Toughguy.net - Domain Name Appraisal Scam
One of my hobbies is domaining. I buy and sell names on a regular basis, typically for profit - and I have what I consider to be a substantial portfolio. I’m not new to this game though - I’ve been trading names for almost a decade, and I’ve seen all sorts of scams being run around the domaining marketplace…
Imagine my surprise then when I got an email this evening, apparently from somebody interested in buying a domain name I recently snagged in an auction. I was quite excited by the prospect of a quick turnaround on the name - but felt that I should do a bit of Googling on the sender of the message.
The guy who sent me the email called himself Anthony Garringer - and he’s apparently the President of a company called TGNet Consulting. His email address is garringer@toughguy.net.
Here’s what I found out…
Toughguy.net email addresses have been used extensively for scamming, and the scam emails often come from somebody labelling himself as a professor, doctor or president of a company.
The same individual owns multiple domains (including toughguy.net, hotpop.com and jerky.net), and all domains have the same registrant information attached to them. Recently he began registering domains by proxy (hiding personal data) with oversea registrants. His latest emails come from the liberalist.com domain.
Now, Hotpop LLC is incorporated in State of Massachusetts and its registration information can be found using the Massachusetts LLC Search. The real name of the scammer and an address can be seen as being:
Andrew Shoemaker
61 Prescott St
Newton
MA 02640
This guy has managed to rip an awful lot of people off - by offering to buy their domain name, but only if they get it appraised using the company he recommends - and which he probably owns! He gets paid for the appraisal and then drops out of the deal! Fortunately, domainers are slowly getting wise to his tricks, and blacklisting him on many of the domain trading forums.
I’m hoping that this post will end up doing well on Google - because nasty pieces of scum like Andrew Shoemaker deserve to be called out… You have been warned!
Did you find this post via a Google search perhaps? If so then please let me know by leaving a comment below!
Update: October 17
I bought another domain by auction a few days ago (both domains purchased using GoDaddy’s Domain Name Aftermarket service) and surprise, surprise - he’s emailed me again! Does the idiot never learn?
This time he’s using the name Anthony McQueary (President for TG Logitech), with the email address mcqueary@toughguy.net. I sent him a rather caustic reply.
Update: October 31
He’s changed his identity set a little, and is now using the name Shawn McElligot, President of GBW Software.
Update: November 5
More identities: Paul Camacho (President of TG Network Consulting) and Shirley M Leurquin (!!!).
Update: November 22
Another new identity (Thanks Nick): William Quiqley, President of GSC Services.
Digg/astetix
Flickr/astetix
Facebook/Paul Enderson
Linkedin/paulenderson
Del.icio.us/jazzpak
Technorati/astetix
MyBlogLog/astetix
I’ve got one word for people like that, and it’s not printable :anger:
Hi Paul,
Thank you for the research of ThoughGuy. I recently sold a domain name for $1000 and got exited by this guy making an offer to another of my domains. Thank you again for your help to keep the internet in the US free fo garbage people like this.
Regards,
George
Yep, just got an email from him too for my domain. NO DEAL!
Paul - I’ve got lots of words for people like that, but the kids are within earshot…
George and Shylor - I’m so glad that people are finding this post! I’m on page 2 of Google already, for the term ‘toughguy.net’ - so cheers big G!
I wonder if Mr Shoemaker has read this himself?
Thanks for being number one in the Google search for this guy. I was almost ready to reply.
Entirely my pleasure Shaun! That’s three people ’saved’ from the asshole - glad I posted this now!
Great post! Thanks for having the guts to expose this loser. I was scamed by someone claiming to be a domain reseller from Hong Kong on a domain I had just registered and listed on ebay. He suggested I have it appraised at a physical appraissal service of my choice but gave me his preference… of course I used his preference since he said he was “ready to purchase”.
Thanks again,
Sumbini
Sumbini - Exposing the guy is an absolute pleasure - but I’m sorry to hear that he scammed you.
I hope he didn’t take you for too much…
Hey Paul,
It’s like one of those “I am Dr.(Mrs.) Mariam Scammer,” who has millions to move to the US emails!! I am glad you avoided being scammed.
Thanks Sunny - I might have got ripped off if it hadn’t been for Google!
hi
he contact me to buy any one my domain names!
i search his email address in google and find this page!
tanks
Amir Najari
This guy contacted me when trying to sell a domain on eBay. Your story is my story. In the end, I wrote him and told him he is a fraud. This guy should be investigated by the FTC and thrown in jail.
Please go here to file an FTC complaint and get this guy behind bars:
http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/cmplanding.shtm
Thanks. It only takes about 5-10 minutes to get this guy busted.
I’m glad I could help Amir - thanks for your comment!
Eric - good work on calling him out! Unfortunately, I can’t file an FTC complaint as I live in the UK. If anybody from the US finds this post after being contacted by him, then I strongly recommend completing the FTC form!
[…] the love of chocolate October 14th, 2007 (1 Views ) Paul is my favorite person this week. Why? Out of all the great people in my life, why would I choose […]
You’ve got to love Google for checking up on scammers. I think many of us have learned to ‘Google’ anything which appears dodgy.
At least he never got the better of you Paul. How hateful, and what sort of disturbed childhood did scammers like these have?
It would certainly seem that these people are taking out some sort of personal vendetta on society at large… I’d love to know what his upbringing was like actually!
Nice one Eric - I just wish I could help with the FTC! I’ve posted an update on this above…
Thanks for your comment Robert - I’m glad you decided to do that search!
Good luck on your sale…
well, i was too late. this loser got $100 for 2 appraisals.. i thought it was a scam but did an whois search and saw no resemblence but now i see how he did it! he found me on ebay listing various domains. he even sent me to a link that convinced me he was legit.. don’t i feel dumb! I’m from canada, can i file with the FTC?? oh, here’s the link he sent me: http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/961735.htm
although too late, thank you paul for at least grounding my expectations. cheers. aris
also found this:
Andrew Shoemaker Age: 47
61 PRESCOTT ST #APT 2
NEWTON, MA 2460
oops, zip is 02460.
well hey, i guess since i was a sucker and paid, i figured i’d see who got paid via my paypal account! here’s the info.. lets get this loser!!
Business Contact Information
Customer Service URL: http://www.plimus.com
Customer Service Email: support@plimus.com
Customer Service Phone: 858-350-7473
Item Title: Order Reference #1286479
Invoice ID: 1286479
Description: http://www.domainsecondhand.com/appraisal.htm
I called the numebr and it’s an outsourced e-commerce site. office was closed but i’ll try again in the day tomorrow. any more suggestions on action would be appreciated.
cheers, aris
P.S. successfully filed with the FTC!!!!
Hi Aris,
I’m sorry to hear that he managed to rip you off - but you really shouldn’t feel dumb mate… He’s done it to thousands of people!
Yeah - that dummy forum link is the one he always uses. Ourplace.com is owned by him, and he’s basically saved a live forum page to static HTML and uploaded it to make it support his scam.
I got his address already (it’s in the article), but his age is a new one. He really should know better at 47, don’t you think?
Nice one for the FTC filing.
Hey Paul, thank you for the moral support. Not giving up on this one! It’s not the money, it’s the principle! when i googled ‘Andrew Shoemaker 61 Prescott St’ many more pages came up including yours. Interesting enough is this one: http://www.webservertalk.com/archive154-2005-1-870269.html
Hope this guy ends up in jail soon! Keep up the great work for a safer community! Cheers to you! \Aris
Thnx a lot for your information.
A few days ago he email me
From: “McQueary”
with the question to buy my domainname : 123pornotube.com
But I parked it at SEDO for a price of 9.999 dollar because I have no time to work with it now.
But I know the domaimname has value.
I told him that I not sell it for a peanuts , he told his budjet 10 to 15.000 dollar.
And ask me my best price , so told him 12.000 dollar.
He aprove but then the appraise came..
So I told him if you are willing to buy you have to invest your self - and did some test at nameboy .But he offerd me to a lot of expensive appraise sites.
Then I start searching on his name , company and emailadress and found this.
Thnx
It is just very sad that this kind of people are active on the net.
Nearly identical deal for me recently too. Got all excited - started spending the $15k in my head
Thanks for doing this post - saved me some money/disappointment and from being scammed. An excellent service to the web community - great that you have such prominence on Google for the keywords I searched.
Here’s a suggestion - add a couple of ads to your site so we have something to click as a token ‘thank you’!
Cheers!
Aris,
That’s an interesting thread - thanks for that! He’s obviously a regular con merchant. I’d like to think that the authorities will catch up with him!
——
Fabian,
I’m glad you avoided getting scammed! It seems to be a case of “too good to be true really is”.
mrkookz,
I have no plans to monetize my blog for the forseeable future! Your thanks are enough though…
Paul,
Thank you for this post. I received the same from this scammer this morning. I think it’s hilarious that he uses the newborn/family angle. Adding the link to a seemingly public chat forum is a nice touch.
People like this may prosper in the short term, but it will catch up to him. What a moron. With all the effort and apparent creativity…he could actually make an HONEST profit.
Thanks again Paul…you saved me the hassle and likely some real money (even though I tend to think domain appraisals are worthless).
[quote]
I sent him a rather caustic reply.
[/quote]
Know you my friend, it was full of cold scathingness
I’ve been keeping an eye on this post and am truly glad to see that people are not being caught out by this a$$h013 and for those that unfortunately have, we know who is, where he is, and pretty soon he should be behing the upright irons
@ Eric T: I just used the FTC link you provided to file a complaint. I encourage everyone who gets spammed by this idiot to do the same. I’d love to see headline about his arrest and convinction for deceptive marketing practices.
I’m a busy person who does not have enough time for bidding wars
I need to know the lowest price you can accept.
What is your price range: $10,000 or $15,000 or even higher?
I’m sure it will take a lot of time and efforts to find someone who will
offer you more.
Please send your answer to me as soon as possible.
…………………………………………………
I copied and pasted this as a example from this ass clown..
Thank you Paul for your research and being number one on google
[…] UPDATE: More information here. […]
Michael,
I totally agree - domain appraisals are worthless. At the end of the day, and domain is worth what the person buying it wants to pay - and if that’s not the amount you’d like for a domain then you simply keep looking for another interested party!
I’m sure that if I’d got a company to appraise a domain like Flickr.com before the site was created, that they’d have told me that it was worthless. How much would it cost to buy now I wonder?
——
Chuck,
My pleasure mate!
[…] Read this great post here […]
got the same reply back from FTC. Please include this file number as well as the other one posted here. FTC Ref. No. 11900137 & 11858316 (posted above)
P.S. Says he still wants to buy my domain. I’ve initiated more investigations and have contacted authorities. I will keep on this until a) he’s caught or b) he buys my domain as so he still states he will.
I just started buying domains and already received a message from “Johnston” at toughguy.net and TNG Software Consulting Exactly as described in the posts, he offered 20k for a domain that isn’t worth nearly that much so I was immediately skeptical. I googled his toughguy.net and saw this posting. Thanks so much for making this available. Let’s get this guy.
hey Tim.. please lead this guy through (but don’t pay a cent!) and then file for misrepresentation, impersonation and fraud with the FTC and quote FTC Ref. No. 11900137 & 11858316 and when you get your file number post here! Then for everyone else, please include ALL FTC ref numbers in all complaintes to the FTC as they are collecting victim complaints!! This loser is going to go down big!!!
Oh, I also got my $100 back from Plimus (he used Plimus to get paid from my PayPal acct). Now Plimus & PayPal are investigating him LOL! Read the emails below.. amusing to say the least!!!
—————
Case # PP-352-594-417 Re: ORDER REFERENCE #22729778 (domain appraisal))
Additional information/correspondence regarding this dispute. Please note the links at the bottom of this email regarding additional information on the alleged fraud/misrepresentation & civil losses.
——————————————————————————————————
Dear Plimus Customer Service,
As per your PayPal Dispute reply, I am forwarding all communications between myself and your client to you. Please note that unless I receive a full refund for the amount paid to you, any investigations, actions and claims may involve your company and the included transaction in question. Furthermore, you may be required to produce account and personal information with respect to your client to the authorities (proper and legal notice will be served to your company accordingly)
I hope Plimus conducts its own internal investigation into your clients activities with respect to the alleged fraudulent transaction(s). Please note the links at the very bottom of this email for information about your clients activities and alleged fraud.
Please provide us with one of your representatives contact name and telephone number as well as the same for any supervisor/manager or principle of Plimus for future reference in the event that we may need to contact your company or any such individual. Also, please provide your corporate mailing address to send any legal notices pertaining to this investigation.
Sincerely,
Aris
————-
Ok. We will send a refund request right now.
Sincerely,
Shirley M. Leurquin
Customer Support
——————-
Shirley,
Fair enough. Give me your telephone number to call and discuss… as well as your solicitors numbers. You ARE a customer service rep aren’t you? So give me YOUR number so I can obtain customer service and speak with you. I’m sure a customer service rep does not get involved with legalities so give me the name of the person who will be paying/authorizing your solicitor to take action against us as I’m sure it wont be a customer service rep such as yourself, so that any authorities can contact them directly as they wont waste time communicating with a CSR, such as I’m doing. Also need your mailing address, or is that a big secret too?? You not providing this information wont make a difference; authorities can and will get that info (I’m sure they have it already).. this is now a matter of how your company conducts itself, and having a customer service rep involved in legal issues sure wont look good.. or show any credibility. Since when do CSR’s discuss legal corporate issues anyway?? I’ll be waiting for your info or alternatively, have your bosses contact me. So unless you provide me with the PROPER contact info that should be made available under these circumstances, then DO NOT CONTACT me any further as I care not to deal with an employee, or someone pretending to be one.
At 11:32 PM 20/10/2007 +0400, you wrote:
Dear Aris,
I’m not obligated to send personal information of our directors. Andrew
Gordon worked for our company in the customer support division.
Since you are going to proceed with actions againts our company I’ve resent
your letter to our lawyers. Please email us contact information of your
attorney. You’ll be responsible for all misleading and fake information
about our company you are going to post
If you wish to resolve this problem in friendly manner you should cancel
your dispute with Paypal and we’ll provide you with full refund. We are a
customer friendly company.
Sincerely,
Shirley M. Leurquin
Customer Support
>>
i already replied, and am still waiting for the refund…
At 12:50 AM 21/10/2007 +0400, you wrote:
We are not going to speak with you by phone since the refund will be given.
After all your abusing emails we are not going to have any deals with you.
We were advised that probably, you were an online cheater who used our
services for free. It’s difficult to prove and we will give you the refund
since we are customer friendly.
If you are interested in the refund just let us know. If you want to
continue to abuse us via phone etc. you’ll be in contact with our attorney.
We will only speak with you regarding teh refund issue via email.
Sincerely,
Shirley M. Leurquin
Customer Support
—–snip—– continued below ——–
— part 2 ——-\\
for some reason i cant post any more. oh well, i’ll try again later
I submitted an FTC complaint and referenced the numbers 11900137 & 11858316. When I receive a reference number I will post it.
I have played along with this joker, “Johnston”. He isn’t the brightest star in the night sky. He sent me an offer before I stated a price, then asked me to pay for an appraisal so he could be sure he wasn’t overpaying. I told him that a domain is worth exactly what someone is willing to pay for it so if he offered 20k then that was his price. He replied that this “professional and manual” appraisal was standard practice. I seriously hope this guy goes to jail.
Glad to hear that this post is proving so useful to so many!
Good luck with your FTC filings - I just wish I was in the US!
Aris T. is possible to get your mail address.
Thanks
Manuel, you mean email address??
Yes,thanks .
easyto@excite.com
I was also pwned , but then i mailed plimus , domainsecondhand and open a dispute and get money back .
The scammer used
Regards,
Shawn McElligot
President
GBW Software
Sorry to hear he conned you Manuel, but I’m glad you got your money back again!
He switches identities more often than I change my socks!
Yes, I also send him mail,that i will give him 10% discount if he will buy in next 24 hours
I would like to thank you for this post. I have not gotten far enough for him to ask for the appraisal. I was skeptical when he offered $20,000 for a $500 domain. So I started searching Yahoo for info on him and his company. I’m going to mess with him a little and file a complaint. I hope this looser goes down hard. This is the info he used on me:
Paul Camacho
President
TG Network Consulting
Thank You!
Chad
^
Same thing here. He emailed me a couple days ago.
Paul Camacho
President
TG Network Consulting
Thanks for the info., saved me from wasting my time with this douchebag.
Shirley M. Leurquin is also him! See post below:
——————-
Shirley,
Fair enough. Give me your telephone number to call and discuss… as well as your solicitors numbers. You ARE a customer service rep aren’t you? So give me YOUR number so I can obtain customer service and speak with you. I’m sure a customer service rep does not get involved with legalities so give me the name of the person who will be paying/authorizing your solicitor to take action against us as I’m sure it wont be a customer service rep such as yourself, so that any authorities can contact them directly as they wont waste time communicating with a CSR, such as I’m doing. Also need your mailing address, or is that a big secret too?? You not providing this information wont make a difference; authorities can and will get that info (I’m sure they have it already).. this is now a matter of how your company conducts itself, and having a customer service rep involved in legal issues sure wont look good.. or show any credibility. Since when do CSR’s discuss legal corporate issues anyway?? I’ll be waiting for your info or alternatively, have your bosses contact me. So unless you provide me with the PROPER contact info that should be made available under these circumstances, then DO NOT CONTACT me any further as I care not to deal with an employee, or someone pretending to be one.
———–
At 11:32 PM 20/10/2007 +0400, you wrote:
Dear Aris,
I’m not obligated to send personal information of our directors. Andrew
Gordon worked for our company in the customer support division.
Since you are going to proceed with actions againts our company I’ve resent
your letter to our lawyers. Please email us contact information of your
attorney. You’ll be responsible for all misleading and fake information
about our company you are going to post
If you wish to resolve this problem in friendly manner you should cancel
your dispute with Paypal and we’ll provide you with full refund. We are a
customer friendly company.
Sincerely,
Shirley M. Leurquin
Customer Support
Guess he has changed his name again. Thanks to you I will not be scammed by this a**hole!!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Hello,
We are interested in smokingthoughts.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.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Paul Camacho
President
TG Network Consulting
Chad, Matt and Missy - I’m delighted that you managed to avoid his scamming!
Aris - Thanks for the update… So, he also plays the part of women too then!
He contacted me as well twice and his emails looks exactly the same just with different names. He always seems to be celebrating a newborn child.
Here is one of his emails to me:
QUOTE:
Hello,
Sorry for delay with answer. Our family was celebrating newborn child of my
brother.
Now let’s talk about the deal.
6,000 USD. Ok.
Do you sell domain with a web site or just name?
If just name it’s ok. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domains appraised already? Can you show me your valuation
certificates? As fas I know it’s a common practice to show appraisal of
domain name (even without traffic and web site) before doing business.
Without appraisal I risk to overpay. In other words I won’t be able to make
a profit on reselling this name. It’s very important for you and me to know
the current market value of your domains.
Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging an appraisal company with
REAL manual service. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate
auto-generated appraisals. I will only accept appraisals from independent
sources I trust. To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable
appraisal companies in a forum
http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/782941.htm
Just check this posting.
If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly.
I also hope you can give me 10% - 15% discount of the appraised value.
After I get an appraisal from you we’ll continue our negotiations.
How do you prefer to get paid: www.escrow.com, www.PayPal.com check or
wire?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply.
I got all excited the first time he contacted me. But obviously refused to pay for his appraisal service and told him to stop spamming me.
But I can see how a lot of people might get excited and pay for an appraisal service, thinking they are going to make a few grands from the deal.
Just though I post his email here:
Sorry for the delay. Members of family was celebrating newborn child of my
sister.
Now let’s talk about the deal.
Can you accept 19000 UK Pounds? Ok?
Do you sell domain with a web site or just name?
If just name it’s ok. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domains appraised already? Can you show me your valuation
certificates? As fas I know it’s a common practice to show appraisal of
domain name (even without traffic and web site) before doing business.
Without appraisal I risk to overpay. In other words I won’t be able to make
a profit on reselling this name. It’s very important for you and me to know
the current market value of your domains.
Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging an appraisal company with
REAL manual service. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate
auto-generated appraisals. I will only accept appraisals from independent
sources I trust. To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable
appraisal companies in a forum
http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/961735.htm
Just check this posting.
If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly.
I also hope you can give me 10% - 15% discount of the appraised value.
After I get an appraisal from you we’ll continue our negotiations.
How do you prefer to get paid: www.escrow.com, www.PayPal.com check or
wire?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply.
I tried to put his whole email here but it fails.
Anyway this guy has contacted too many times, and it is definitely a scam.
Not that I fell for it
p.s.
I found this through Google and am glad I did. Now I know for sure that it is a scam and I will no longer have any doubts.
So many thanks for this post.
I received the below email less than 24 hours after parking a domain at Sedo, glad I googled his name.
————-email———————–
Hello,
We are interested in (domain deleted)
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.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Paul Camacho
President
TG Network Consulting
this guy contacted me also with the same rubbish.checked his ip,messages came from russia!!!
wonder if thats where this guy really lives?
update:
this scammer shawn mcelligot or whoever he is
is from
MOSCOW , RUSSIA .
HIS ISP IS:ZAO MTU-INTEL.
IP ADDRESS:62.5.255.50 .
jt + d,
Glad to have been of use guys!
——
joey,
Don’t get too excited by that - the IP in question is part of a block assigned to a Russian proxy service, so it doesn’t help pinpoint his location. Sorry…
The November 3 arrive to me Paul Camacho’s mail, look up in google and I came upon Uds,.
Thanks Paul!!!
Seeing that I have the track record of mail that they have followed with Uds right after receiving the first one …
I know what!
I am going to respond with the mail that he has to send future to!
At least in order that you understand that not everybody are idiot!
And I will add than for but information go to: Http://paulenderson.com/2007/10/12/toughguynet domain name appraisal scam/
JA, JA …
You are welcome Edgardo - I am glad you were not scammed!
Thanks Paul for the info on this scammer! I just recieved the same letter as many of you above. And thought i had to Google the “TG Network Consulting” company and ended here. Now i know this is a scam so many thanks!
/ Peter
Message below:
————–
Hello,
We are interested in XXXXX
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.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Paul Camacho
President
TG Network Consulting
============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
Paul
Many thanks!
Paul Camacho emailed me asking to buy my domain name. I nearly replied but just checked his email address which was @toughguy.net
Thought he might be mafia, so did a quick google search and your site came up tops.
Great work I’m indebted to you.
RichardO
Unfortunately I was scammed. I may get my money back but I’m still waiting on it. It’s a bit frustrating because I should know better but it did happen.
I wish there was more one could do to stop this.
Any ideas?
Yours Sincerely,
Francisco
Hi RichardO! My pleasure entirely mate…
——
Sorry to hear that he got you Francisco.
I wish you luck with reclaiming your funds. If you’re in the US then you can complete an FTC filing - but I don’t know of any way to stop it if you live anywhere else (even Trading Standards and the Citizens Advice Bureau in the UK told me they couldn’t get involved).
Thank you for your support Paul.
I am doing all my best not only to get a refund but also to get domainsecondhand.com listed as a scam site in Google and other search engines.
Francisco
That’s a good step to try - best of luck with it! Feel free to let me know if there’s anything I can do to help - and by all means link to this post if it’ll help!
Sorry Peter - I missed your post! I’m glad you saw this before he ripped you off!
Hi, thanks for posting about “Mr. Camacho” of “TGW Consulting.” He tried to persuade me that it was really in my best interest to get my domain name appraised and was kind enough to suggest a place that he really liked because they were so reputable.
His email was so completely and utterly imbecilic that I laughed out loud. How could anyone be scammed by someone with what can only be described as a double digit IQ?
I suggested that *he* get my domain name appraised, and let me know the value. LOL. Then I found this blog. Just thought I’d let you know.
I say we scam him back or flood his email or something. we also know his address, im not above sending him dog shit i dont know about you guys…
George,
Quite easily actually - and 20:20 hindsight is a wonderful thing don’t you think?
——
Drew,
That approach is unlikely to work with somebody like him. He’ll just change addresses, change identities, and change his IP address. He’s been doing it for a long time, and it’ll take more than a bit of spam to stop him!
Well then looks like a bunch of us have to take a trip to mass in person. whos with me!!!??
As fair as I am concerned it is somewhat easy to be fooled into this scam.
Right now if you google domainsecondhand.com they come up first place with no warning whatsoever. More on that, it’s a bit dubious but one can argue that they do provide a real service. Your domain is effectively appraised. You’ve just been fooled into ordering a service you didn’t really required. That said they are more or less legally shielded; even though any judge in the world would see the scheme and get them for their lack of goodwill.
If you Google a bit deeper you can find blogs like this one, but there were also posts on quite reputable sites, like webmastersworld.com, that said they were ok. I took care of that.
I do believe that the trick here is not to focus on the toughuy.net but on domainsecondhand.com. It takes a lot more effort to build a site than to build a new email.
Not only is the scheme well though of (you are never told to appraise your domain there; you are just suggested to have it done there) but the schemer can deal quite well with the Internet, they know how to build dynamic websites, how to control an email server and have a somewhat overall knowledge of how people and their motivations work.
Let me say that a great deal of people who are tricked by domainsecondhand.com don’t even realise they were fooled. They think that the mysterious buyer suddenly disappeared.
In the end I got my money back. But that is a different story. I’ll send you an email latter Paul.
Sincerely,
Francisco
Thanks for the information!
Regards,
Alfredo
Hey, thanks a bunch - I was about to shell out money for an appraisal! Something sounded fishy… which large IT company wouldn’t have a website?!
First mail:
===========
Hello,
We are interested in [censored].com
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our company provides IT security services and performs security audit of local and global networks. Our clients are mainly based in Europe and Canada.
So investing in names is an additional direction of our financial strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
William Quigley
President
GSC Services
============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
===========================================================================
Second mail:
============
Hello,
I could not write you in time. Sorry. I became a father several hours ago!
It’s a boy.
Now let’s talk business.
Can you accept 24,700 USD?
Do you sell domain with a web site or just name?
If just name it’s ok. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domains appraised already? Can you show me your valuation
certificates? As fas I know it’s a common practice to show appraisal of
domain name (even without traffic and web site) before doing business.
Without appraisal I risk to overpay. In other words I won’t be able to make
a profit on reselling this name. It’s very important for you and me to know
the current market value of your domains.
Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging an appraisal company with
REAL manual service. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate
auto-generated appraisals. I will only accept appraisals from independent
sources I trust. To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable
appraisal companies in a forum
http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/750328.htm
Just check this posting.
If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly.
I also hope you can give me 10% - 15% discount of the appraised value.
After I get an appraisal from you we’ll continue our negotiations.
How do you prefer to get paid: www.escrow.com, www.PayPal.com check or
wire?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply.
Glad I found this as I am in the midst of a conversation with someone wanting me to get a domain name appraised and pointing me to the mentioned forum. A different person’s name but the email was from the toughguy.net domain.
Thanks guys…. you saved my bacon. Was contacted from an auction on eBay. (His new name is William Quigley @ GSC Services). I had a gut feeling about this offer and Googled it… and this page popped up! Much appreciation to all for trying to stop this scammer. I already filled out the FTC complaint report too.
take care,
Marty
*****
Hello,
We are interested in XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.com
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our company provides IT security services and performs security audit of local and global networks. Our clients are mainly based in Europe and Canada.
So investing in names is an additional direction of our financial
strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
William Quigley
President
GSC Services
============================================================================
> NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
> information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
> viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
> unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
> message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
> and deleting it from your computer.
>
> ===========================================================================
Alfredo, Chris and Marty: You’re welcome!
Paul; I received a similar email inquiry and googled toughguy.net and found your thread. Thanks for the heads up. This person used the name Graham Grindlay, President of TGI Services, email grindlay@toughguy.net.
I was scammed but was lucky enough to get my money back. After I got my money back though I wanted to know more, I started to ask more and more questions.
The person, Shirley M. Leurquin (a fake name apparently used before) told me the business was located in Ireland and Romania.
I tried to dig deeper asking for a valid telephone number, business address, anything. No luck. I have the email string on my blog, actually came-out and threatened me!
Amazing you can run a completely illegitimate business for so long with so many people speaking out about it. I’m filing with the FTC today. We need to stand together and stop this guy from scamming more people!
Paul - you run an incredible blog, many thanks!
Morgan Linton
www.thinkoutsideofbox.com
Just found-out the following, this seems to be the same Andrew Shoemaker - with addresses in Newton:
SHOEMAKER, ANDREW D, Age: 31
* 1 address in MARGATE, FL
* 4 addresses in BOSTON, MA
* 2 addresses in NEWTON, MA
* 2 addresses in NEWTONVILLE, MA
* 1 address in ROXBURY CROSSING, MA
* 1 address in WELLESLEY, MA
* 1 address in WELLESLEY HILLS, MA
Just letting you guys he’s still active.
Bogie5 : Glad you avoided the scuzzbucket mate!
Morgan : Congratulations on getting your money back! I’d like to think that everybody (including you) keeps digging until this loser is brought to justice!
JoeBrooks : Thanks for the update!
Tanks to Your Blog I safe time. Got an email: from lassen@toughguy.net Mr. Lasse Australia TGN Consulting.
He showed interest in my Domain www.officeandgo.biz which I try to sell as a bundle. com net etc. on www.sedo.
After reading Your blog I stopped the communication…..
PS the mail has same content like JoeBrooks only a different signing.
Thanks for your comment Mainz - I’m happy you avoided the scam! It’s amazing how many different identities this guy has!
I hope “He goes on a get lost trip”! Is this the right UK Term?
Not quite - but I understand the sentiment!
I put my domain name on ebay for sale. I emailed the top bidder who did not win my offer. Then I just received this email.
Hello,
We are interested in SLUT-69.COM
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly from Europe, Australia and Canada.
So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Brian Lassen
Vice President
TGN Consulting
============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
I did some researching, didn’t find anything until I searched his email address and found your site. Thank you so much!! You should do a post for ebay. Warning people about this guy.
Eric
Here is the most recent one….
I got it tonight, did a google on ITGN Technologies and surprisingly nothing came up. Then did a query Toughguy.net and came across this site. Thanks for posting it.
——————
Hello,
We are interested in __________.
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly
from Europe, Australia, USA and Canada.
So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Armin Zollinger
President
ITGN Technologies
Thanks for the ID update TMcCall!
I received this scam today. I was seriously considering doing the appraisal, then I had an impulse to google him with the ’scam’ keyword. The rest is history.
I’ve also notified the real Armin Zollinger.
FYI, I received an email from the same guy or group, his email address is lassen@toughguy.net and here is the email I received:
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly from Europe, Australia and Canada. So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Brian Lassen
Vice President
TGN Consulting
Mohammed and Unichrome: Thanks for the updates, and well done for avoiding the scam…
I got the same thing a couple of days ago.
Thomas Lassen - TNG Software
Offered me a coupla thousand dollars for a domain name… then told me he wouldn’t proceed until appraised.
Whatever.
Hi Folks,
This is the real Graham Grindlay. It probably goes without saying, but I have nothing to do with “TGI Services” and am highly disturbed that this guy is using my name.
Has anyone looked into legal action against Shoemaker? It baffles me that we know who is responsible for this crap, but can’t do anything.
Hi Graham, and welcome to my blog. I think his use of your name may be purely coincidental, but it would bug me too!
Aside from filing with the FTC (if you’re in the US anyway), there’s nothing that can be done. The guy’s got thousands of aliases, hundreds of addresses, and nobody knows who he really is! I’m not even convinced now that it’s just one guy.
FYI, I have received it too.
Thanks to this thead for the heads up!
The name used was Samuel Norris and the email used was snorris@gawab.com.
First message:
——–
Hello,
We are interested in xxxxxxxxxxx.ca
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly from Europe, Australia, USA and Canada.
So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Samuel Norris
President
TNG Services
——–
His reply:
——–
Hello,
Sorry for delay with reply. Today I became a father. It’s an amazing feeling! It’s a boy!
Let’s get back to our business
500 USD. Ok.
Do you sell domain with a web site or just name?
If just name it’s ok. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain appraisals.
Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It’s very important for me in terms of reselling too.
But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources I trust.
To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies in a forum
http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/730581.htm
Just check this posting.
If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% - 15% discount.
After you send me valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we’ll continue our negotiations.
What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply.
——–
Thanks for the update Chris - and you’re welcome!
Hello,
I also had an email from Samuel Norris. Unfortunatly i paid for the appraisal. How did you get your refund ? I am contesting the charges with my credit card cie., is there another way to do it ?
Thanks folks
Hi Jeff.
I got my money back. I issued a refund on PayPal, Plymus and on my credit card. I filled the fraud applications from the EU, USA and from the FBI. I followed every link I could that put them in good words, like some that were in webmasterworld.com, and notified the forum admins of what was happening. These forums generally close their topics after some amount of time so, after that you can’t post negative comments. What they did was to put themselves on good words and then waited till the topic got closed.
I was contacted by the guys in charge of domainsecondhand.com regarding my refund request and, politely, told them, Plymus and Paypal what had happened. It eventually got to a point were I wrote that I wouldn’t stop until the scam was as well known as the Nigerian letters one is. One email was then sent by secondhanddomain.com to me and Plymus saying that if I insisted I would be refunded. Another one followed straight after only to me. It was exactly the same but had an extra paragraph saying that if I put them in good words I would be refunded. If I didn’t not only wouldn’t they refund me as they would also put charges.
I replied to that email (the one with the extra paragraph), with CC to Plymus and Paypal saying that, in fact, I did insist on the refund and I was quite neutral on the putting them in good words part. I was, in fact, given a refund.
Just take notice on this. At some part, secondhanddomain.com suggested that I was the one pulling their leg as I had had my domains appraised and then didn’t want to pay for it. Some days latter, after being refunded, I was contacted by the guy that wanted me to buy the domain asking if I had done the appraisal yet. It was just another scheme to try and get me to give that guy the numbers that secondhanddomain.com gave me. Were I to do that and they could, up to some point, say that I was the one cheating.
I replied him telling the whole situation. Telling about the scam and everything including prices. In the end I said that if he wanted to go trough with the deal and buy the domains for the price that secondhanddomain.com had appraised (a value much much lower than what he was offering) I would still have to give my money back to secondhanddomain.com.
I never heard from the guy again. So my feelings were quite right when I thought that they were trying to get me.
The key thing here is secondhanddomain.com. It is the only thing that Paul did wrong. Toughguy.net is just an invented domain. The big player here is secondhanddomain.com and if one can put the first entries on Google saying what they really are… we will have won half the battle.
Do remember that some guys who are cheateded by this scheme don’t even realize that. They think it was just a misfortune and they even put secondhanddomain.com appraisal on their website making them look more credible.
If possible hit them there. Not on toughguy.net. I also contacted their hosting ISP and DNS Provider as they were both in the USA. I am in Europe, Portugal. Just for the record.
Good luck on getting your money back and a happy holiday season.
Francisco
PS. Maths done I lost more money on the whole process (working hours lost) than if I had just forgotten about the deal. I just couldn’t cope with being cheated online (my working area) so I went the whole mile just to get my money back.
Hi Francisco,
Thank you very much for your help. It is really appreciated. I think like you, in fact I am sure that it will cost me more in time than the 200$ dollar he got from me. But if we let go this kind of people the world will only get worse. I will keep you updated. I talked with my credit card company and on monday i have a phone call scheduled with the fraud deparment.
Thanks again.
Jeff
It’s only a personal opinion, but I’m pretty sure that the same individual (or group of individuals) is behind the entire range of companies involved - otherwise there would be no financial gain for the person who originally offers to buy the domain… There’s more than some sort of affiliate kick-back going on here too - the situation has to go one of two ways:
1. TGNet, Andrew Shoemaker and the whole multi-faced investor individual is a creation of SecondHandDomain.com, and exists purely to drive business to them.
2. DomainSecondHand.com is a creation of Andrew Shoemaker (or whatever his name really is), and exists purely to provide a way of taking domain owner’s money.
Paul
Paul,
Maybe I didn’t explain myself well enough. What I mean is that toughguy.net (the title of your post) is a free email platform with nothing to do, whatsoever, with the fraud scheme. It would be more or less if they were using hotmail. Their income making machine is domainsecondhand.com and, if you make public that domainsecondhand.com is just a fachade for a scheme it really doesn’t matter how many fake individuals they create (on toughguy.net or on any other email platform) that their site’s reputation will be ruined.
Prior to being scammed I Googled for domainsecondhand.com and the first entries were very believable. They appeared themselves on first position and then a post from webmastersworld.com on second. You even had some bloggers on the front page trying to sell their domains whith numbers appraised by domainsecondhand.com. That made me believe that domainsecondhand.com was, in fact, credible. They aren’t.
And, as you can probably guess, it will be much harder for them to establish a new site, plus a new account with Plymus than to just create another fake email account, under a fictitious name. allfordomains.com was also a site they had. They’ve recently dropped that one due to bad reputation.
So my point is, don’t hit them on TGNet, Andrew Shoemaker or toughguy.net but on domainsecondhand.com as it will hurt them much more. I even think that maybe TGNet, Andrew Shoemaker and the rest of the lot can be (and possible are) real people and companies who’s name is being used without their knowledge.
Francisco
PS. On my previous post I repeatedly wrote secondhanddomain.com when I should have written domainsecondhand.com.
Here’s one I got today, new identity “Anthony Norris -noris@toughguy.net”
Hello,
We are interested in ___________
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly from Europe, Australia, USA and Canada. So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Regards,
Anthony Norris
President
TNG Services
Look how they have slightly changed their speech as to not include prices in the first email. Even though that will motivate less individuals to do the appraisal, in the end, it will let more people, who do the appraisal, believe that the appraisal deal thing is ok and that this has just been unfortunate.
Scammers. But the idea is genius.
i got this e-mail,
“Hello,
We are interested in batmandarkknight.net
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly from Europe, Australia, USA and Canada.
So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Samuel Norris
President
TNG Services”
Hey Paul — GOOD JOB!
Today I received the same exact email that Pete of December 24, 2007 posted. It looked a bit suspicious so I googled “Anthony Norris tng services” and your blog site came up in the top position. # 1 on Google - not bad! :-).
After reading all the posts on this blog it’s clear to ascertain that this “toughguy” is a complete swindler.
Thanks fore the heads-up.
Cheers!
PAUL!!!! Thanks bro!
googled TNG services Anthony Norris and the domain scam was listed number 1! Saved me time and effort.
My name will remain Ghost until this game is played out and I finish my filing with the FTC, at which time I will post all details.
This looks like a situation for the g00ns to handle. G00NS… where u at?????
Looks like it’s going on in China too!!!
http://domain.club.tw/showthread.php?p=116451
bulent and Max Roosenbrand,
Thanks for the updated information.
——
Rido,
Please check further up the comments list, for information on how you might be able to get your money back.
——
Q Shooter and Ghost,
You’re both VERY welcome - I’m glad the big G is treating this post nicely!
It doesn’t surprise me that discussion is spreading to other continents - I’m pretty sure that this scam is global!
I just received one from him
Hello,
We are interested in xxxxx.org
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly from Europe, Australia, USA and Canada.
So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Regards,
Anthony Norris
President
TNG Services
Be wary people.
Just got one from him too!!
Hello,
We are interested in xxxxxxxxxxx.com
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly from Europe, Australia, USA
and Canada.
So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Regards,
Anthony Norris
President
TNG Services
Sheesh, I was so excited on seeing the email..but seeing that his email came from a xxxxx@toughguy.net address made me suspicious..found your page #2 on google…thanks for taking the mask off this guy!
Thank you very much Paul, also from Padua (Italy).
It seems that he “works” everyday.
This is what he wrote to me on December 31th:
_________________________________________________
Hello,
We are interested in programmestv.info
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly from Europe, Australia, USA and Canada.
So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Regards,
Anthony Norris
President
TNG Services
Yesterday I also got an inquiry, with its new identity “Anthony Norris”
TNG Services
Hello,
We are interested in ___________.com
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly from Europe, Australia, USA and Canada.
So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Regards,
Anthony Norris
President
TNG Services
Thanks for your post!It’s great! My friend just received a email from him and I forward your post to my friend.
I paid for my web hosting via Plimus in Jan. 2007 an amount of US$49 with my credit card. In Jan. 2008 they automatically (which they are not authorized to do so) re-billed my credit card! The mess is that they tried to charge my CC with US$443!!! They didn’t apologize and they said simply “do you want to cancel your subscription?”. It’s a rip-off company.
This iswhat i got hope this helps others.
G
> Hello,
>
> We are interested in globalepos.com
>
> Your name was auctioned for sale. Please let us know your desirable price
to
> sell.
>
> Our company is working on network protection and intrusin detection
projects.
>
> So Internet names is just a part of our investment strategy.
>
> Looking forward to do business with you.
>
> Regards,
> Robert Daley
> Vice President
> TGN Group
Bump for high position in Google - this information could save a lot of people a lot of money.
Hey GP,
I just received the very same email, this time signed by Andrew Hegedus. After a few emails back and forth, I almost gave in and just checked the appraisal company he was suggested and ended up to this post. He has been pushing me to appraised using (www.domainsecondhand.com)
I have copied a sample of the emails we exchanged.
Thanks
Hello,
We are interested in availablelife.com
Your domain was for sale. Please let me know your price to sell.
Our company is working on network protection and intrusin
detection
projects.
So Internet names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Andrew Hegedus
Vice President
PHT Systems
He’s emailed me claiming to be “John Slaughter”, and “President of TGN Group” Email: tgngroup@phreaker.net.
The appraisal scam’s web site is currently at http://www.EasyNameSale.com now. Here’s the scam/spam email report (a little different from the normal format, but I had to explain what the report was about, if there’s any hope of action finally being taken):
Thanks for everybody’s continued updates on this issue. I’ve stopped getting mails from the guy now (surprisingly enough), but there’s a whole new load of domaining scams going on - more details will come soon in a future post.
Hello,
We are interested in taosics.com
Your name was listed for sale. Please let us know your price.
Our works in information technology industry. Our clients are mainly
from Europe, Australia and Canada.
So investing in names is just a part of our investment strategy.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Brian Lassen
Vice President
TGN Consulting
=
=
=
=
=
=
======================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received
this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the
message
and deleting it from your computer.
MY RESPONSE:
I am not so much interested in releasing the full rights to this
domain. However I am open to a fair lease if you have interest.
Thanks.
THEIR RESPONSE:
I’m going to resell it later so leasing is not an option for me.
I need to know the lowest price you can accept.
What is your price range: $25,000 or $26,000 or even higher?
I’m sure it will take a lot of time and efforts to find someone who will
offer you more.
Please send your answer to me as soon as possible.
GLAD I DID NOT RESPOND FURTHER AND FOUND THIS SITE.
THANKS!
I was had too. What a douche.
I posted a report on ripoffreport.com. I’ll post the link here when it shows up. I’d suggest everyone else do it too. Ripoffreport.com shows up page 1 on search engines for just about anything. It’s crazy. That’d be a good way to help others before they make the same mistake some of us did.
and after listing a Domain, I receied this one, and since it was inline with what you folks were talking about, I figured I’d post. Maybe help keep someone out of trouble….it came from a phreaker account..
Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:43:34 +0300
Hello,
Just let me know your price for xxxxx.xxx. I regularly check domain auctions and your name has good potential.
We are working on software market. So Internet names is just a part of our investment strategy. Reselling brings us some additional income.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Andreas Winski
Vice President
TNN Technologies
Well it looks like Andreas owns a very similar company called: TNG Technologies. Here is the message that I recieved this morning:
Hello,
Please reply me with your asking price for xxxxxxx.net. I’m browsing periodically domain auctions and your domain has good potential (in my humble opinion).
We are working on software market. Reselling gives us a new income opportunity.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Andreas Winski
Vice President
TNG Technologies
============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
===========================================================================
As expected, my post on ripoff report went to the top of search results. Here is the link. I encourage everyone to reply to this ripoff thread, or start their own.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/311/RipOff0311140.htm
You should be clear and say that this guy is using another name and claims to own a different company (he obviously owns no company at all). It’s pretty easy to just make up company names off the top of your head and that’s what this spammer does.
i receive the same later with Steve. here is letter i have receipt today :
Hello,
Please reply me with your asking price for xxxx.com. I’m browsing periodically domain auctions and your domain has good potential (in my
humble opinion).
We are working on software market. Reselling gives us a new income opportunity.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Andreas Winski
Vice President
TNG Technologies
=====================================================
the second mail :
Can you accept 20,000 USD?
Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?
Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain
appraisals.
Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It’s very important
for me in terms of reselling too.
But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will
only accept valuations from independent sources I trust.
To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal
companies.
Please check this posting from archive:
http://domaintalk.007sites.com/Archive/260108.htm
If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price
accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% - 15%
discount.
After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to
obtain it) we’ll continue our negotiations.
What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire
transfer, PayPal.com or something else?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply.
=====================================================
so what u think about this guy ???
I received the Andreas letter, the same as above. I own several domain names, that I have parked and for sale on sedo. com. I haven’t gotten an email about those.. the one domain I have kept for my personal use (family website) and have hosted is the one I get the email about. I emailed back.
“I know you are a scam.” Find another sucker.”
LOL
Thanks for this information! I could have been just another sucker.
Greeny, what do you mean by asking what people think of this guy? Is that an inquiry to see if we think he’s the same scammer or not? If so, yes, it’s definitely the same scammer. If you mean is he a low life in everyone else’s eyes, the answer is also yes.
Hey Thanks for this page!
I just received this yesterday. As of February 29, 2008.
Hello,
Please reply me with your asking price for (thedomain.com). I’m browsing periodically domain auctions and your domain has good potential (in my humble opinion).
We are working on software market. Reselling gives us a new income opportunity.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Andreas Winski
Vice President
TNG Technologies
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information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
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message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
My comment to al those scammers out there -JUST TAKE A LOOK AT THE PICTURE ON TOP OF THE PAGE.
To All those Domainers Out There.
Get Wiser Everyday!
Hey Paul … THANK YOU for saving me from Andreas scam …I’m having the same non-sense email conversation you had with him about one of my SEDO domains. From the beginning, something didn’t click — now, I know for sure what this guy is up to!
that guy is a fraud. he mails from different identities.
if you get mails from the domains listed in http://www.gawab.com/ just ignore him.
he sends mails from phreaker.net, palmyra.ws etc.
he mostly call himself as Vice President.
his mails are from Russian IP.
Don’t even reply him.
I’m really glad I came across this post. I just got an email from “Andreas” and decided to Google TNG Technologies before I replied. Interestingly, I found out that TNGTechnologies.com is still available. I thought about writing him to tell him I could sell him his own domain.
Paul, do you have an area on this website or another where you discuss domaining in more detail? I’ve recently dipped my toe in domaining - on the buying side anyway.
Regards
You know something? I actually wasn’t going to post this originally - I thought maybe people would think I was whining! I’m so glad it’s helped so many people out - but so sorry that people are still occassionally falling for this fucktard’s schemes!
——
Luciano,
I’m afraid that I don’t spend much time on domaining forums or the like - I got fed up of new buyers thinking that things like my–d-main-s.info would make them thousands of dollars!
Ok guys, thanks for the thread, very helpful.
I am a very careful client, unfortunately, this this guy got me too. I guess because $50+ was not a big amount if you consider premium domain name. Anyway, I got my money back but I thought of posting in various forums to warn others of this scam and help others who have been scammed.
This is what I see. We should not concentrate on the emails as this is untraceable but rather hit on the main players in the scam that are traceable.
EASYNAMESALE.com and DOMAINSECONDHAND.com are obviously owned by the person emailing us. To get to the owner of these websites we should hit the component of the scam who has the most to lose - THE PAYMENT GATEWAY PLIMUS.com
EASYNAMESALE.com has a merchant account with PLIMUS.com payment gateway. It is this company who will have all his company information including his real name and business address as these are required when getting a merchant account. They would also have is tax identification id which will be useful in tracing him.
This is important: ALL OF THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN SCAMMED SHOULD ASK FOR A REFUND OR BETTER YET A DISPUTE FROM YOUR CREDIT CARD COMPANY TOWARDS PLIMUS.COM. EASYDOMAINSALE.com will have no recourse but to grant your refund because if not, they will lose their merchant account with PLIMUS.com and not be able to accept payments. This should happen if more than 2% of transactions in a month are disputed by clients.
The more people who dispute payments towards PLIMUS, the more PLIMUS.com will be investigated for their policies in accepting their clients. VISA and Mastercard have very strict guidelines with this and if they don’t act they will eventually be closed down. They will the have no other recourse but to investigate or report EASYDOMAINSALE.com to the authorities.
Unless PLIMUS.com is included in the scam, they should investigate this guy immediately and turn him over to authorities. Apparently, they have been using PLIMUS for quite a while so it makes me wonder if PLIMUS is somehow involved in this. Unfortunately, a search on google on PLIMUS shows that they themselves have been subject to accusations of being a scam. In my view however, they merely have a lousy way of qualifying their merchants which makes them prone to scammers such as EASYNAMESALE.COM
I don’t really care whether EASYDOMAINSALE.com OR PLIMUS.COM closes down. This will definitely stop this guy from accepting orders (at least for the meantime). Hopefully investigations lead to his arrest at some point.
This I think is the best way to get rid of these ***holes who have nothing better to do but to steal hard earned money from honest people.
Best of luck to everyone here.
Keep up the good work Paul!
I, TOO, GOT AN EMAIL OFFER FOR ONE OF MY DOMAINS, FROM AN ADDRESS AT PHREAKER.NET … IN HIS FOLLOW UP EMAIL HE ASKED IF I WOULD ACCEPT $10,000, BUT HE FIRST NEEDED AN APPRAISAL FROM A SITE HE “TRUSTED”. HMMMMMMM…. AND MY DOMAIN WASN’T EVEN A .COM, IT WAS A .NET…. THINK I’LL SMOKE HIM OUT BY OFFERING TO GET AN APPRAISAL FROM GODADDY OR SEDO OR MONIKER… BEWARE, IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, WELL… YOU KNOW. LOL…
[…] las pocas horas mi amigo me respondió dandome un enlace - http://paulenderson.com/2007/10/12/toughguynet-domain-name-appraisal-scam/ - donde se comentaba algo al respecto. Y en definitiva se comentaba que este individuo una vez […]
Now this guy appears under the name:
David Scheerer
CEO
PRH Software
He’s emailing me at the moment. His current itentity is:
>Jorge Piderman
>Vice President
>PHR Consulting
using phrconsulting@phreaker.net
I said i’d sell for $2k and he offered me $19k if I get it valued. Now that sent bells ringing!
I’m still stringing him along while my purchase of the couk version of his website goes through. Then with my SEO skills I should be able to stick a spanner in the works on this site of the pond! Well work buying the domain for.
Can’t believe he’s so lazt that he hasn’t changed the email body, makes is so much easier to search google.
I hate scammers!
So-called “David Scheerer” contacted me as well. Our email correspondance looked personal but was not. They were form emails. He said that he was from Geneva.
I got the same come-on as others…
“Anthony,
Can you accept 10,000 USD?
Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?… Looking forward to your reply.”
I fell for it and after learning about the scam, called AMEX to get a refund. They did so promptly and without questions.
This guy should get locked up.
Was the appriasel site he recommended called EasyNameSale.com?
I’ve just got the UK version and think I’ll produce an anti-toughguy site like this.
Hopefully if people search for his domain mine will show too and stop them going through with it.
He even sells a email spamming service by collecting email address from people signing up for scam information of all things and then charging people to send to them. Disgraceful!
Hi. Saw yoru blog about 12 hours too late, btu fortunately Capital One is reversing the charges and sending me a new card.
Cheers for the info!
Ah, this is fun. I just received an email from “Ronald Winski” offering to buy a domain name, got all excited, decided to Google the name, and found a series of “Domain purchase scam” pages including this one. So I’m adding my comment as requested. What a joke!
Hello,
From time to time, I’m checking online auctions. Several hours ago I’ve found your domain name cariocaoil.com.
Just email me your price and we will consider it.
Of course, domain reselling is not a main direction of our business (we develop software). But domain aftermarket is hot now, so we are always interested in domain names.
Looking forward to do business with you.
………………………………….
Regards,
Patrick Harrison
Chief Operations Officer
PHK Consulting
………………………………….
Can you accept 145,000 GBP? Ok?
Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?
Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain appraisals.
Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It’s very import_ant for me in terms of reselling too.
But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources I trust.
To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies.
Please check this posting from archive:
http://domaintalk.007sites.com/Archive/297360.htm
If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% - 15% discount.
After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we’ll continue our negotiations.
What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply.
………….?
Hi,
I just received an email from “Harrison ” offering to buy my domain name:
Again, so stupid,…
———————————-
Hello,
We’ve have visited several online auctions. We are very interested in your domain name jastrebac.info.
Just email me your price and we will consider it.
Of course, domain reselling is not a main direction of our business (we develop software). But domain aftermarket is hot now, so we are always interested in domain names.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Anthony Harrison
COO
PDS Consulting
============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
==========================================================
Just wanted to leave a comment to let you know, I have joined the number of those contacted by this person.
Immediately knew it was a scam after visiting the so called forum…no way to join the forum, no way to post questions or comments.
My email also was addressed as coming from Patrick Harrison.
Upon further search of phreaker.net I found several complaints of hijacked email addresses. Not sure if the next scam would be to hijack domain names but I would not put anything past this weasel.
Sincerely,
Debbie
Well, I wish I had run a google search when I started recieving Anthony Harrison’s emails. Oh, that’s his name now.
I’m ashamed to admit it, but he scamed me pretty well.
I was concerned early by the name spelling and other errors in his emails. I even called him on it and he explained in one email that he was in Switerland and did not speak english well. I was stupid enough to buy it.
Here is the email I recieved from him that started this exchange on 4/30/2008. Note the new name and company
”
Hello,
We’ve have visited several online auctions. We are very interested in your domain name ballisticlabs.com.
Just email me your price and we will consider it.
Of course, domain reselling is not a main direction of our business (we develop software). But domain aftermarket is hot now, so we are always interested in domain names.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Anthony Harrison
COO
PDS Consulting
============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
==========================================================”
Just an update on this guy/scam. After alot of emails to the scamer and Plimus the company that manages credit card transaction for this creep I got a refund out of them.
Thanks a lot mate,got an e-mail as well.He calls his company TNG.
Hi Paul
Thanks for this, like you I was a-Googling due to an unexpected inquiry about a domain I recently parked. Like you a little ripple of excitement gave way to circumspection as I felt that anyone who signs-off as the CEO of a company personally dealing with one paltry little domain is either 16-years-old or on some sort of scam! (Nothing against 16-yr-old entrepreneurs by the way…except perhaps envy!)
My own limited experience at least led me to find your useful ‘blog post and - surprise, surprise, too many similarities in the following to expect anything more than the same potential run-around. Thanks again for the good work, Paul:
All the best Al
Here’s my contribution:
QUOTE:
“Hello,
datingmaps.com has been found via online auctions.
Please let us know the your price and we will consider it.
Our company is investing in High Tech and IT projects. Now the domain market is very attractive for us, since every business in the Internet requires a domain.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Craig Huffman
Chief Executive Officer
TNG (The Next Generation) Services”
————————————————–
Follow up:
I decided to send the guy an email after all. For interest as follows:
QUOTE:
RE: YOUR RECENT INTEREST IN A DOMAIN I OWN
FAO:
Andrew Shoemaker
61 Prescott St
Newton
MA 02640
c/o tngtech@phreaker.net
Hi Andrew/”Craig”
Regarding datingmaps.com I already have potential interest from:
Anthony Garringer, President of TGNet Consulting,
Anthony McQueary (President for TG Logitech)
Shawn McElligot, President of GBW Software
Paul Camacho (President of TG Network Consulting)
Shirley M Leurquin
William Quiqley, President of GSC Services
Darren Cheney Ph. D. Vice President TNC Engineering
amongst others.
This domain gas been recently appraised (today 10 June 2008 )
Here is the apraisal detail:
SUMMARY
Domain: datingmaps.com
Marketability: excellent
Clarity: very good
Memorability: very good
Link Popularity: n/a
Extension: excellent
Length: very good
Word count: very good
Hyphens: not present
Numerals: not present
Substitutions: not present
Abbreviations: not present
Value US$ 43,000 to 65,000
With this amount of interest I am expecting the upper region of this estimate.
No further appraisal required with this level of interest. So, If you are first
to offer to deposit the full amount of US$65,000 then the domain
could be yours.
Your sincerely,
D.Y.Look-Stupid PhD MSc RAC MFI
Managing Director
YMBJ (You Must Be Joking) Industries PLC
By the way… F*ck Off You Sc*m-bucket Scammer
In May, I received nearly the same domain apraisal “scam” email.
In an effort to make the information more wide spread to search engines, I too posted an article about it at:
http://www.dakotadn.com/wordpress/?p=9
Kevin
DakotaDN
Hi Paul,
I received an email this morning. I was suspicious because of the generic e-mail, a serious IT investment company should have their own email and website.
“———-.com has been found via online auctions.
Please let us know the your price and we will consider it.
Our company is investing in High Tech and IT projects. Now the domain market is very attractive for us, since every business in the Internet requires a domain.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Anthony Stecker
Vice President
N G (The Next Generation) Services”
Here is my final email with this douchebag after having a little bit of fun with him and him recommending easynamesale.com for the appraisal
Subject: Re: craagslist.org
From: “bum@supportthebum.com”
Date: Wed, June 18, 2008 8:36 pm
To: “T N G”
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | Download this as a file | View Message details | View as plain text
What do you mean you did not hear about them before? How can that be the case, you are affiliated with them.
Fucking moron. Do people actually fall for your bullshit? Does spamming people to try and get them to pay you a measly couple of bucks for a domain appraisal really get your rocks off?
There are spammers who manage to make thousands if not millions of dollars by being ruthless…how does it feel to be at the bottom of that barrel begging people for only a couple of bucks. Ha, now that is some funny shit.
Not only are you a pathetic spammer, but you are a terrible one at that.
I was getting the same emails and asking me for an appraisal but then I did some research and found your blog. Thanks a lot for preventing people.
i just received this email from this guy who i believe is the guy your talking about as when i googled his criteria, this site came up. His email address is ngservices@phreaker.net so beware and it goes as follows
Greetings!
tdtv.biz has been found via online auctions.
Please let us know the your price and we will consider it.
Our company is investing in High Tech and IT projects. Now the domain market is very attractive for us, since every business in the Internet requires a domain.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Anthony Stecker
Vice President
N G (The Next Generation) Services
COPY OF REPLY TO SCAMMER
Andrew Shoemaker
61 Prescott St
Newton
MA 02640
Hey…Whats up Andrew ? are you not going to suggest a domain appraisal ?
I am forwarding your details on to a few members of my organisation in your area.
Feel free to talk to them about possible costs for the domains that you feel have real “bite”.
Sincerely
NationWideWebs.com
(Also owner and president of Vamp organisation www.Vamp.org.uk )
ps. found this really interesting link, here it is
http://paulenderson.com/2007/10/12/toughguynet-domain-name-appraisal-scam/
Here’s the one I got, new name, same stuff….
Greetings!
xxxxxx.biz has been found via online auctions.
Please let us know the your price and we will consider it.
Our company is investing in High Tech and IT projects. Now the domain market is very attractive for us, since every business in the Internet requires a domain.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Anthony Stecker
Vice President
N G (The Next Generation) Services
Thanks for your post. It helped confirm my original thought. Here were his two emails that he sent me:
— On Thu, 6/26/08, NG Services wrote:
From: NG Services
Greetings!
pokerautograph.com has been found via online auctions.
Please let us know the your price and we will consider it.
Our company is investing in High Tech and IT projects. Now the domain market is very attractive for us, since every business in the Internet requires a domain.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Anthony Stecker
Vice President
N G (The Next Generation) Services
============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
==========================================================
The funny thing is that I had this parked at Sedo.com. So it could not have been seen via online auction??
His response to by monetary request.
2,000 USD. Ok.
Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?
Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.
Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain appraisals. Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It’s very important for me in terms of reselling too. But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources I and my partners trust.
To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies.
Please check this blog:
http://domainmarket.007sites.com/Archive/419570.htm
If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% - 15% discount.
After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we’ll continue our negotiations.
What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.
Looking forward to your reply.
He tried it on me to what a moron.
Hello!
FIOSDELIVERS.COM has been found via online auctions.
Please let us know the your price and we will consider it.
Our company is investing in High Tech and IT projects. Now the domain market is very attractive for us, since every business in the Internet requires a domain.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Anthony Stecker
Vice President
N G Services
============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.
Just received one for my domain askyoosk.com
from a George Ogilvie email Ogilivie@toughguy.net… Might string him along for a while!
Never know I might get him to buy a copy of Interprise Suite to manage his accounts from his scams!
Hello.
I have received yesterday the first mail from George Ogilvie email Ogilivie@toughguy.net…
Regards.
Hello Paul,
I am here to criticise you for your lack of logic. Hotpop offers an email forwarding service. Once one sets up an account, an email address is provided with domain names including yourname@hotpop.com or yourname@toughguy.net. When this email address is provided by a spammer, any responses are FORWARDED to their REAL email address. Looking up the domain name registration for asshole@hotpop.com in no way implicates Andrew S. Hotpop certainly should cancel any account that is shown to be a spam engine. Rant Over.
Here are a couple more names he’s used. This guy is clever.
Robert Gardos
Vice President
TGS Technologies
Anthony Ogilvie
General Manager
EI LLC //On this way he claims to work with eliteinvestiment.net
http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?p=923358
Here is a copy and paste of the email the same scammer sent me.
Posing as Robert Gardos (Vice President, TGS Technologies)
Thanks for the post to warn others.
****
Hello,
Your domain name has been found online.
ÿ
Please let us know your price.
ÿ
We make money on selling and buying names and sites. Now the domain
business is very attractive.
Looking forward to do business with you.
ÿ
Regards,
Robert Gardos
Vice President
TGS Technologies
****
I have got the same e-mail as above, and I have paid for Appraisal Certificate for my domain amount of $ 87,78 at namesale which has referred by him. Before, I thought he was a real buyer, finally I knew that he only wants to be my domain broker with 14 % commission. Here his e-mail:
============================================
Hello,
Please reply me with your asking price for holiday-in-bali.net. I’m browsing periodically domain auctions and your domain has good potential (in my humble opinion).
We are working on software market. Reselling gives us a new income opportunity.
Looking forward to do business with you.
Regards,
Andreas Winski
Vice President
TNG Technologies
Hello,
i was contact begin this year by this person. But 2 weeks ago i was playing with him to send him a email that i have a domain for sale.
He sent me a email back to do a appraisel. I sent back: Thats okee.. you can do that and i will accept this result..
Many emails was sent and every time he pushed me to do the appraisel
hahaha
Peter
Found your post while searching for more evidence of this scam. Thought you might like to know they are still at it, and he’s currently using the email address: jorgensen@eliteinvestment.net, claiming to be Eric Jorgensen, Vice President, Elite Invest Network
Funny thing is they hit me up last year too about a different domain using the camacho@toughguy.net address. The idiots don’t even realize when they try to scam the same person over again using the same exact emails they sent the last time! What a jerk.
My domains are listed at Sedo.com, but his trick is to not make contact through Sedo but through whatever email is listed as the contact on Whois.
Foodeater,
The same guy has been in contact with me. I’m playing games with him to see if he is a fraud.
Is this the Andrew Shoemaker guy too? Or is it someone else copycatting his scam?
I have e-mailed Plimus to request a refund for my Appraisal and Domain Listing on Easynamesale.com.
LETS GET THIS GUY!
Just yesterday I listed about 50 domains on Sedo, and was happy to get an inquiry about one of them in my inbox this morning.. however the email (identical to the ones posted above) sounded scammy, so did some digging on Google and found this site. So, I wanted to share what I received. This guy is now presenting himself as:
Jeremy Marshall
CEO
TG Network
jmarshall@toughguy.net
I decided to see how this plays out, here’s what I sent him. The domain in question is BritneyBook.com, which I believe I bought on ebay for $4 or something..
–
Dear Mr. Marshall,
I bought this domain name on ebay, the previous owner said it was appraised in july for over $6,000 on Easynamesale.com.
I’d sell it for anything over $2,000 to make my money back because I haven’t got the time to build the website. If this interests you, I’m prepared to close the sale this week. Let me know!.
thanks so much, it’s always nice to hear from another Britney fan!
Steve
–
It got a little silly towards the end, but by then he should know I’m onto the scam.. I wonder if he’ll reply.
just got an email from “jeremy marshall” and found this site easily, just by after googling “toughguy.net scam”
And there is a reply. His professionalism seems to have dropped a bit!
“This appraisla is obsolete.. We nedda up-to-date version.”
I emailed back and told him I got an updated appraisal from another company, and if he would like to verify it I’ll knock that cost off the final selling price of the domain. What I’m asking for is a fraction of what he believes he previously told me it was worth, except he doesn’t know I know it’s him.. So we’ll see what he says; if any of this was true, it would be a pretty good deal after all.
After that I’m not sure what I’ll say, because I’m getting a little bored with this now. :p
Here’s two problems with this logic;
#1: I’m pretty sure that idiot is aware of this blog and reads it, so as soon as you posted what you’re trying to do, he’s probably being tipped off.
#2: It doesn’t matter what you’re saying you’ll take. His scam isn’t to get domains cheap (none of the domains he emails about are worth a single cent to him). His scam is to get you (by whatever means) to use the fraudulent domain appraisal site so you pay for a worthless/fake appraisal and then he never buys the domain.
Therefore, saying you’ll take only a fraction of a price he’d never pay will absolutely not interest him at all. He never considered the value of the domain, he doesn’t want it. He wants you to get suckered into paying for his fake domain appraisal. Therefore, there’s nothing to trick him about. He’ll either get you to pay for the scam or not, he’s not trying to get a domain.
@Tim: I know, I caught onto what was going on pretty quickly, and then posted a comment here. Read a few comments up.. Basically, I’m just messing with him. I’ve been domaining for almost 7 years, he’s not the first one to try this scheme on me.
I’m just having a bit of fun before going to the in-laws next week for the holidays… it reminds me of when I was a teenager and used to give really confusing answers to telemarketers when they called. Ahh, memories.
I completely understand. If only a few percentage of the thousands of people telemarketers, spammers and scammers try and trick each day would just take a few minutes to pretend they were genuinely interested and wasted the scammer’s time, they’d probably have to give up their routines. After all, they’d never know who was being tricked or not and if only 1 of every 1,000 people of more was really being tricked, they’d never get time to get to them. That is, it would work for the spammers and scammers that actually have to incite conversations to sell their scam on people.
thanks for this post, i got one from jmarshall@toughguy.net undoubtably the same and had pretty dodgy english throughout the email so quite blatantly a scam. also through godaddy i might add though
I am totally new to this game and obviously need to learn A LOT. Still, when I received an offer from Jeremy Marshall from toughguy.net extension I decided to check it out before I reply. And imagine my surprise when I saw THIS.
Thank you for helping people like me.
Just got an email from JMarshall@Toughguy.net wanting to buy a domain name. I replied back asking him to name his price. Did some researching since and found your very informative article. Will ignore this scumbag from now on. Many Thanks for saving me.
I have been emailing back and forth with this scammer for a couple of days now. Being the sceptic that I am, I did my research. The emails he has sent me, I have found verbatim on scam reporting blogs all over the place. The alias he used on me was Jeremy Marshall, CEO of TG Network. How can I report this, or what can be done to alarm more people about it.
This guy reached out to me about buying one of my domain names and was very unwilling to work with Moniker, where I had gotten my appraisal from. He kept trying to get me to use other appraisal sources and not Monikers, and or even Sedo’s. Funny thing is that he didn’t know that I am one of the senior Account Executives at Moniker and tracked him down quite easily.
People like this need to be flogged profusely!
Kind Regards,
Tony Clark - Senior Account Executive
Tony@Corp.Moniker.com
www.Moniker.com
An ICANN Accredited Domain Registrar
Very interesting read.
The problem with this guy using an alias and a free email service, is there isn’t much more information available..
You have a very quality and fancy blog.It was a lovely reading.Thanks for the post.
Excellent post, thanks. Do you mind if I quote a line from it and link back?
Another interesting article from your blog
When will it stop….hopefully never
Looks like I found another great site to add to my feed reader. Mark
Is this guy still scamming?
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Just posting to thanks! You have some great content on this blog.
Yup! Comments encourage people to write even more. They are like psychic wages that inspire you. On the other hand, they also offer constructive criticism by which you can improve.
He’s ( they ? ) now using aliases of real people who can be searched for on Google and look genuine. Is www.DomainExplorer.org genuine ?
I just noticed SecondHandDomain.com is for sale. What a bargain ! I think he should get an appraisal done.