Got an email in the spam filter which caught my eye, it was the offer for chrismohan.com domain name.
I ignored it, but then got a follow up email on it. Out of a mild curiosity, I followed the link (from a secured, throw away VM of course!) and got presented with this:
At the current rate of the Oz vs the Us dollar the price is actually $1,444.50. A normal .com address is $28 a year.
So tempting. Really. No honest gov’ner, who I lie to you? 
So for kicks I thought I’d offer the fair price of $28 in to the web app. This is the automated response:
My dreams were crushed! 
$227 US is a lot cheaper than $997 US, but since it should be $19 US, not really any more affordable.
So got another email saying “money is a problem? – make us and offer!” So send them this
Hello Patrick,
Thanks for the notification. The domain would be nice, but at the asking price, it well out of my reach.
My site has no commercial interests or values and is simply for my records and blog thoughts.
We’re paying 19 US dollars for a .com domain name against the $227 minimum bid on your site. I’d pay 20 dollars as a maximum for it.
I’ll guess I have to stick with my current .com domain.
Thanks
Chris
Hmmm
No reply.
The following day, however I get another email from a company now offer the domain name at the fantastic price of $49.95!
The feedback comments – well, marketing people need to make us feel safe and special…
Anyway, I left if for a week and check back with a local and trusted domain name register and bingo the domain ChrisMohan.com was there for $18US. So to avoid this circus again, I picked it up for a 3 year period – early Christmas present to me.
What a lovely business model these folks have. They hold the domain name for a week, by registering it without actually buying it, find someone who might like it and ask for a grand, then generously drop it to quarter of the initial asking price. If you don’t bite, it then gets passed to another “company” then comes in at a steal. If no-one shows any interest they drop the domain name back into circulation after about a week.
If you do show interest, (click on the link in their email, reply to them etc) they send through these emails at vastly inflated prices for what should an affordable domain name. Again, if you don’t buy it or stop responding to the emails, the domain is back into circulation after about a week after the last correspondence.
Not quite domain name squatting or cybersquatting but I’m sure you get the picture. I flicked through some the horror stories of people losing their domain names due to poor registrars and the battle to regain then it. This is one of the topics that came up on a recent PaulDotCom Security Weekly (Episode 122 Part I – September 11, 2008) with Jay Beale, Jay lost Bastille-Linux.org domain to this sort of mis-behaviour.
I’m still curious on the search engines and web logic they must apply to domain names due to expires and matches them to existing ones in order to purchase them. You would have thought they’d added in some logic to work out if it was worth buying in the first place!
Chris,
These spammers are at me constantly. I finally went searching for information on them and found your site.
Get this: I purchased about a thousand ‘.info’ domain names from my own company. They are still on special for $1.99 right now, but at the time they were $.99 — less than a dollar. My net cost was something like 87 cents (it’s my store).
I am now getting constant messages from these creeps, just like you. However, what differs is this:
1) I have a lot of them, so I am getting pestered a lot more.
2) The ID used for my registrations was specific to those registrations. They are (improperly) using this information to harass me.
3) OMG. What they do is this: They see my ‘.info’ name (they must be abusing a registry to do this). They then ‘register’ the ‘.com’ equivalent and offer it to me at a crazy price and do the same thing they did to you. When I don’t bite, they ‘unregister’ the name within the grace period. It costs them NOTHING to do this scam. They do not even purchase the name, they just tie it up for a week while they try to extort you.
I did not put an Email ID here (SPAM, you know), that is my real name and I am easy to find if you need to reach me.
Thanks for putting this up!
Just a further word on this. As Bob mentioned, they just sit on the domain name but don’t purchase it. It’s not illegal, just dodgy business practices.
Almost a month on, a quick check on a local domain name registry and ChrisMohan.com is available!
Gosh at $12 Australian, that’s $8 US, I’ve managed to save $989 from the first offer, $219 on the second and $41 on the final offer.
Obviously, I purchased the domain name out of a crazed need not to have a dash in giving out my blog details.
I look forward to having it stolen from under my confused registrar and then used to extort me in later years, as I’m such as I’m such a well known and valuable brand name
Just wanted to give you a bit of thanks.
This article was one of the first I came across in my search for more info on this company concerning a domain name they beat me to upon its expiration.
Just like you mentioned, they were offering the domain for sale for almost $1000 US. Rather that just write it off as being beat out by a “big player”, I decided to wait the 5 days and check back to see if it was just tasted.
Sure enough, this past Sunday it was released back into the wild. Only this time, I was there to swoop in and nab it for the standard $8.
So thanks again for the great article!!
Chris, it gets even worse:
They offer it for the low, low price of $99.97 and they don’t even own the name at all!
C:\>whois findinvest.com
No match for “FINDINVEST.COM”.
To: theuniqeIDusedToRegister@mycompany
Subject: findinvest.com
From: domains@dcinchq.com
Message-Id:
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:34:26 +0000
X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report
X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname – cp1.pcsmarthosting.co.uk
X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain – [My Domain]
X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID – [99 99] / [47 12]
X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain – cp1.pcsmarthosting.co.uk
We are selling the domain name findinvest.com. Since you own findinvest.info if you would also like the more desirable .com we are making it available. The cost is $99.97. That includes a year of registration and transfer of ownership to you. To purchase or to learn more go to:
http://www.dcinchq.com/checkout.php?domain=findinvest.com
If you pass on this opportunity someone else could purchase this domain and it may not be available again.
For questions contact us or go to:
http://www.dcinchq.com/faq.html
If you are not interested there is no need to respond. We will not contact you again regarding this domain.
—–
Beautiful, is it not?
I write from the UK to thank you very much for alerting the world to these scammers.
I got one at the start of the month from the people you mention. It was only by chance I saw it as it had gone into my spam. I’d had to go with a .org instead of a .com when starting my business 3 years back, as the .com was already owned.
“We plan to offer this domain for sale in three days and believe there is likely to be strong interest in this domain name by multiple parties, but since you own a similar version of the domain we wanted to give you the first right of refusal.”
for $995!
since then they kept emailing me, but the names would occasionally chance. Links were the same.
I’ve kept an eye on it since then, and it’s changed hands a few times, never been with anyone longer than the “cooling off” time which I believe to be 5 days?
this morning’s emails were from another 2 different (apparently) companies offering the domain name to me for $99.
I went to check on the registration again today with the people I usually buy from and it was available. For £19.98! ($28)
So I bought it, obviously.
This whole thing is a terrible scam, leeching off the uniformed. Well done for flagging it up online
Hi Guys,
I’ve also receive an email from a “Pat Kenedy” from the same mob above. The difference with my email is that there no price on it, just a link to to a web page to register your interest. Sample link provided…
http://www.domainrecoveryassociation.com/preorder.php?domain=microsoft.com
Don’t tell Bill though!!
Anyway, the problem is that i’m interested in the domain they are contacting my about. I’ve done a whois on it and it says that they have registered it with an expiry 1 year out. Are they still able to opt out after 5 days as the previous threads have mentioned without having paid for it ?
Thanks
John
Hello John,
If you haven’t replied to the emails or clicked on the links in the emails, the domain name should go back in to general population in around 5 days. They just batch register them, then dump them once no-one buys it from them. You can then pick it up from your normal domain name registrar at the normal price.
I might have to drop Mr Gates an email to warn him about losing Microsoft.com, since he’s retired things must be slipping his mind