The DomainSecondHand.com Scam

So, for those of you who ready my blog regularly you know that I was tricked into getting a domain appraised through a company called DomainSecondHand.com. A reader, "Ann" was the first person to make me aware of the fact that this could be a scam. Unfortunately this was not until I already spent money with the site.

It all started a few weeks ago when I was contacted by a person who went by the name of Shawn McElligot. He contacted me with the following email:

Hello,

We are interested in thinkoutsideofbox.com

Your name was listed in online auction. What is your price for the name?

Our company is involved in software development/support business.

Now domain invetsing/reselling is just an additional direction of our investment strategy.

Look forward to do business with you.

Regards,
Shawn McElligot
President
GBW Software

After emailing back they indicated they wanted to buy the domain name for $36,000. I was excited, but obviously a bit cautious. I should have known from the spelling errors and grammar mistakes in the first email that this was a scam.  They said  that in order to buy my domain they would not accept my Sedo or Afternic appraisals because these were not done by hand - instead they suggested DomainSecondHand.com.

The DomainSecondHand.com website looked a big scrappy and was very thin with contact information or any real details about the company behind the site. Even still, I wanted to believe, and couldn't imagine this would be a scam. Well I spent a good amount of money on the site using their services and even listing one of my domains for sale through their service.

When I contacted the interested buyer who contact me, his story suddenly changed. He told me he wanted to help me sell the domain and would help promote it through sites like eBay. This is where I knew something was wrong, I emailed him back and asked if we could have a short phone call. He responded saying he was in Europe and the time schedule would make it too difficult.

Then I challenged his credibility and inquired into why he had me have the domain appraised through a different service than I had already. (And a service more expensive than either of the other two I had used!) He had no answers and instead kept insisting that I should give him commission on the sale of my domain!

I broke-off communications but hadn't quite put the pieces together. After seeing the post on my blog I searched Google and found the stories of others who had befallen the same fate as me.

I decided I was going to get my money back. I contacted Plimus and let them know the order numbers I wanted refunded. My domain listing was refunded almost immediately. The appraisals were another story.

In the section of the refund form I wrote:

Comments: CUSTOMER : Product not delivered - This is the second refund I need issued due to DomainSecondHand. This is an illegitimate company that is running out of Russia and is NOT supplying what they are promising. I would like a full refund as the domain appraisal is most likely fake and is not accepted by anyone online. Can you please ensure my credit card is NOT charged again by this company?

To which DomainSecondHand responded and attempted to refuse my return!

Dear Morgan,

We are a legitimate company and we never make unauthorized charges. You can check it yourself by checking your credit card account.

We already provided you with refund for listing. Our appraisal service is reasonable and we are always doing what we promise. We have thousands of happy customers. Please show us appraisals of the same domains from at least two major sources. If there is a big diference in results we will provide you with refund. You should prove first that our appraisal is not reasonable. Otherwise you are trying to use our services for free.

Your appraisal was not accepted by anyone online. Please email us full contact information of people who did not accept our appraisal. I think you must be responsible for your statements. So email us their contact information or don't make false statements.

We have your order on file. You have agreed with our user agreement in which we stated that we did not provide refunds for this service. We have already paid independent experts for appraisal of your name and we cannot cancel this transaction. Our company does not earn money on appraisals. We pay all the money to experts and provide this service to satisfy demands of our domain sellers.

Well I was not going to let someone take advantage of me and then have the company try to bully me out of my money, so I responded:

I found-out about your service through an individual that said they wanted to buy my name. They required that I get the domain appraised by you and only you in order to sell the domain to them. After getting the appraisal they disappeared.

I have been reading a lot online about this being a scam. See links below:

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/archive/index.php/t-243529.html

Here’s a post on NamePro’s all about this:

http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/368466-scam-me-allen_asch-toughguy-net.html

I was tricked into using your appraisal service and within the domain community your site is known for being a scam. If you are a legitimate company please provide me a telephone number so I can talk with someone at your company. The only number on your website says Phone/Fax but is only a Fax number.

I would like to know where your company is operating from and a telephone number I can use to reach you. I hope you understand that your website is listed all over every popular domain forum as being a scam site…seems odd this hasn’t shown-up on your radar yet.

The appraisal you provided me is not accepted by anyone since you have such a bad reputation online. I am prepared to take this to the next-level to get my money back. Please respond with a telephone number and the state that you conduct business in. Please provide me with the person who performed my appraisal and their accreditations. I will be contacting the BBB should I not hear back from you immediately.

Please understand that when your website is listed on a scam on every major website and your telephone number just rings to a fax machine it’s a little suspicious. Why would you not provide a company phone number and address like any other company on the Internet? Notice I give the address and phone number for my company below – this is what all businesses do…

Looking forward to receiving your answers to my questions.

And, for those of you still following the saga...I got my refund! See final email below:

Dear Morgan,

We will investigate this. If you think you were scammed by our affiliate please email us his name and contact information.

We will also provide you with refund for the service. Our reputation is important for us.

Sincerely,

Shirley M. Leurquin
Customer Support

Now, the only remaining question in my mind is, "is this really a legitimate company." They still have not confirmed that they did a real appraisal. They did not respond to my questions as to who did my appraisal and why they are someone with an expertise in domain names. I also asked why they had no contact phone number or address on their site. I received no response to this so will continue to dig deeper.

Shawn McElligot would not scam me with a website that he is not somehow making money off of. He would not just send me to a legitimate site demanding I get a appraisal from them, if there isn't some money in it for him too. So there's something fishy with DomainSecondHand.com.

I will continue to find-out more about this and get to the bottom of this scam. Hopefully this will prevent others from being taken-advantage of by this company. The good news is I have all my money back...now to solve the mystery!

Comments

[Nick]

Not to add to your nightmare (I also was solicited by these guys) but did you notice the name of the Customer Service person?

Shirley M. Leurquin = surely I'm lurking

[Truecolours]

Hi

Can someone advise me as I have also spent a small sum to get appraised by domainsecondhand.com, after receiving a similar email. ? I am trying to get my refund back but domainsecondhand.com refused and threaten to counter report me.