Just received an email from [email protected]. It didn’t look like your typical Alex type email but after a little Googling it turns out to be a mass email sent out to a ton of domain owners. You would think it would be expiring name owners but the name I received the “offer” isn’t going to expire until 2/13. Go ahead and set up your spam folder to block this email as I have a feeling you will be receiving a lot of them in the near future
Hello,
I am interested in purchasing this domain name (not the website content, only the domain).
If you are open to selling please let me know ASAP and I will submit my best offer.
Thanks for your time,
Steve Johnson ([email protected])
Namepros has a thread going on the emails as well. Evidently the gmail account has already been disabled
Update: Received two more emails in the 3 minutes it took me to write this
I got this email too and I thought he was legitimate and my domain is not expiring soon either. I get similar emails all the time and the one common thing is that they never reply back. Alex tries to sell a name he doesn’t own, what is this guys scam if he doesn’t even answer?
Also got it. I replied as well cause you never know sometimes.
I got this email for a name that I no longer own, so I don’t know where they are getting their info from! Anyone else have this happen?
We also have 10 or more e-mails from this address. Strange.
got a couple too
This spammer is now using this address:
[email protected]
I got the same bogus purchase inquiry earlier today for one of my domains.
I also got the StevesPlace47 email a few days ago…
My theory on this is that the “scam” here is to find domains with dead contact email addresses, in a mass attempt to steal domains from people with outdated contact info…
There is always an ‘angle’ in favor of the kind of human garbage that thinks this is acceptable…
Anyway, I got a suspicious email just a few minutes ago regarding one of my other domains (which is actually for sale — hint hint hint hint). 😉
And like so many of the other scam emails out there, the red flags began upon reading the email and noticing that it reeks of “ESL” from one of those delightful African nations, China, or Korea. Plus having the subject line which consists of purely dynamic information — in this case, just the domain name (which even the most basic hacker/spammers knows how to do ), combined with the complete absence of any dynamic data in the body… …they didn’t use my name, did not mention the domain again, and made no differentiation as to whether or not the site was live…)
So we have a super unsophisticated hacker/spammer wannabe who hasn’t learned enough of the English language to master the words “ethics” or “morality”… (which of course seem to have no meaningful definition or existence outside of ‘Western/European’ cultures).
Wow… So much sarcasm and it’s not even noon!
Anyway, the email was the following:
Sender: [email protected]
Subject: pvr.net
Body:
Hi,
My name is Lara and I would like to
design my own website to start my
small business.
I don’t know if this domain name is
in use or not but if yes, I apologize
for emailing you
But I must try my luck if this is
available…
Well, please let me know your selling
price for this name and I would reply
as fast as I could if I can be able to
afford it to avoid wasting your time.
Many thanks to your kindness 🙂
Cheers,
Lara
By the way, we did a little digging on this email address, and like the others, there is no reference to this address, person, or anything of the sort that could be found anywhere.
I’m sooooo tempted to spoof my own 5.1.1 error emails to see if they try to grab my domain name… 🙂
MikesBikes damn you. We should locate these vermin, line them up against a wall, call a pay per view event ($49.99) and have a public execution with dull butter knives.
Just saying. What a waste of time.
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Also got the email from [email protected] inquiring about a literary domain of a long-dead feminist writer which would have no practical purpose for someone owning a bike shop.
The email itself is suspicious–it may be spoofed; it took all kinds of paths throughout cyberspace.
Also received a spam phone call from a machine shop called Diamo (California). I didn’t answer this one; I think that this is probably a legit business whose phone number has been spoofed.
I rarely answer my Whois phone, unless I recognize the number. My last conversation with a lowballer was extremely tiresome.
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Shane, can you edit my previous post? I didn’t mean to create a live link to that numpty email address.
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I got the same email. Replied with a price, then got a reply with a lower offer, then the email account on gmail was disabled. So someone was monitoring the email account and making replies before it was disabled by gmail as spam.