Mutating Domain Appraisal Scam — The Incredible

Scam must be working as it keeps moving to fresh domain names.

First Pozde.com. Then TropicalNames.com. Then NameOrange. Now the latest domain name appraisal scam has moved to FlyAppraisals.com. It’s all the same scam and the same scammers.

You get an email offering to buy your domain name for some percentage of the appraisal price:

We are interested to buy your domain name DOMAIN.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 firms:

The email lists three appraisal firms, two of which are legit and one is the scammer’s. The scammer’s appraisal service is the cheapest, so many people opt for it.

The previous three scam appraisal services looked like they were created by a 5 year old. But the latest at FlyAppraisals.com goes upscale, with fancy animated graphics and some groovy music. The site even includes a guarantee that if you aren’t able to sell your domain for the appraised price within 6 months you’ll get your money back or they’ll buy the domain. The site uses PayPal for payments, and you can’t dispute PayPal transactions for “services”. Even if you pay with a credit card you typically can’t dispute it 6 months later. The web site refers to some “Terms & Conditions” that may apply, counting “Our offer to buy your domain name might or might not be for the full appraised value” and that you have to make efforts to sell your domain name.

Kind of reminds me of another firm with “Fly” in the name that you ought to have stayed away from.