Domain Name Appraisal Scams
Occasionally, you will receive an unsolicited offer or at least interest in a domain name that you hold.
At the point that you enter into negotiation, your mystery buyer will ask you to get the name appraised at one of the “independent” domain name appraisal sites, just to confirm the value.
The harsh truth is that there probably isn’t a buyer at all – and that the email you have received enquiring after your name, is actually just somebody trying to get you to buy a domain name appraisal – either as an affiliate of one of the appraisal sites (in which case they earn a commission from the cost of the appraisal), or from a scam artist posing as a potential buyer.
You won’t sell your domain name. You will spend money on a worthless appraisal. If a potential buyer asks for an appraisal, walk away from the negotions without further dialogue – or send them to this page so they can see that you’ve done your research.
No buyer will ever ask for an appraisal unless they are:
- A domain broker looking to beat you down on price
- A scammer after your money
- Either way, you can’t win.
We are often asked to link to and recommend domain name appraisal companies. Some offer us considerable financial incentives to do so.
To date, we have not seen one that we could honestly recommend – and we’ve looked at lots of them.