Just recently, I came across a potential transaction that turned out to be highly suspicious in nature. The initial claimed traffic and income wasn't unusual; however, after taking a very close look, I discovered that the site had 100% DIRECT traffic (mostly foreign). I verified the income; HOWEVER, the clicks reported by Adsense was NOT reflected in the traffic. I suspected unscrupulous activity and canceled the deal. This was a site earning more than $10/day and the asking price was in the $xK. I am not mentioning the site or the user only for the small chance that I am wrong (although, I highly doubt it). So, please do your due diligence before making a purchase. Screenshots of traffic and income are meaningless and can be easily created in Photoshop.
Unfortunately, you are right as there're lots of scammers on this forum and before paying anything the buyers have to make sure they know what they are buying.
yup I was recently had a deal with a fraud as well http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2235852
"So, please do your due diligence before making a purchase. Screenshots of traffic and income are meaningless and can be easily created in Photoshop. " Well said. Screenshots are useless - they are easily photoshopped. If you can get limited access to the backend to check everything yourself, that would be very great! Also beware of high income low asking price type of listing. We all want great sites that make a lot of money but low in price tag; but in reality such sites are rarely exist. Even if they did make the claimed amount of money, there are little chances that the income will stay that way.
Most people are in it for a quick buck , but quickly find themselves short on scams , but always find to come up with new scams , top sellers here or anywhere else are known , so buy from reputation don't buy because of value , sometimes your better off knowing that you lost a site and income that looked suspicious then the money you'll pay for it , most income claims cannot be verified by a pic , we all know that by now , all sites have a story behind them , the difference between good sites and bad ones are the owners , also look out for rehashed income stats even on flippa , check seller history has he sold a similar site and claims it has income check to see prior posts or auctions , look at details , i have never been able to print screen exactly the same screen twice precisely , I have various windows open time on toolbar displayed everytime copy pasting varies a bit , I have saved a seller on flippa on all his auctions he manages to have a screenshot of three sales evrytime, with recent to newly created websites , his proofs are all similar just different dates and amounts so easy to manufacture those stats pshopped for sure , my most recent sale went smooth because I sent half the money then transferred domain to me , then sent the remaining amount , if a seller doesn't want to be realistic and demands full payment ASAP or he will relist it for sale could be fishy , also check links , search how many websites link to the website to buy , if there are none it's a clue, if they all come from Whois and web value sites also a clue , no visits those sites unless you want to get indexed or create backlinks, I have sold many websites here and on flippa and always stay true to the buyer no matter , we are in this for longterm , builds life income
Sorry to hear you got scammed. Over the years I've noticed here and other "market place" forums being flooded with shysters selling sites. sadly, the quality of sites for sale has depreciated as well. For myself I find it good to know the traffic and popularity of a property but don't rely on it. If there is licensed software to be transferred - contact the developing company and even then you could get ripped. Paypal from what I hear is not a great mediator when it comes to disputes or charge backs. If it's a pricy property use escrow.com, if the seller balks too bad.
I was fortunate not to get scammed. What's puzzling is how they were generating the clicks on Adsense. I'm surprised Google hasn't caught on.