Fraud Alert: Namejet Bidder Selling A Domain Before The Auction Ends

namejetI got an email from someone named “Scott York, SLY Media” trying to sell me a domain name that is currently in auction at Namejet.

The domain name is integratedcircuits.com. I immediately checked whois and saw that the domain is in “Pending Renewal or Deletion” status and is in an auction at Namejet. I asked how much and I was quoted a $2,000 price.

The email came from Scott York, syork@slymedia.com. I have no idea what the seller’s bid alias is.

This person that is using a fake name is trying to negotiate a sale before the auction ends. If he/she reaches a deal for $2,000 he/she probably will bid up to certain amount that allows them to get some profit. I suggest that anyone in this auction be very careful or they might get bid up.

This has happened to me a few times before. One time it was from Prakhar Bindal that was the winning bidder of iWire.com for $7,777 that was trying to sell the domain before he had paid for it at Snapnames.

I believe that Namejet should do something about this problem.

Here is the email, including headers, from the people trying to sell integratedcircuits.com.

Good Morning,

You own a name very similar to a domain name we recently received an offer on, Integratedcircuits.com.

Before this name is gone for good, I wanted to ask if you feel the domain would be of benefit to you.

If you would give me a call at +1 (818) 964 1115 or send a quick reply via email letting me know it would be most appreciated.

Scott York

SLY Media

PS: If there is someone else I should reach out to regarding this please let me know or be so kind to forward this on to him or her.

Headers:

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Date: Sun, 1 Nov 2015 08:41:17 -0800 [11/01/2015 16:41:17 UTC]
Delivered-To: *****
From: Scott York <syork@slymedia.com>
In-Reply-To: <****>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Message-ID: <563640AD.8040302@slymedia.com>
Received:
  • from sender163-mail.zoho.com (sender163-mail.zoho.com [74.201.84.163]) by **** (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C8A8213002F0 for <****>; Sun, 1 Nov 2015 11:41:17 -0500 (EST)
  • from [192.168.13.168] (wsip-64-58-147-242.oc.oc.cox.net [64.58.147.242]) by mx.zohomail.com with SMTPS id 1446396075584538.0420458824058; Sun, 1 Nov 2015 08:41:15 -0800 (PST)
References: <150bf0bba97.117860cec500784.3539094352181694223@slymedia.com> <****>
Return-Path: <syork@slymedia.com>
Subject: Re: Integratedcircuits Domain
To: Konstantinos Zournas <***********>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.3.0
X-No-Auth: unauthenticated sender
X-No-Relay: not in my network
X-Original-To: ****
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.2 (2011-06-06) on ****
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=6.0 tests=BAYES_00, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_BLOCKED autolearn=ham version=3.3.2
Sold.Domains

About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

16 comments

  1. This above party out of India is still at work, they use some warehouse address in NJ as their address, and are still front running.

    Most of this hotbed activity comes out of India, I would have encouraged you to make a tongue and cheek deal, and weed out the username.

    • His real name is Prakhar Bindal and after digging more into it. I came to the conclusion that he is a fraud and runs a company with name Namekart.com and bids with name “anubhavit” on Namejet

  2. Well, I think he wanted to get a buyer before he bids so as to make a profit. Was that not how a a domain was sold this year within 24 hours of ending sedo auction for over 1000% profit? I think it was apps.de or so. I cant remember. But lots of guys do it.

    It’s a case of not sitting on a domain name for too long but getting a sure buyer.

  3. I have been contacted a couple of different times by this person or somebody sending the same formulaic email. I think the person behind this is the person behind W7 Media and Level2.com. They keep changing their “name” and email address but still use the same formulaic email.

    It’s one thing to be upfront about the name being in auction, it’s shady to claim ownership of a name you don’t, though. Fraud is right!

  4. Hot air selling or front-running domain auctions is still a big issue.

  5. A year ago I’ve had some company trying to sell me my OWN domain name, which at the time was in a pre-release auction at Namejet. I assume they contacted (spammed) plenty of other people as well. As a result my own domain name was SPAMMED without my knowledge or consent. Potential buyers were probably ruined because of this.
    The auction didn’t meet reserve though so the domain stayed in my possession.

    To make things worse a couple of months ago I listed the domain name for a second time at Namejet and the same company once again emailed me again when the auction was still running. Below their email (which was actually the same template as their first email eventhough the company in the first email was MEXXA Inc. and in the new email it was Comtera.com and the name changed from Jason Warner to Jason Gores):


    From: Jason Gores [mailto:jgores@comtera.com]
    Sent: Tuesday August 18th, 2015 – 17:04
    To: xxxx@xxxxx.com
    Subject: XXXXXXXX Domain Name

    Good Day,

    Thank you for your interest. Our company recently received an offer for the XXXXXXX.com domain name. I wanted to a moment to check in with you before the name is committed. Please call me at +1 (818) 964 1115 or email me if there is any interest on your end. We are looking to make a decision within the next few days.

    Jason Gores
    COMTERA

    For fun I answered:

    “I’m interested. How do I proceed?”

    So they replied back:

    From: Jason Gores [mailto:jgores@comtera.com]
    Sent: Wednesdag August 19th, 2015 – 20:36
    To: XXXXXX
    Subject: Re: XXXXXXXX Domain Name

    Hi XXXX,

    Our price for this domain is $9,500 USD.

    Jason

    For fun I once again replied:

    “The domain is probably worth that amount but I would need to see WHOIS proof that the domain name is yours.”

    Haven’t heard from them since.

  6. Most of these spam emails seem to troll Go Daddy expiring auctions as well and then look for “similar” domains on Whois.

    I blame Go Daddy, Namejet, Snapnames, NewVcorp (shell/shill company of the Web.com company), blah, blah, blah, because they enable this kind of unethical behavior by running auctions of domains that they admit that even they really don’t own.

    Sooner or later, this registrar nonsense will be rooted out and stopped.

    At least Go Daddy allows for a liberal renew policy — except that screws over the buyer.

  7. With a name like SLY MEDIA what could possibly make you think twice?

  8. Namejet gets higher prices because of the practice so they are never going to anything about it unless someone is actually defaulting on payment. Best to assume that if you are bidding other people may well be contacting all the obvious endusers.

  9. Warning, the registrar PremiumNic.com has disappeared! It redirects to http://nicmarket.com

  10. This joker just contacted us regarding an ongoing auctions at NJ.
    Using another fake name of course.

    twhite@base5.com

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