Thread: Domain scam?

Anyone know anything about this possible scam?

I run www.limebrook.com for Limebrook Farm Riding School - the owner of the riding school rang me in a panic today as he had had a call from someone who was warning him that another riding school nearby was trying to buy up all 8 different web sites all to be called Limebrookridingschool or Limebrookfarmridingschool will extensions .com, .co.uk, .eu. and .info.

I ran the number which was supposed to be a company called 'Verifications UK' or similar, and they told me a new law had been passed recently governing website registration, and that new registrations were checked to see if they may be detrimental to an existing business. Apparently I had one hour (but by that time only 29 minutes left) to raise an objection and buy the names myself.

The domains would need to be purchased through them, at £25 a go for a year ($50). They wanted £200 to secure the names, and were warning me that the person who was buying them had paid for 10 years for each domain!

I told them to get lost, and advised the owner of Limebrook Farm that as it took more than just a name to get to the top in search engines there wasn't too much of a risk.

The more I thought about it, the more of a scam I thought it was. I certainly am not aware of any new rules about domain registration. I also did a search on VH domains and found the domain names were still available to buy. (Although when I told the person at Verifications about this he said they had been purchased in the last hour, and it took 30 minutes for the internet to catch up).

I wanted to know whether anyone had come across this? Anyone know about the supposed change in the law?

If this is the scam I think it is, maybe it will be a warning to people!

Comments?

lol Trish ... that's a new scam to me, I've never seen that one before ...

Too bad all these scammers would not do something useful for the world ... such talent going to waste, lol ...

I agree. I bet a number of small businesses who rely on search engine traffic would fall for this though - the time pressure and the suspicion that someone could be stealing their business might make them think the investment is worth it.

One thing to get a junk email, quite another a 'helpful' telephone call from a company. I've got their phone number, and have reported the matter to Trading Standards.

Good job Trish ... nice to see you btw .. how are things? All good I hope ...

Well done Trish, thanks for posting this valuable information. Maybe it should also be posted on www.scam.com. There's many there either into or looking into getting in to home based businesses that require a website/and or domain name.

Originally Posted by LadyEye

Good job Trish ... nice to see you btw .. how are things? All good I hope ...

Great thanks LE - very busy!

I'll keep you posted on any response from Trading Standards!

There's nothing wrong with owning some of the other domain names - but I think you're right - in this case someone was trying to make some extra money off you. I've tried to purchase a domain name that people mistake one of mine for - the people who own it don't use it - and keep saying they'll sell it - but don't. I gave up - but am going to try again one day :)

Even if the case was that by UK law theres a certain period of time where you could raise an objection to a domain registration, you wouldn't have the purchase the domain from a specific company. If they said you had to purchase them specifically from their company or they would be sold, then they are scamming you, or at least using very misleading wording...

Also, I a law like that in the UK wouldn't prevent you from registering the domain name from a company in another country. There are very limited things the government can do to control domain names anyway, the whole domain name system is controlled by a large group of independent organizations

this is very definitely a scam. Did some internet research, and found this company has been operating for a while in a number of guises. Some poor folks have been caught out by them, but when they tried to cancel their credit card payments couldn't because they'd actually bought the domain names so got something for their money. The fact they paid well over the odds wasn't taken into account.

All I can say is beware!

Just in case you are contacted, the company in question is the grand sounding London Office of Verifications and Registrations. See link below as the ONE TO AVOID! I will be providing this information to Trading Standards!

http://www.loovar.co.uk/

Me again - found a blog about a number of people who have been scammed in this way. All the same company, they just keep changing their names!

Please make everyone you know aware of this scam - its clever, and catches out the unaware!

http://www.davidhurst.co.uk/2007/06/...0870-850-2820/