make money on the internet

Recently, I received an email from someone who expressed interest in buying one of my domains. Thanks to some searching I did, I realised that I wasn’t going to get rich selling my domain.

Here are my email exchanges with Mr Scammer.

Hello,

Please email a price you can accept for your domain name.
Our company develops software for multiple video systems. Domain names is not our business but a new way to earn on reselling. We are going to buy domains to resell them at higher prices. Our company has a large database of clients interested in good domains.
If you offer more domains for sale with good reselling potential please email us your list.
Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,
Jacob Cohen, Ph. D.
CEO
TGN Technologies

Let’s see what happened when I sent him this reply:

Hello Mr Cohen

Thank you for your interest. I am using SEDO to handle the domain sale.
Please make an offer at:
http://www.sedo.com/search/details.php4?domain=felinephilosophy.net

Mr Scammer aka Mr Cohen got quite anxious at receiving a response and wants to close the deal ASAP in case I wised up in time:

Sedo is ok as an agent.

I need to know the lowest price you can accept.

What is your price range: $10,000 or $15,000 or even higher?

Please send it to me via email as soon as possible.

Now anyone, myself included, would become very excited at seeing numbers like “$10,000 and $15,000 or even higher” bandied about, my immediate thoughts would be – I’m rich!! Too bad that all this is only a dream; scam rather. Anyway, I string him along for abit with:

I do not deal directly with buyers. If you offer $15,000 at Sedo, you will
secure the domain.

Mr Scammer must’ve thought he’d reeled in a big one because he sent this response talking big business:

$15,000. Ok.

Do you sell the name only without web site? I’m interested in the name so web site is not so important.

Do you have an appraisal certificate for your domain name?

Domain name is an investment for me. In other words I’m going to sell your name later and make a profit. If I overpay I won’t be able to make a profit in the future. It’s very important for you and me to know the current market value of your domain.

Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging a reputable appraisal company. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals. I will only accept appraisals from independent sources I trust. To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies in a forum http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/297514.htm

Just check this posting.

If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. I also hope you can give me 10% – 15% discount of the appraised value.

After I get an appraisal from you we’ll continue our negotiations.

How do you prefer to get paid: www.escrow.com, www.PayPal.com check or wire?

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.

If I had said the domain would cost $100,000 he would still have said “OK”. The link he gave leads to some fake forum page which has him and some domain appraisal “expert” posting some exchanges. Notice also, how he keeps on ignoring my repeated requests for the transaction to be made on SEDO.

I replied:

Before I proceed with this transaction, I have to take some precautionary measures to make sure you are genuine. You know how it is on the internet with so many scammers running about.

To prove that you are genuine in your offer, you need to do the following:

1. Find a cat. A real one – not some stuffed toy.
2. Draw some cat whiskers and a cat nose on your face.
3. Make some cat ears out of black paper or cardboard and stick them on top of your head.
4. Take a photo of yourself carrying the cat.
5. Send me that photo.

Only after I have received this will I know that I am dealing with a real person who is sincere to do business.

We will deal after that.

Regards

Sadly, I never did receive that photo.

UPDATE: A reader got scammed by this guy and has revealed how the scammer does it. He asks for a certificate of appraisal from securenamesale.com and this costs US$407. If you believe you can sell your domain for US$15,000, you’d be more than willing to fork out US$407 to get to US$15,000.

Actually this is a scaled down version of the Nigerian scams where the amounts are in tens of millions and you need to pay several hundred thousand dollars for taxes etc.
People, if something is too good to be true, it’s not true. Never forget that.