EBay domain name scammer — Nailing an
Earlier this month I wrote regarding buying domains on eBay. Although you can find some good deals, I listed a number of drawbacks to eBay versus other domain sales sites like Sedo and Afternic.
It was just a couple days later that I got an e-mail through eBay’s system from a user called “TopNotchDomains”. He contacted me since he saw that I had bid on domain names and he wanted me to look at his auctions for domains. (Using eBay’s member contact system for these purposes is against the eBay’s TOS, by the way). I clicked on the link to his auctions and found a number of good domains starting at $.01. But there was fine print at the bottom of his auctions: a $15 transfer charge. (Tacking on fees like this is also against eBay’s TOS). I decided that I wouldn’t bid on any of his domains even if they were good since he was trying to slip this transfer fee into his auctions. No one uses registrars that have transfer fees anymore and it was clear that TopNotchDomains was just pocketing this money from unsuspecting clients.
I wanted to find out more regarding this seller, so I copied one of his domains into Whois.sc to get his details. But whois didn’t bring up any results–since the domain wasn’t registered!! I then checked a number of other domains he had listed and found them to not be registered as well. Following watching his auctions for a few days I figured out exactly what he was up to: find decent unregistered domains, list them on eBay, and then register them when someone bid on the domain. With the $15 transfer fee he was guaranteed of making money regardless of the final bid.
I thought regarding reporting him to eBay but then I got a better idea. Why not feed off of this guy’s research of available domains? Every day I checked in on his auctions to find fresh listings. When I found a domain I liked I registered it. Most of the time he then removed the domain from auction, but occasionally someone would bid on the domain ahead of he did this. He must have cancelled the bids and claimed that someone had stolen the domain from him (or some other excuse). Amazingly he managed to avoid negative feedback. He also kept all of his auctions private so as not to identify the bidders. I bet this was so that no one could contact the bidders and tell them they were being scammed. I found it satisying to toy with this scammer, especially since I got some good domains in the process.
Alas, someone complained to eBay regarding the scam and TopNotchDomains is no longer a registered user.
Caveat emptor.
UPDATE 1:30pm cst:
Apparently TopNotchDomains is back on eBay and his status as “no longer a registered user” was only temporary. But he’s up to the same tricks, listing domains he doesn’t own.
UPDATE 11/8:
TopNotchDomains has been kicked off eBay again.
