InitrustDomainNames.com .org or Whatever Thanks But No Thanks
I am sure most of you reading this have received emails from various companies that like to offer you the ability to acquire the .COM of a .NET name that you may own. As domainers we know that these emails are a scam but many end users and people that do not focus on domains may fall for this scam.
I received one last week pointing out the .COM version of a geo niche name that we happen to own the .NET of. I want to say thank you to them for pointing out that the name was coming available, but no thanks, I do not need you to pick it up for me and then try to sell it to me for a much higher amount. Thanks for the help though : )
For people that are not educated about domain names I can see where a company could take advantage of the uneducated and charge them some amount of money to acquire a name they could of hand-registered just as easily after the drop. I will say that this is a good way to pre-qualify customers..... I say that sarcastically, obviously they do not acquire it until the customer has said that they want it. I am sure they get around the legality of this buy saying they will contact the buyer once the name is available for sale.
I was able to buy the name that evening after the drop, this domain is not an investment domain for me but is a development domain so I look forward to the increased revenue, the .NET is developed, nice to now have this one as well.
I have been getting these emails for years but for the non-domainers out there reading this watch out for people offering to let you know when a domain name is about to be available for sale, typically a real domain aftermarket or investor will already own the name and not be offering up the chance to buy it when it is available to be acquired. Although the process may seem technical it is possible to do a "whois" to determine if the name is registered or looking to be available for registration soon (this means it is in the pending delete status).
Companies like this are what can give real domain investors and domain aftermarket companies a bad name, but thanks again for pointing out that I could pick the name up at hand registration cost.
I just received an email from this same company this morning – I have the DOTnet – but the DOTcom is a name that is about to drop! This isn’t the first time that I’ve heard from them though … in the past, they actually tried seling me names that I already owned!
Here’s a few of their past web addresses:
http://bestinitrustdomains DOT biz (the latest as of this morning)
http://initrustdomainnames DOT us (August 17, 2009)
http://initrustdomain DOT biz (August 6, 2009)
http://initrustnames DOT biz ( May 31, 2009 )
http://intrustdelivery DOT biz (May 20, 2009 )
As you can see … each name is different, so it’s a scam 100%
Yep, you got it. Not the first time for me either, I am sure there are many non-tech types that fall for this, hopefully at least one reads this and does not fall for it.
The sad part is that a lot of non-domainers will probably fall for it! I get these type of letters a lot (another company that tried selling me MY domain name a few times in the past is called WebNameSolution DOTcom)…so watch out for this one too.
That cracks me up, selling you your own domain name, did you get a good price:)
WebNameSolution always offer t sell me names for the exactly the same price every time: $199.95 …
Three days ago, they (WebNameSolution) FINALLY offered me a name that I did not own … but when I looked up the name, I saw that it was dropping; So maybe they are adopting the same business model that InitrustDomainNames is using!
Thats awful nice of them to make you aware of the drop:) Worked for me:)
I see a domaingang.com post on this topic!
Yep,
It’s a good name that I am going to get tomorrow! So, the did me a favor by letting me know about it!!!
I will check out the domaingang post … thanks for the great post (I posted this subject as a warning on a few forums awhile back)!
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I actually got a good .com when these guys contacted me. They didn’t even own the name they were trying to sell me (for over $500.00), so I swooped in and hand regged it.
I was almost tempted to email back and thank them for the tip, BUT I decided if they want to bird dog domains for me, who am I to ruin a good thing?
In the old days of tasting, these guys would reg names and then drop them, but now they just try to sell domains they don’t own.
What sharks.
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