Catching the domain spam…
I host a domain for a friend at work, trusoldiers.net. I think I’ve been hosting it for nearly 3 years now. I recently got an interesting email regarding trusoldiers.com, so asked him about it…
He’d said that he used to own it 5 years ago, but the person that hosted it forgot to register it again, and lost control… This lead to him buying the .net version. Then comes the new email…
The email was rather suspicious to me… below is the content, no names changed to protect the innocent, because in this case, I don’t believe they deserve it, after all… well, it’ll become clear..
Subject: Do you want trusoldiers.com?
From: warren.davis@dcinchq.com
Date: Sun, July 20, 2008 17:07
To: jon@netdork.net
Priority: Normal
Mailer: php
We purchase expired domains in bulk and recently acquired one that I think you might be interested in. The domain is trusoldiers.com and since you own trusoldiers.net we thought you might also want the more popular .COM version.
All of our domains are priced at a one time fee of $49.95. This includes full transfer of ownership to you and the first year of registration. After the first year is up you can renew for about $10 annually or move it to the registrar of your choice.
If you are interested go to:
http://www.dcinchq.com/index.php?domain=trusoldiers.com
If not, just hit delete. This is a one time note for the owner of trusoldiers.net.
All the best,
Warren Davis
Digital Caucus, Inc.
Now, the message clearly says “we purchase expired domain names in bulk”… That’d imply that it is expired, they purchased it, so it is no longer expired… right? Wrong… A simple test at internic.net will tell you the truth. At the time, it reported it was unregistered. That means I can use the registrar of my choice to register… This means that I don’t have to pay the extortionate $50 they were asking for… Why? Because even some of the largest registrars are only charging $10-30 a year…. Mine, eNom, only charges $9.95 a year.
The fun thing is the small print on the bottom of their website…
All domains are registered through Moniker. They can be transferred to another registrar after 60 days. Moniker charges $10.49 per year for a .COM registration. Your first year is included in the $49.95 purchase price. We will point your domain to the website of your choice at no cost or you can manage the domain yourself. We are a registered and accredited PayPal Business account holder.
They clearly say that the domain registration only costs $10.49 for a year, and can be transferred after (which will cost more)… So that leaves a tasty $39.50 profit… Not a bad little deal.
!Cough! RIP OFF !Cough!
So, did you go an register it yourselves from under the nose of these monkeys?
Yes, yes I did
Owned now by Fatal, via me 
But then again, I would pay $40 bucks to have someone notice that a domain I want was released. Actually they did just that for me. But, after getting this strange email, I looked it up on eNom and found the domain was available and bought it myself.
If they had just sent me an email saying that I COULD register with them OR donate money to them for noticing the domain was available I actually would have sent them $10-$20 as a thank you.
Either way, it’s an interesting model, AND a bit misleading.
Abelard,
I’ve seen several domain registrars offer “watch” services that will notify you when the domain becomes available, or even the ability to offer bids on them (eNom provides a dandy link if you try searching for domains already registered).
An interesting service model there… Offer a service to watch domains, and automatically grab them when they become available
This post was a great help to me. I got the same email for a .com of a .net I own (which I wanted very badly) so when I checked, the .com was available.
I just snatched it myself for $7.
I realize that this is an old post, but I just got one of these. They increased the price, it’s now $99.97 The message is basically the same though. At least it informed me that a .com version of one of my websites had expired, so I picked it up for $10 through my registrar.
“We are selling the domain name isajew.com. Since you own isajew.net if you would also like the more desirable .com we are making it available. The cost is $99.97. That includes a year of registration and transfer of ownership to you. To purchase or to learn more go to:
http://www.dcinchq.com/checkout.php?domain=isajew.com“
Edit: If you look at the source of their main page, it was made using frontpage. So they never really left 1998 when they first started.
My boss got this email from digital caucus saying they had purchased one of our domains that had expired and we could purchase it from them for $99. I was a little panicked because I was supposed to have renewed it, but wasn’t allowed due to an issue with 1&1, it was marked for deletion.
Being that I had been logging on every couple of hours the last three days waiting to renew it, I was sceptical they picked it up under our nose.
So, I pop onto our godaddy account this morning and bought both domains that had expired. Digital Caucus didn’t own it…noone did. So I picked them up for $10/domain and now have exclusive rights.
What a scam. Don’t pay. Check out with the provider of your choice and confirm it is indeed taken. You can check the whois to see owns it.
He’s still at it –
just got emails from his offering to sell me a domain name he did not own for $99.97.
I recommend everyone touched by this jerk respond by filing complaints with: The Domain registrar he uses to register: Moniker.com legal@moniker.com His hosting company, Valcato (UK) : enquiries@valcato.com The Georgia Sec of State Corporations Division 2 MLK Jr. Dr. S.E. Suite 315, West Tower Atlanta, Georgia 30334 Phone 404-656-2817 Fax:404-657-2248 http://sos.georgia.gov/cgi-bin/email.asp (his corp was dissolved in 2005, yet he still does business as Digital Caucus, Inc.)
Digital Caucus = scam. I backordered a domain on godaddy. They kept me informed of the domain status as it went past the redemption period into pending delete period.
Towards the end of pending delete period, digital caucus sends me an email saying they have recently acquired the domain I had on backorder and would sell it to me for $99.
Although we woudl have gladly paid $99 for the domain if we had to, I saw no sign that they had the domain. Two days later, we were given the domain.
Complete Scam!!!
I got a similar mail today for the .com version of my personal domain. Searched google and ended up here.
But the domain registrar says it’s not available. How long would I have to wait before it becomes available?
I got this message actually from 2 different companies, so it smells big time like a scam.
Digital Caucus just sent me an e-mail under the name desirabledotcoms.com with the same scam. I knew something was fishy the moment I received the e-mail that they were offering the domain so I did a whois.com lookup on it and it could not be found. Why would it not be found? Well, I went to my registrar and looked it up and found it wasn’t registered at all! It was available. I bought the .com for $8.95 compared to the $99.97 they were supposedly selling it for.
desirabledotcoms and Digital Caucus are both scammers trying to trick you into buying something they don’t even own. They’ll happily buy it and resell it to you if you want, at 1000% markup.
Received this from desirabledotcoms
“We are selling the domain name faqlasik.com. Since you own faqlasik.info if you would also like the more desirable .com we are making it available. The one time cost is $99.97. That includes a year of registration and transfer of ownership to you. To purchase or to learn more go to:
http://www.desirabledotcoms.com/checkout.php?domain=faqlasik.com
If you pass on this opportunity someone else could purchase this domain and it may not be available again.
If you are not interested we will not contact in the future.”
Well, one quick look at GoDaddy and the domain faqlasik.com was available to register and so I did! Apparently it had expired in September. Thanks for the free alert desirabledotcoms.com – wow, what scam artists!
One more follow up…after I had purchased faqlasik.com I clicked on their link and received this message:
This domain is not available from us.
So I replaced the faqlasik.com on the end of the search to gibberish
from this:
http://www.desirabledotcoms.com/checkout.php?domain=faqlasik.com
to this
http://www.desirabledotcoms.com/checkout.php?domain=fgghgjjhj.com
and get this message:
Purchase fgghgjjhj.com for $99.97 The one time fee includes domain ownership transferred into your name and a year of registration. Orders are filled and your domain will be ready for use within 24 hours.
Our 30-Day Unconditional Guarantee If you are not satisfied with our service or if we do not deliver your domain within 24 hours we will issue a 100% refund. We are a verified PayPal Merchant. All orders are securely processed and your financial information is never shared with us. If you have any questions contact us for a prompt response.
Customer Comments Your service was quick and easy. Thanks for your help! – Jessica, NJ We have wanted this domain for a LONG time. Thanks so much! – Natalie, TX This is my 5th domain from you, a pleasure as usual. – Jon, PA We are very satisfied with the service provided. – Jackson, WA Thanks for helping us with setup after the sale. Great service! – Paul, NV
Quite the markup! $99.97 for something I get at godaddy everyday for $7.00 and change!
Thank you for writing this post. I received an email from someone a few days ago offering to sell me the pending deletion .com of a .info I own for $95.
Just received an email similar to the one you posted here from desirabledotcoms asking for $100 for the name but it was not registered. I googled the name thinking they sounded dubious and came across this.
Went and picked it up at the normal price.
They sent me email with the exact words, but what they don’t know is that I own the .org and .com.
And they want me to a buy a domain that I already OWN.
Scam,scam,scam
crazy how this is exactly what just happened to us – they send the email offering it for $99.97 and go to registrar and its available and r egister it for $10. Amazing people dont use google to check scams :0
I got the same thing this week. They even had the cheek to offer me the domain for a discount because I didn’t bite the first time.
This is great post. I did the same “who is” search before reading your tips and was able to add the .com domain name to my 1and1.com account for free (desireabledotcoms.com wanted $99). It’s amazing how creative some people get when it comes to taking advantage of the unknowing public. Again, thanks for the great post!
This is an awesome post. Just saved me $90. (Who do I make the check to
) Got similar e-mail with a domain I wanted and I just snagged it. This is a wonderful service to get notifications from another company and to just grab the registration first.
Thanks for the heads – ain’t Google a wonderful thing
Thanks
d