I create this youtube video to show how scammers trick you into buying their website. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j13-MDkw1oc Blog Post: http://netbastard.com/2008/06/buying-websites-without-getting-scammed/ Might surprise some, most already know.
Nice job bro. I never thought how simple it is.... You know what some can make money out of this by creating a black hat ebook about selling a WEB SITE... lol Don't do it guys that's UN-Human act....
Yea, I understand that some people might use this method. But its much more important to get the word out because new webmaster have no clue its going on.
Few things. It was good stuff, so good job. But.... 1. Nobody checks the stats and goes I want to buy your website. Only noobs hurry and do that kinda stuff. People doing the business for longtime, actually does their own digging. 2. Scammers don't give real email,phone number or address it can all be faked. Phone is super easy, there are online sites that you can rent 10-20 phone numbers and have them redirect to one main phone number which is masked. So its like you cloak your url but in this case it is cloaked phone number. 3. Adsense is hard to modify, because basically you will have to go through the whole process of, number of clicks, impressions, how much is epcm and how much you made. They also have to prove 30-90 days pool of income. Unless you have developed a system in Excel which basically does all the work and then transfers it to html then you could probably fool a few. But scammers usually sell their websites for cheap compared to what they show in their adsense. 4. Traffic --> You have lots of ways to catch them. 1. Alexa - I know its not accurate but it gives you a good idea of what to expect. 2. Sources - You can ask them for sources, if they mention Google or Yahoo, then you ask them for keywords that they get traffic for and how much a day. 3. Direct Traffic - You ask them what promotions they have done to get direct typed traffic. I agree that anyone could get scammed it is rather hard to avoid it. In many cases people get your domain and run away which is something more common now a days. A good way could be to digg every single info about them and then do some googling. Google their email Google their phone number Google their forum name Check their forum post count etc. In 99% of cases its NEW MEMBERS with 2-3 posts and 1-2 itraders that scam people. Reputated members almost never ever scam people, they know they can make money with their profile by selling their product or by other means, and those that do abuse their account they are mostly hacked DP accounts.. There is no good way to fight the scammers, other then, being alert and not falling for quick cash and always doing ESCROW. 2.
ErnestHemingway : thanks for the post, you are right about a lot of that. I made the video for those noobs who do now know any better
Thanks for great video and now I can understand how scammeres work with Photo trick. I am sure some people who selling reports of $100 a day or somthing may use this trick ErnestHemingway, Nice post and I am sure new people didn't check those stats because they always hurry to buy sites
Thank you Rohit and NetB. I think 9 out of 10 times it happens to people who are in real need of money and they think that the website will solve that problem. I just wanted to add that most scammers are not stealth they always make errors, one of the most frequents is that they always use same email to chat or email you and stuff. It is always good to ask them for their msn and then go to Yahoo Google and other search engines and search their email and see if it shows up something.. In most cases if the guy has scammed someone you are guaranteed to find something because most of these scammers get flagged in forums and people expose all their info so that is a good way. You gotta use all search engines because google doesnt index everything that yahoo does and yahoo doesnt index everything that msn does. And one or another indexes a lot faster than the other, so its always good to check all 3. I have found many emails in msn which showed no results in google and in msn it had 10-20 links from forums by people who had done business with the person and stated that he is a scammer.. This works. But some are hard to track, your emotions are your best friend, if you control it and dont fall for quick deal then you have sme chances. But my best advise is DO NOT DEAL with new members with large sum of sites.
Firstly Awesomely done video to the OP (NetBastard)... Even I dint know about this thing untill I saw the video Good Useful post that @ ErnestHemingway as always
That's a great video. You figure that the average person buying a car checks it out. But he sends a western union of 10k on the faith of a screen shot.
Well done! Anyway, when you have a google account ask for access to the stats, this seems to be the best option concerning traffic to a website. If somebody is trying to beat around the bush, forget it.
hei great infos guys.. You guys always do my work. Will post this one on digitalpoint. Hope OP and Ernest don't mind. Credit given of course. Cheers
Just a quick update. I am creating a eBook and some more detailed videos. You can get it a head of time and for free if you are a subscriber to my blog. Thanks.
Yes, good point, one I hadn't thought of. https://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=55500&hl=en_US BTW. NetBastard, great video, (Camtasia?) I subscribed to your youtube channel, looking forward to more. Cheers James