Domain name appraisal scam moves to a new domain name.
I’m getting tired of writing these articles. But every time I do, a number of people searching for this stumble upon it, so I figure it saves some people from falling for the scam.
The latest incarnation of the domain name appraisal has moved to a new domain name – Fleos.com.
A scammer sends and email to you offering to buy your domain name for a percentage of the appraisal price. He explains that they accept appraisals from Sedo (a well known and reputable appraisal provider) and a no-name service (in this case Fleos.com). The no-name service costs less, so people that receive the email buy an appraisal from it. The no-name service is actually owned of the scammer, who has no intention of buying your domain name.
Previous web sites used in the scam include Pozde.com, NameOrange.com, TropicalNames.com, and FlyAppraisals.com.
A copy of the scam e-mail is below:
from Kevin Hill 2kevinhill@gmail.com
subject Offer for CARGRANTS.COMWe are interested to buy your domain name CARGRANTS.COM and offer to buy it from you for 80% of the appraised market value.
As of now we accept appraisals from either one of the following leading appraisal companies:
– fleos.com
– sedo.comIf you already have an appraisal please forward it to us.
As soon as we have received your appraisal we will send you our payment (we use paypal for amounts less than $2,000 and escrow for amounts above $2,000) as well as further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.
We appreciate your business,
Yours truly,
Kevin Hill
Just got one this morning from guess who? Kevin Hill.
Went directly to google fleos.com. Thanks for your vigilance.
Just got one of these scam e-mails this morning. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
Well they probably keep finding enough idiots to keep this scam running
Got one this morning. Went directly to delete.
Thanks for making the leg work on discovering the legitimacy of these f***ers easy. WE ALL APPRECIATE YOUR EFFORT TO WRITE THESE REDUNDANT ARTICLES. Thanks again!
Steven Harris email sharrisgo@gmail.com just came in about an hour ago as well. I wrote about this this morning as well and have had lots of people stop by who Googled the email address etc.
Email exactly as above recieved, but this time from Mark Evans
Thanks for the article, I thought it might be suspicious – and you confirmed my fears.
And “flyrating.com”.
Eg:
Dear Sir or Madam,
We are interested to buy your domain name XXXXXXXX.com and offer to buy it from you for 65% of the appraised market value.
As of now we accept appraisals from either one of the following leading appraisal companies:
– flyrating.com
– sedo.com
If you already have an appraisal please forward it to us.
As soon as we have received your appraisal we will send you our payment (we use Paypal for amounts less than $2,000 and escrow.com for amounts above $2,000) as well as further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.
We appreciate your business,
Yours truly,
Mike Lopez
Note the space in “sed o.com”. Helps make sure the link won’t work.
Evil.
@ Jorge – that’s actually my doing. Fixing it now.
Many thanks! I recieved a email from Kevin Hill today…..fortunately I found your article while searching Fleos.com on Google…..otherwise I would have fallen for the scam!
Max
Thanks for having this article available online. We received an email today from Steven Harris with the identical email offer. Thought it looked suspicious and was happy to be able to confirm.
Yup we got one. Text exactly as above from “Steven Harris”
I have replied to “Mr Harris” 🙂
Thank’s for your time and valued advice.
Good work, thanks for the tip off. Has anyone starting beating or shooting these people? I’m all for human rights but would turn a blind eye if scammers and spammers we’re hunting down mercilessly 🙂
Yes, thanks for the advise, I just got one under the name Brian Harris. The same contents.
got one yesterday from Kevin Hill… thanks for your article found via google. regards
I receive this email,he change his email and name i guest.
Mark Evans”
We are interested to buy your domain name DAUU.COM and offer to buy
it from you for 80% of the appraised market value.
As of now we accept appraisals from either one of the following
leading appraisal companies:
– fleos.com
– sedo.com
If you already have an appraisal please forward it to us.
As soon as we have received your appraisal we will send you our
payment (we use paypal for amounts less than $2,000 and escrow for
amounts above $2,000) as well as
further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.
We appreciate your business,
Yours truly,
Mark Evans
Just got the scam email from markevans02@gmail.com.
He was not clever: I recognized the domain name fleos.com. It was on a drop list only a few weeks ago, and I keep notes of all the 5 letter soundable coms that I see on drop lists!
Interestingly, the domain he says he wants is a good one with 1M+ Google references.
Now I am more concerned because I have WHOIS privacy on this domain. How did he get my email address?
@ Lonsdale – often times they get an old whois list. So if you didn’t have privacy back in the day that’s how they emailed you. Otherwise, your privacy service probably forwards emails to you.
They are using old whois data and the url, names and email addies are changing..
Just rec’d one from B. Phillips, Resale Domain. (resaledomain@gmail.com) It offers 3 urls to choose from:
sedo.com
pddomains.com
accuratedomains.com
I suggest for everyone to purchase 10 appraisals and have your creditcard company make a chargeback, that scam from Malaysia or whatever will be over soon after those chargeback costs.
Tim – at least in early incarnations they just used PayPal. Withdraw the money before PayPal catches on.
burnstein@domainsecondhand.com
to me
show details Nov 18 (1 day ago)
Hello,
Our company invests in Internet projects and domain names. What is your
price for the domain name?
If you have other domains for sale feel free to send your list.
I received an e-mail from someone yesterday…which I have posted below. Has anyone heard of this guy? Is this a scam.
burnstein@domainsecondhand.com
to me
show details Nov 18 (1 day ago)
Hello,
Our company invests in Internet projects and domain names. What is your
price for the domain name?
If you have other domains for sale feel free to send your list.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Jeffrey Burnstein
CEO
Second Hand Domain & Web Site Investing & Reselling
Hi Becky, I just got that today. I was wondering the same thing.
Jeffrey Burnstein will offer to buy your domain name at a good price. He will then state that you must get it manually appraised, and provide a link to his blog. The blog promotes an appraisal company which is owned by him.
Hello, I have this question. Has anyone actually know if where Kevin comes from.. Meaning there are places that are known for SCAMS. Someone please let me know. Many women husband share his NAME…