Hi, I have recently purchased an item online over eBay.... Which brought me into affiliate markeing and etc. Since then the site has not been makeing the monthly profit promised, and the previous owner has magically disappeared. The thing the previous owner does not know, is tat I grabbed down all his information before the domain change. I have his full address, phone #, and full name. What are my options? If this was less than one thousand dollars I was loseing, I would just let it go. But we are talking about 15K+. He won't answer emails, nor phone calls. But the way I can tell he has been online, was by searching his name off of MySpace. Which it is really him. Any help would be appreciated, -Neusha G.
What exactly did the ad say? I remember a guy celling a cell phone and the guy who bought it wanted the charger, etc. but the ad clearly said cell phone and nothing more. So, what exactly was being sold? Also, what was the payment method?
It clearly stated the domain name, and all 10K keywords for PPC. He even showed me the screen shots for the past 6 months. We spoke over the phone, he stated that the income will be very similar. So far 200 for almost four weeks is horrible. It should be 200 a day. Im thinking of just contacting a lawyer... Thanks for the advice so far
If he said it should get $200 a day then there's really nothing you can do about it but if he said that $200 a day was a promise then contact a lawyer.
If you made the payment via PAYPAL,just open a Paypal dispute and if you are lucky enough PAYPAL will transfer you the money back to your paypal account!
Umm, you mean to tell me that you paid over $15,000 for a website, and you only relied on a "screenshot" that the client sent you? You didn't ask him to mail you physical checks or any financial documents that could be verified? Why didn't you get a lawyer "before" you sent him the money. Which country does he live in? Do you live in the United States? Does he? The way I see it, you've become a victim because of a lack of planning. When you're dealing with a transaction of this size, you should ask a lot of questions, and include a lot of red tape. I don't really like lawyers, but for a situation like this, they served their purpose. This is what I would have done if I were you: 1. Unless he was based in the U.S., I would not have purchased the site from him, period. The laws in other countries differ, and once your money is gone, a lawyer in the U.S. won't be able to help you if he is based in another country. 2. I would have requested detailed financial statements regarding his earnings from the site, and I would have done everything I could to verify it. 3. Once I verified that he was a U.S. citizen, I would then hire a lawyer to put together an iron contract. The person selling the site to me would provide me with their full name, address, city, state, and I would have verified their existence. 4. In the contract, I would have made it clear, that if the website does not make the money the client specified, and which are shown on the financial documents provided, I have the right to take him to court to reclaim the $15,000 paid. 5. He told you the site made $200 per day. First, I would have put a clause in the contract which states that, I only pay him half of the $15,000 up front for the site, and once I confirmed that it indeeds makes approximately $6,000 per month(waiting one month after first half of payment to make sure) then, and only then would I send the other half of the payment. If you had followed all the steps I listed above, you wouldn't be in this mess. At this point, there is really nothing that anyone here at DP can do for you, and eBay won't help you. You can try to go get a lawyer now, but if you're in the U.S., the lawyer will ask for money up front before he or she even bothers to look at your case. You should have come to this forum and asked for help BEFORE THE FACT. I would have been able to advise you on all the steps to take to make sure that you got your $15,000+ worth.
Nice plan, but almost every seller will not agree to # 5 stuff and dealing with lawyer, even if they sell legit business. 1-st hand income verification is best. Seller sets temporary password and you verify income. Also, I'd just meet with seller personally, because $15K is a lot of money and airplane tickers are very affordable. But now I think the only chance is to go to court. And do not say to judge that "seller told me, I spoke to seller, he promissed, etc" - that your word against his. Bring only facts to court. Also, mention to seller that if he was running that website without business license, he might end up in deep trouble.
One more thing, and this should have been your first red flag. A site that makes $6,000 per month is worth a lot more than $15,000. I'm surprised that no one in this thread thought about this. Actually, if I had a website making $6,000 per month, I wouldn't really have a reason to sell it, but if I did sell it, I would sell it for about $100,000 to $200,000 minimum. $15,000 is too little for such a site. Think about it, he told you the site makes $200 per day. There is no way he should be selling it for only $15,000. To truly make sure he is an American citizen, I would have considered asking for his tax ID, or social security number. I normally don't like to do this, but for a transaction of this size, you can't take any chances, or losses. You should have hired an online website appraiser to appraise the true value of the site, and that would have basically told you that this deal was a scam. I could have told you that for the amount promised that the site makes, there is no way he would sell it for only $15,000, because I wouldn't sell it for that amount. I agree 100%. If someone told me their site makes $200 per day in Adsense, and they want to sell it to me, I would ask for their Adsense password to login and see for myself. That would stop most scammers dead in their tracks. No matter what, he should have come to Digital Point and started a thread asking for advise. Prevention is worth a pound of cure, and more than likely, he probably won't get the money back, especially if he didn't have an iron clad contract. It is sad to see people here lose this kind of money. I don't know how much the person who started this thread has, but if you keep getting scammed like this, you may have to file for bankruptcy pretty soon. You know, I started a thread recently about a study which says only one in four Americans read a book last year. What does this have to do with the topic of this thread? Simple. Even though this is a forum rather than a book, many moderators have started threads advising people how to avoid getting scammed. Even eBay has such guides. Reading these guides before you go into a business deal is a lot better than asking for advice after your money is gone.
I was just thinking about that when you had said pay him half and then after a month when you verify that the site is really making $6000 a month Another thing you have to think about is the amount of time the owner is spending on the site. What good is it if you have to spend 500 hours a month to keep the $6000 coming in.
The first thing I would do is to visit him to talk to him. Why dont you do that ? You have his address.
Yes he is a resident in the US... I knew there was something fishy about the auction price being so low, but here was the thing. The previous site he sold, there was no negative feedback! So I thought if he is happy, then most likely I will be too. Tesla, thanks for all the advice.. This was the site that introduced me to Affiliating and also DP Forums If I knew, I wouldn't have bought it. The payment method was Escrow.com I just got an update. The previous winner of his auction before mine, is starting to complain about the site not making the amount promised. I wish he would've changed his feedback. I am awaiting his phone call back, so that we may both go after him. Also, I was researching his fake company that he is the CEO of, and the website forums.digitalpoint.com came up! I will keep you all updated. Thanks, Neusha G.
If he can not prove the income as per the screen shots sent to you, it may be a case of crimminal fraud.