A shady domain broker practice

Telling a domain owner you have a buyer for their domain when you don’t is unethical.

I want to highlight a domain broker practice that gives the industry a bad name.

I’ll call it the “phantom buyer”. Here’s how it works.

A domain broker contacts a domain owner and states they have a buyer interested in their specific domain name.

The broker doesn’t really have a buyer for the specific domain, but wants to get the domain owner to agree to have the broker find a buyer for it based on this lie.

Essentially, the broker uses the lie that someone is interested in the domain in order to get a “listing” from the owner. He then works his contacts to try to sell the domain shortly following getting the commitment.

If you’re a broker and want to try to sell someone’s domain, be honest with them. Tell them you have a number of buyers that have purchased domains like theirs in the past (if that’s true) and you want to present the domain to them. Even give examples of deals you’ve been able to close. Don’t lie by saying you have a buyer that wants their particular domain. That’s unethical.