Scam moves to a new domain.
I’m getting tired of writing these stories (again), but I consider them a public service announcement.
A long running domain name appraisal scam has moved to a new domain name, Macez.com. That the scammers keep moving shows that the scam is working well by getting unsuspecting people to pay for an appraisal at Macez.com.
If you receive this email, hit “report spam” on your email client. Do not buy a domain appraisal from macez.com.
from Mark Allen [email protected]
date Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 5:42 AM
subject Offer for your domain (domainname.com)We are interested to buy your domain name (domainname.com) and offer to buy it from you for 70% of the appraised market value.
As of now we accept appraisals from either one of the following leading appraisal companies:
macez.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.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,
Mark Allen
I got that email today also.
Thanks for the info about this scam.
Thanks also. Got same email today… very suspicious. The domain name was expired.
I got the same email. Anyone have any suggestions on who we can report these emails too?
The only group you can really report this to is PayPal. However, each of their scams uses PayPal so they just set up a new account.
I got that email today too. Thanks for the info.
The emails are annoying.
I also got this email today and even though I thought it was a scam it was nice to have that confirmed by your website. Thanks for taking the time to have this public service announcement.
I sure hope nobody falls for this scam!!!
I got this a few times too. Thanks for having this out there.
Yep, same here…
Thank you for the information, usually when I received such a emails I turn into google search… and I found you… 🙂
Just got this email today. It’s the second like this in the past week or two. I wish I was getting real offers for my domains.
Got same e-mail. My response was to tell him he is welcome to pay for the appraisal and I would consider his very low-ball offer. Gosh. Wonder why he hasn’t gotten back. 🙂
I think a lot of people fall for this scam. Only a few are really tech savy enough to figure it is not a real offer.
I got the same e-mail for a .com that was expired a year ago and is totally free for registration. Domain Name Wire, you really seem to be on top of things. Consider yourself bookmarked!
Hi Dub-A,
Here’s your answer for your readers to these scams:
If a “buyer” asks you to use an escrow service, act excited, and ask them to send you all the info they have to get involved. Act as if you’re “in” and you’re ready to deal. Then play out the game as long as possible. If all domainers do this, imagine the hundreds of requests they’ll get that will go NOWHERE.
Domainers, have fun with these guys! Ask them to provide as much info as possible to move forward, and act as if you are. Send emails asking them questions. Ask for a phone number. Call the number (as if they have one), but email them constantly requesting advice.
boy, will that scam get old REALLY QUICK!
I hate to reveal the deviousness of my mind, but those who know me know that I will come back with a battle plan 20 times worse than the “attack” someone brings to my table. And there are so many “options”. lol
cheers!
Stephen – the problem with these guys is that they don’t respond to any emails. I’ve tried to egg them on. Instead, they just want people to go buy that appraisal.
hmmm… I just tried this tactic I suggested above and I haven’t received a response yet, although it’s only been a day.
You are probably right. They’re just pounding the spam and responding only to those people who are clicking the links to get started in their scam scheme.
If they respond, I’ll send you their info so you can post it in a followup article.
cheers!
I almost fell for this domain scam where this guy coming from Friedman” <[email protected] was trying to get a legitiment site that I had thinking about selling. He told me if I got an appraisal he would buy it for 10% less and let me to believe it would sell for alot. He must of went on ebay and seen I was selling it already. glad I copied and posted to google that alwasy catches these scammers!!! LOL
macez.com is not being used as a domain appraisal. The owner is a creative artisan and uses the site rarely to showcase stunning piece(s) of art. Could you please leave a contact to which domain companies that have or are still continuing to misuse the name macez.com?
It appears the domain expired and was then registered in 2018, many years after the appraisal scam. So it would not appear anyone is currently using it for those reasons.