When you are buying a domain name and site how do you verify the seller owns a site, before you pay with paypal. I know you can check the registration with a whois search, But this does not tell confirm or link to a sellers username name here. What is the best thing to do before paying, or is it all done on trust. Thanks for any advice.
Yes, best to use an escrow service because even if you verify their identity they can still rip you off. However if you just want to verify you can have them change something in the whois to prove they have control of it. eg. change name from A. Keaton to Alex P Keaton...or change the contact email.
if you are buying in forums check his previuos sales history , itraders and proceed. anythinn above 500$ should be good within escrow
When Sedo needed verification that I owned a certain domain name when I wanted to sell it, I sent them a screenshot of the Domain Details page within the Domain Manager section of my GoDaddy account. That page lists me as the registrant and admin contact. Owner registration information has to current by law ("...At least annually, a registrar must present to the registrant the current Whois information, and remind the registrant that provision of false Whois information can be grounds for cancellation of their domain name registration. Registrants must review their Whois data, and make any corrections..." ICANN, 2003) If that person really owns the domain, they will have access to some version of a domain details page from their registrar. I understand your point about wanting to verify their DP name against the WhoIs record, because you want to make sure that the real owner is selling the name. That's why everyone is saying use Sedo, etc, or an escrow service.