I think I know, but feel free to dig in some more.
I just received a scam phone call and I’m trying to figure out what the perpetrator’s goal is. I have an idea, but I figure some readers might know more.
The caller said he was with “an independent agency with I-C-A-N-N”. He didn’t say “I-CAN”, he actually said each letter separately.
He then said that it was necessary to verify the information associated with domain names once a year. He asked if I was the owner of a particular domain name.
I happen to know that I did own the domain name, but it expired recently and is in pending delete. He then proceeded to verify all of my information as seen in whois before the domain expired.
I played along to try to learn what was going on.
At the end of the call, I asked him again who he was with.
“We’re just an independent agency with I-C-A-N-N”, he said. “We do back office work and updates for them.”
Now, obviously this is not true.
When I pressed the caller, he said “apparently we cannot disclose our name.”
The call originated from 312-600-4812. I googled that phone number, which led me to DirectoryDeal.com and DirectoryPals.com. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say these sites are trying to perpetrate click fraud:
[Update: the sites were taken down shortly after this post was published.]
Both of these domains actually frame the site calidirectory.com.
And if you visit them more than once, you get this message:
The domain name the page asked me to click on is owned by Domain Asset Recovery.
If you look at the HTML in the frame, you’ll see that the site operator keeps rotating in different domain names, all owned by Domain Asset Recovery. The image takes this format:
calidirectory.com/files/ZX_Survey3/image2/32195.jpg
Just change that number before .jpg and you get domain names such as nicholslawfirmllc.com, meierlawoffices.com, lawofficeofmichaelanatole.com, and thewillislawfirm.com. They’re all owned by Domain Asset Recovery.
[Update: the sites were taken down shortly after this post was published.]
Which leads me to one conclusion, based on this: I’m going to be contacted shortly about recovering this domain name. The caller wanted to verify there would be an actual person that can be reached that might still want the domain.
I was called recently on a random domain I was letting drop by someone saying they were from the Las Vegas Yellow Pages (which I thought was really weird because neither I nor the domain had anything to do with Vegas. The word Baltimore was part of the domain even). Anyway this person was just asking me if I actvelt trade on the business and just wanted to know if I’d like my free listing in the Las Vegas Yellow Pages to remain active. I of couse said yes, why not? Although I had no idea what she was talking about.
The next week I got a call from “Domain Asset Recovery” telling me they could rescue my domain from droppig for a hefty fee (although it had already dropped and was freely available).
So yes I think the first call was to qualify me for the second call.
Would love a follow-up to this story if anyone has the conclusion. There should be a site on all different ways of domainer scam but I wouldnt want to provide ideas for those bad apples either.
The person behind this scam is Richard Saperstein same guy who is running click fraud scam Morgan Linton wrote about here:
http://morganlinton.com/clickmillions-review/
We have emails from him as we asked many times to be removed from his call center call list. This guy gives the industry a bad name!
James, your facts are way off and you are spreading false information.
Richard
If you would like me to post our private emails you sent me from your corporate@wealthinvestors.com email address I can.
I’m not sure about all of the individuals involved, but I do know this:
-The phone number on the call led me to the click fraud site
-All 5 of the domains I pulled up on the click fraud site were owned by Domain Asset Recovery
-The email address on the whois for Domain Asset Recovery at one time was @wealthinvestors.com
-WealthInvestors.com and ClickMillions.com registered to same person.
I guess the best way to communicate with these guys would over email: “Sorry, I don’t have a time to talk now. Pls email your questions to me” This way you would have some written proof and it also would be easier to trace them.
My experience tells me they won’t do it. These types of people are pretty good at evading your questions. The different this time is they called from a number that was tied to a couple domain names in whois.
Andrew, exactly! And that would limit these scam calls
Yeah, the problem isn’t you or me, though. It’s the person who thinks it’s legit. They won’t know to ask for it via email.
I’ve had about a dozen calls during the past 2-3 months that seem similar. The last one was yesterday. Sometimes I’d get back-to-back calls from the same person about different domains. Mine have never mentioned “I-C-A-N-N”, but they have asked to verify my Whois contact information without ever disclosing a reason for the call. Never a sales pitch or a purchase attempt. In my case, it’s always someone with a foreign accent claiming to be involved with some directory site. And, if memory serves, the domains in question were expired at the time. So I’m guessing it’s the same scammers.
Probably. Do you have the phone numbers saved? Maybe the one from yesterday? You can email it to me if it’s different from the one I posted.
Sounds like a Fishing Scam for easy “targets and accumulating of information for current & future reference” for the purpose of Offering great SCAM deals related to Buying and / or Selling fraudulent DN Deals.
Hmm… Sounds like another phishing scam. There’s a lot of different tricks reported at Callercenter.com are all are attempts to get personal information under the guise of verifying information.
But don’t be fooled. It’s a bluff and anybody who receives such a call should hang up.
The reason for the call is a fishing expedition to find a fish who is interested in the deleted domain. In most cases these guys do not even own the domain, however when they have a sucker on the line who expresses interest they quickly register it using Dynadot.com. They are using Dynadot as they have a “delete” option available that gives Richard Saperstein back a partial refund for the registration. Since his is a numbers game, he is abusing the Dynadot delete/refund policy with the 5 day grace period.
Search the email admin@domainassetrecovery.com at domaintools.com, you will find hundreds of registrations for domains within the past 60 days with a great percentage of them now available for registration again. Come on Richard Saperstein, own up we were not born yesterday.
Well, Richard is/was with Wealth Investors, right?
http://www.hybriddomainer.com/2013/02/hybrid-domainer-welcomes-new-writer-richard-saperstein.html
So why was Wealth Investors (seemingly) shut down, and how is Click Millions different? Same people, right?
And if Domain Asset Recovery is linked to Wealth Investors, which is linked to Click Millions, and some of DAR’s domains are using click fraud, does that explain the fantastic numbers Click Millions is showing?
Richard, come on back and explain yourself – Andrew has some valid questions that need explaining.
These guys must have a lot of free time!! I wonder what percentage of their calls actually “covert”! Couldn’t they find something more decent and productive to do with their time? It just takes little thinking.
I cannot count the times I’ve received messages to my whois email addresses offering domains I might be interested in. Seriously, you can do much better with that time.
Interesting stuff, Andrew I know that after the first article which was prompted by all the stuff on the Parking thread at Namepros, we did not have a follow up article because I did not like the review Morgan did and then some people were saying they had problems with Click Millions.
This was posted yesterday on Namepros
Hey everyone!
Do to some recent events I am going to stop training people one on one or supplying information to people on how to make money in this industry.
Recently several “Domainers” who I won’t mention by name have taken it upon themselves to post false and malicious information about me which has resulted in problems for me.
To give you an idea of the problems I’m facing:
1. People paying for 1 on 1 services then purposely filing a dispute with their card carrier
2. Other big domainars are mad because they don’t like the fact I am teaching others about this. They have even gone as far as contacting parking companies to spread false and malicious lies.
3. People posting false stories about me, other owners, and products.
Granted those aren’t big issues but when I receive emails/threats about me or my family I take those very serious.
therefore I am going to just enjoy my life now and I hope you all understand the choice I am making. I hope you all continue to find some level of success and wish that you never have to experience the problems i’m facing right now.
I will check my emails from time to time and will continue to read the forums and follow what’s going on but that’s about it.
Best of luck to you all!
RJ
http://www.namepros.com/759473-domain-parking-tips-tricks-help-you-24.html#post4538914
Guess thats
Richard Saperstein’s saga is unraveling.
The feds closed down several of his sites, and BBB gave all his ventures D-
http://morganlinton.com/clickmillions-review/ – an expose of Saperstein’s methods
wealthinvestors.com – was his main site
http://www.bbb.org/memphis/business-reviews/business-opportunity-companies/wealth-investors-in-collierville-tn-44054522 — BBB account
Fed’s closed down my sites? What are you talking about? lol
I’m no longer part of the Clickmillions program or Wealth Investors. Never once have the “FEDS” approached me or another other partners. Stop spreading false information.