New Scam by Domain Tasters

Just a heads-up!

[internetheaven]

Instead of just trialing domains to see the traffic, speculators are registering new and expired domains, emailing the owners of the other tld versions and offering them the domain for $$$$ e.g.

they buy example.com and email:
example.net
example.co.uk
example.org
etc.

they quote prices of between $400-$1000 for the domain. After a few days this drops to $100-$200. But out of the 14 I've received so far they do not hold on to the domain. If they don't get a buyer they cancel it and I pick it up for $9 only a week after receiving an email saying it will cost me $1000.

Just thought I'd get the message out there.

Mike

[IanTurner]

People have been running that scam without even registering the domain in the first place. Check whois on the domains you get offered - you'll find that most won't be registered anyway.

Certainly as .co.uk has rules that prevent domain tasting, it will almost certainly be the case with .co.uk domains.

[trader]

Since I am significantly reducing the size of my portfolio I recently allowed several dot-com's expire as they have no traffic/revenue (but still have an alternate extension such as .org) because the .org exp date is after the .com and of course my org will also be dropped when it expires too.

Someone then grabs my expired .com (likely thru a place like Snapnames, paying $60-100) under a false assumption they can email the dot-org owner (myself) offereing the newly grabbed dot-com (which they make a point to say is better than the .org).

They must be really surprised when they realize I do not want to buy it no matter how low the price because I am the one who let it drop (and also will let the org expire soon), which of course they are not aware of.

Have also seen this happen in reverse order when I let an org or net expire and get emails offering me as the owner of the .com a chance to buy the net/org and again they do not know I was the one who let it expire (usually because I had first-hand knowledge from my stats only the com was worth keeping).

Amazing the lengths some domainers go trying to make money and end up with a bunch of worthless domains.