Sunday, November 13, 2011

Domain Boutique Scam: Beware of the latest Domain Sale Scam

A couple of months ago, I reported a domain appraisal scam targeting domainers with domains listed mainly on Sedo. The company's name was apparently Brand Domain Name Services LLC. These scammers went silent for about a month but it seems the same people or someone replicating their methods have reemerged as Domain Boutique.

Below is one of the emails they have sent out presumably by someone called Aaron Wedel. Expect the name of the "Presidents" to change every few days. Last time, we put a courageous effort in putting a stop to the scam. Let us do it again!! I have been getting some incoming traffic regarding this latest scam based on a previous post, which led me to do a little research and land on this post on a GoDaddy Forum

The email comes from aaron-wedel@name-boutique.com. In order to look legit, they have forwarded the domain www.name-boutique.com to www.nameboutique.com which is a legit domain registration business. So someone who types the domain www.name-boutique.com will land on www.nameboutique.com and might be led to think they are dealing with a legit business. This is why it's important to protect your brands online across many TLDs and also register many common typos and hyphenated versions of your domain name, scums like this will likely abuse it to defraud internet users. As DomainTools clearly shows, Nameboutique.com was registered in 2003 and offers legitimate domain services to users while domain-boutique.com was registered 1 month ago and is scamming and defrauding newbies in the domain business.

But if nameboutique.com cannot even undertake defensive registrations for their own company which is in the domain business for God's sake, why should I trust them to protect mine?

If you get such an email from aaron-wedel@name-boutique.com or from another name @name-boutique.com, please share your experiences with us so that we can forewarn more internet users, especially the newbies in the domain business. These scums should be exposed at the earliest opportunity for a trusted and safe internet!!

‘’Hello,
We are interested in purchasing your domain name.

Our company is in hosting and domain name business.

Please email us your desired price in USD or euros for the domain name in the subject line.
If you have other names for sale please email us your domains with prices.

Looking forward to doing business with you.
Regards,
Aaron Wedel
President
Domain Boutique’’

 Work can be republished with attribution. Email Us africadomainnames@gmail.com

14 comments:

  1. If you respond you get a reply asking you to go to their "recommended" domain name appraisal and valuation service which, surprise, surprise, charges a fat fee. It's a badly organised scam and they don't cover their internic tracks very well!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I got the same thing today, for my domain name "mw3source.com".

    ReplyDelete
  3. I got same stuff this morning for my domain ez4shoppers.com.......is this scam?

    -----------------------------------------------
    Hello,

    We are interested in purchasing your domain name.

    Our company is in hosting and domain name business.

    Please email us your desired price in USD or euros for the domain name in the subject line.

    If you have other names for sale please email us your domains with prices.

    Looking forward to doing business with you.

    Regards,

    Aaron Wedel

    President

    Domain Boutique

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am the next one in their list, a long discussion leading to authorizedappraisal.com which seems to be, according to them, the only proper domain name valuation service. At least they don't accept alternatives which certainly raises some good questions...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Same here, got an e-mail from buy-domain-hosting.com that they wanted to buy one of my domains. Got into the same discussion about valuation services. Big hoax I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It looks like the current 'president' is Joshua Lederberg.
    Thanks for posting this. I've been back and forth with this idiot on a four-letter domain of mine, and dang if what you describe doesn't match this to a "T".

    ReplyDelete
  7. I got an email today (7 Dec 2011), from ian-abramson@buy-domain-hosting.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. yeah me too
    ian-abramson@buy-domain-hosting.com offering me 10k but I need to buy a manual valuation first. Reffering me to this blog http://www.thenamepros.com/Archive/486520479.htm

    seems very fishy

    ReplyDelete
  9. Man they got me for a 100 bucks.. Said he wanted to buy 2 of my sites. DayTradeOrDie.com and keepmyhome.net. WHen I told him how much I want for them, he said "how does 10k sound" and then sent me to that same BS archive section.

    Im now trying to get my bank to flag it as a scam and get my money back. They also go through a merchant named swreg. I've contacted them about the scam to see if they'll shut it down.

    They company they use (i looked up in WhoIs) is not a valid company according to corporatewiki. These people are fakes. hopefully I get my money back..

    so does this mean that authorizedapprasals is a scam too? They have adds from people saying they want certain domains..

    Are they ripping people off both ways? Im going to see but still report them as a scam and get my money back...

    ReplyDelete
  10. I looked them up on WhoIs.net and turns out the same guy behind ian-abramson@buy-domain-hosting.com is also running the authorizedappraisals.com site.

    They are both owned by the same company... Domains by Proxy, Inc. which is a fake.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I received an email from these people. I simply replied "Hello. I would accept XX,000 for the domain names with payment in US dollars. As for "domain experts", you can contact whoever you wish. That would be your responsibility"

    ReplyDelete
  12. I recived an email, it say :
    "Hello,

    We want to buy your domain name.

    Our company is in hosting and domain name business.

    Please email us your desired price in USD or euros for the domain name in the subject line.

    If you have other names for sale please email us your domains with prices.

    Looking forward to doing business with you.

    Regards,

    Michael Fishbein

    Vice President

    Buy Domain Hosting LLC

    ========================================================
    NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
    information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
    viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
    unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
    message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
    and deleting it from your computer.
    ========================================================"

    Is It SCAM ?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Here is a detailed reply.
    I was just about to pay for an appraisal, one click away and figured I better look them up first and vola. This post saved my ass. Thank you.

    >> What do you think about 25,000 USD for your domain name?
    >>
    >> Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain
    >> appraisals. Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It's
    >> very important for me in terms of reselling too. But we must engage a
    >> valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept
    >> valuations from independent sources I and my partners trust.
    >>
    >> To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal
    >> companies. Please check this blog with suggestions from other sellers
    >> and buyers:
    >> http://www.thenamepros.com/Archive/617420369.htm
    >>
    >>
    >> Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?
    >>
    >> Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.
    >>
    >> If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking
    >> price accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% -
    >> 15% discount.
    >>
    >> After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to
    >> obtain it) we'll continue our negotiations.
    >>
    >> What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire
    >> transfer, PayPal.com or something else?
    >>
    >> Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
    >>
    >> Looking forward to your reply.
    -----------------------------------------------------------------
    >>
    >>> Hi Arron
    >>>
    >>> Thanks for the email.
    >>>
    >>> Our Company CanadianCougars is in name acquisitions and some development
    >>> of those names we fall in love with such as plentyof-fish.com
    >>>
    >>> That name is appealing to sit on and drive traffic to our own dating
    >>> domains.
    >>> However, we are always open to offers. To be frank I have no price in
    >>> mind and
    >>> it seems every time I give a price I shoot myself in the foot so to
    >>> speak.
    >>>
    >>> Please put forth your best fair offer. If it is satisfactory with us we
    >>> can
    >>> move forward. I will not counter if your offer is fair.
    >>>
    >>> Please see a list of domains here up for offers presently.
    >>> http://www.domainportfolio.com/54d6350b7870
    >>>
    >>> I am open to offers and suggestions.
    >>>
    >>> Happy Holidays, prosperity & Success to you
    >>>
    >>> John
    >>>
    >>>
    >>> Quoting aaron-baum@buy-domain-hosting.com:
    >>>
    >>>> Hello,
    >>>>
    >>>> We want to purchase your domain.
    >
    >> Our company is in hosting and domain name business.
    >
    > Please email us your desired price in USD or euros for the omain
    > name in the subject line.
    >
    > If you have other names for sale please email us your domains with
    > prices.
    >
    > Looking forward to doing business with you.
    >
    > Regards,
    >
    > Aaron Baum
    >
    > President
    >
    > Buy Domain Hosting Inc.
    > ========================================================
    > NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
    > information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
    >> viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
    > unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
    > message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the
    > message
    > and deleting it from your computer.
    > ========================================================

    ReplyDelete
  14. Same thing for me. i paid with paypal but filing a dispute which i'm sure i would win.

    Joshua Adelman joshua-adelman@domain-hosting-service.com
    2:59 AM (11 hours ago)

    to UnlimitedHost
    5000. Ok. I'm also interested in
    DOUBLECLICK.COM.SG - 5000 USD

    TOPSITE.ASIA- 5000USD
    Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain appraisals. Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It's very important for me in terms of reselling too. But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources I and my partners trust.

    To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies. Please check this blog with suggestions from other sellers and buyers:
    http://www.thenamepros.com/Archive/815360279.htm

    Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?

    Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.
    If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% - 15% discount.

    After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we'll continue our negotiations.

    What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?

    Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

    Looking forward to your reply.

    ReplyDelete