Possible scam on domains and sites

There is likely a new scam email going about, seems to have been fired off repeatedly with many many people getting it all from different names and email addresses but with the same text so I’d be very wary, looks like a scam, the email I received goes like this:

I am interested in purchasing your web site xxxxxxxx.com . If you would like to sell it send me your phone number to call you.
I have cash to buy today!

Thank you

My email was from a ‘Phemie Dull’ aol email address, however the name/email address is different for others like Michael and Andrew, so just a heads up in case you get the same.

About Scott Jones

Scott hails from the north east of Scotland and started earning online at the end of 2000 building websites for local businesses during which time he won an award from Lord Alan Sugar for Excellence in Enterprise. After having quite a bit of success with domaining Scott mainly runs educational evergreen websites which generate over 3 million visitors per month but is always on the lookout for a fresh thinking out of the box way to turn a buck. Follow on Twitter.

Comments

  1. Yep. I got one also.
    Mine was from a “Kathryn Haile” at a gmail address. It reads:

    I just came accross your website vagablond.com, I liked it very much and I have an interest to purchase it. If you are interested in selling it, please give me your phone number, so we can talk.
    I have cash to buy today!

    Thank you in advance

    branden’s last blog post..N’awlin’s :: Good News/Bad News

  2. Today I’ve received the same email, and by mistake I’ve deleted it. :) I have to say that I was curious at beginning.

    M!hai @ Freshome’s last blog post..Stink Coffee Table, A Table That Cracked

  3. The first reply to these should be how did they find you, would they be interested in payment through escrow & also add up your phone number in case they turn out to be a legit client.

    Amit Bhawani’s last blog post..Power-up Tips to Improve Laptop Battery Life

  4. I don’t think anyone has heard back and actually worked out what the scam conists of but it’s been prolific in the last 24 hours, I have had a few.

  5. I got one from Dinah Losey, it was for an old neglected site of mine. I did reply and heard nothing back yet, strange scam.

  6. The most interesting thing, is how he got our emails, because the emails were pretty targeted to webmasters. I think that he just hacked a database from a webmasters forum, and I feel that the forum is DigitalPoint.

    M!hai @ Freshome’s last blog post..Drawerment : A Composition of Drawers from Old Furniture

  7. haa…i came across the same messge yesterday..and i just ignored it..thinking some stupid fellow wants to buy my site..
    def. its a scam..

  8. I’ve gotten alot scam emails, paypal, domain sales, you name it. If the normal average user gets these emails, especially ones asking you to login to your paypal account,etc, they are doomed :(

  9. Ive not received any of these emails (yet). I kept getting the onces asking about advertising space though, exactly the same email everytime with fake names and stupid email addresses ending in .ru

    I can’t figure it out how these scams work.

    Chris’s last blog post..Feature On Times Online Blog For Save-Petrol

  10. At this point it sounds more like spam than a scam (posted by a man named dan on a tram on the lam eating spam from a can). If they have your website, name, phone number and email- is there something they can do with all this?

    Craziest Gadgets’s last blog post..Golf Club You Can Pee Into

  11. They could also just do a whois search and check the phone number there couldn’t they? Unless it’s registered with a privacy protection proxy it’s all there.

    Martin’s last blog post..In memory card madness you are being silly Sony

  12. I got one too for a website I had hosted with Netfirms that expired 15 days ago. My first thought was that it might have been a clever marketing scam to make me renew my domain name with them.

  13. I’m awfully tempted to pick up a pre-paid phone and give them my number, just to see what happens…

    I’ve gotten a similar e-mail recently, but my personal sites are all private, so they couldn’t get it that way, anyway (not that it would be nearly as efficient for them as firing off a bazillion e-mails and waiting to see who responds).

  14. Received 2 of these letters, perhaps they are just to verify email addresses???
    Alan
    ========================
    Hello,

    I am interested in purchasing your web site sport-smart.com . If you would like to sell it send me your phone number to call you.
    I have cash to buy today!

    If you are interested, please reply to 1246dahms.linsey@gmail.com as soon as possible.

    Thank you

  15. I have received one too. Phemie Dull is now a gmail user. I dont know if it is a scam but am not replying to find out. Interestingly, the email redirect came from domainsbyproxy.com, a godaddy related site.

    I reproduce the mail here for your perusal:

    Phemie Dull

    Good day,
    We are looking for link partners on the web and I want to ask you is it possible for me to have advertising on your site(mysite), and how much would that cost.

    Kind regards

    It was unsigned by sent via godaddy’s domainsbyproxy reroute.

  16. JerFollowUp says:

    I replied and got a response. How is this a scam??? Wondering why I shouldn’t follow through. Message Text:

    Hello,

    A representative of our marketing team contacted you with enquiry about advertising on your website (your correspondence is below). First I want to thank you for your reply.

    Our website is http://www.altissimo.net

    If you think it is suitable for your site, could you please send me the price for a text link, so we can continue our negotiations?

    Thank you and looking forward to hearing from you

    John

    What is the site we would be advertising for?

    2008/9/27 Tansy Bennett

    > Good day,
    > We are looking for link partners on the web and I want to ask you is it
    > possible for me to have advertising on your site XXXX.XXX, and
    > how much would that cost.
    >
    > Kind regards

  17. Hi and thanks for advising us about this scam.
    Being in flipping by a few more than 1 year, I never found that problem, except for yesterday.

    I received about 5 e-mails asking me to buy domains similar to the ones I’ve bought in the past.
    Obviously I didn’t care, but someone could fall in the hands of this scammer.

    I hope only that each scammer could get scammed once in their stupid life.
    Thanks again for your post, just on time!

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