. he disagreed and i explained my situation and i only use trusted providers. He kept making excuses and then i read on the forum it was a scam. Rob
This scam has been around for a while. When I first bought domains I got 2 similar scam letters within a week from one another. It's probably the same scammer over and over. The person's name changes and the company name changes, but it's always the same deal: they want an appraisal but only from an appraisal company THEY choose (which they probably own). So they're scamming people into getting appraisals and never even intend to buy the domain they inquire about. For some goofy reason the scammer always puts "PH D, President" or something similar in his sig. That's a sure giveaway. This person has tried to scam many, many people.
I don't get it though - the scammer never seems to specify a domain appraisal website, so which domain appraisal website does he own?! He didn't seem to care when he tried to scam me - he just said he would only accept one from a well respected appraiser etc....
These scams must be organized by SEDO. Sedo makes money on these domain appraisals and the operation is run by a group in Mosco. I did a little experiment with some new domains and I am convinced that the scam comes from SEDO. Bigger companies have done similar practices in the telecommunication industry. Remember the phone companies were involved in illegally switching your land line telephone ("slamming")... They used to setup a third party company to operate a call center to do the job for them... Just like these groups that makes you buy the appraisals from SEDO. Stay away from SEDO, its a very shady company! Sure they are big, but they operate a big scam as well. Yes, SEDO is scam if you ask me.
Looks like they want to promote their own appraisal source. I do not believe they are intersted in your domain name
They also did to me... I also think that it must be organized by SEDO because you need to pay $29.99 on sedo for an apprasial.