This is a list of every name, e-mail address, web site, and company name (most are bogus) that I found to have some manner of affiliation with the domain name appraisal scam. This list is grouped by company with those with no company affiliation listed at the top. Inside the parentheses next to the affiliation I’ve given the web address listed for that company (many of them have none, but some do, so watch those listings). Finally, inside the group is a list of names affiliated with it and the e-mail addresses attached to them (if I found one). Enjoy.

UPDATE: This just in…

Thanks to the good folks at dot weekly, I was able to gather a few new names as well as a name and e-mail address linked to a pay pal account that receives some of the funds affiliated with this scam (fleos.com).

Now then, on with the post…

[NO AFFILIATION] ([NO LISTING]):

• [NO NAME] (paulson@theonlinebrokerage.com)
• Allen, Mark (markallen38@gmail.com)
• Brown, K. ([NO ADDRESS])
• Harris, Steven (sharrisgo@gmail.com)
• Hill, Kevin (2kevinhill@gmail.com)
• Johnson, Charles ([NO ADDRESS])
• Miller, Jeff (jeffmiller44@gmail.com)
• Myers, Tom ([NO ADDRESS])
• White, Paul (paulwhite47@gmail.com)
• Yeaton, Lorin (info@liberalist.com)

Back End Software Engineering ([NO LISTING]):

• Kayat, Andrew ([NO ADDRESS])

Back Office Network Solutions ([NO LISTING]):

• Shapiro, Stephen ([NO ADDRESS])
• Stichbury, Peter ([NO ADDRESS])

BN Engineering ([NO LISTING]):

• Lassen, Thomas (Ph.D.) ([NO ADDRESS])
• Kayser, Michael ([NO ADDRESS])
• Kramer, Edward ([NO ADDRESS])

BON Domains LLC ([NO LISTING]):

• Henzell, Michael (CEO) (bonllc@bonbon.net)

Bone Network Solutions ([NO LISTING]):

• Shaefer, Wayne ([NO ADDRESS])

Cham Consulting ([NO LISTING]):

• Berger, Trevor (tbergman@toughguy.net)
• Berger, Trevor (trevorb@toughguy.net)

Chams Consulting ([NO LISTING]):

• Berger, Trevor (tbergman@toughguy.net)
• Berger, Trevor (trevorb@toughguy.net)

DMS Software ([NO LISTING]):

• Norton, Anthony (Ph.D.) (norton@damemagnet.com)

DNR INC. ([NO LISTING]):

• Thomas, R. ([NO ADDRESS])

Domain & Web Site Brokerage ([NO LISTING]):

• Whitman, Bradford (CEO) (whitman@domainsecondhand.com)

Domain Resale LLC ([NO LISTING]):

• [NO NAME] (domainresale@ymail.com)

Domain Tade LLC ([NO LISTING]):

• [NO NAME] (domain.trd@gmail.com)

Elite Investments (eliteinvestments.net):

• [NO NAME] (campanella@eliteinvestment.net)
• [NO NAME] (carter@eliteinvestment.net)
• [NO NAME] (ceo@eliteinvestment.net)
• [NO NAME] (jorgensen@eliteinvestment.net)
• [NO NAME] (president@eliteinvestment.net)
• Davidson, Jacob (Vice President) ([NO ADDRESS])

Intech Consulting ([NO LISTING]):

• Berger, Tinto ([NO ADDRESS])

Martin Software Consulting ([NO LISTING]):

• Martin, George (georgemartin@toughguy.net)

OB Securities LLC ([NO LISTING]):

• Myers, Michael E. (Vice President) ([NO ADDRESS])

Ogilvie Technologies ([NO LISTING]):

• Ogilvie, George (CEO) (ogilvie@toughguy.net)

Perfect Privacy LLC (perfectprivacy.com):

• [NO NAME] ([NO ADDRESS])
• Phone: 1.4042608491
• 303 Peachtree Center Ave, Atlanta, GA 30303

PHR LLC ([NO LISTING]):

• Sterling, George (President) (prsllc@phreaker.net)

Phreaker Technologies (phreaker.net):

• [NO NAME] (prsllc@phreaker.net)
• Gaudry, Darren ([NO ADDRESS])

PHT Systems ([NO LISTING]):

• Hegedus, Andrew (Vice President) ([NO ADDRESS])

Rock.Com (rock.com):

• Chapman, Andrew (achapman@rock.com)

Soft Consulting ([NO LISTING]):

• Berger, Trevor (tbergman@toughguy.net)
• Berger, Trevor (trevorb@toughguy.net)

Swiss Software Consulting ([NO LISTING]):

• Bergman, George (gbergman@softhome.net)

TGNet Consulting ([NO LISTING]):

• Garringer, Anthony (President) (garringer@toughguy.net)

TGS Software ([NO LISTING]):

• Meredith, Brian (brian_meredith@toughguy.net)

TNG Technologies ([NO LISTING]):

• Cohen, Jacob (Ph.D., CEO) ([NO ADDRESS])

TNT Software Consulting ([NO LISTING]):

• Murray, Sarah ([NO ADDRESS])

Tough Technologies Consulting (toughguy.net):

• [NO NAME] (zollinger@toughguy.net)
• Marshall, J. (jmarshall@toughguy.net)
• Berger, Trevor (tbergman@toughguy.net)
• Berger, Trevor (trevorb@toughguy.net)
• Chavez, Richard (Ph.D., President) (rchavez@toughguy.net)
• Garringer, Anthony (garringer@toughguy.net)
• Leurquin, Shirley M. ([NO ADDRESS])
• Martin, George (georgemartin@toughguy.net)
• Martin, Jack (jackmartin@toughguy.net)
• Meredith, Brian (brian_meredith@toughguy.net)
• Ogilvie, George (ogilvie@toughguy.net)
• Quigley, William (quigley@Toughguy.net)

Shame on you America: the only country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment – yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations. Why arent we helping our own first ???????? Most people won’t have the guts to copy and repost this.

I sure saw it, and it kinda made me wanna punch my computer…

Really?

America is the ONLY country in the WORLD where there are homeless, hungry, and hurt? We’re it? No where else are there destitute people, dieing for no reason beyond an uncaring, neglectful government or because the government itself simply cannot afford to maintain its people? Just the good ole US of A? … Really?

Haiti was hit by an EARTH QUAKE. They didn’t get down sized by some capitol-hungry corporation. They didn’t overspend 5 credit cards, take out 3 mortgages and end up loosing everything they own. They didn’t break their bones while trying to jump a moped off their roof over a flaming trampoline in their back yard. They didn’t get denied by a Hospital for habitual drug-seeking habits. The EARTH under their FEET said, “… Eeeh, that’s enough for you.”

Are you people actually suggesting that they should be left to fend for themselves? And Why? Because the street corners of your cities are littered with pan handlers? Because our Healthcare system is a steaming pile? Because most people would rather eat out than learn to cook? Because we, as a society, choose to sweep the unsightly quietly away? This is why we should forsake others even though we have the ability to help?

Stop.

I understand that the point is that we should take care of our own before we try to fix the world. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?” – Matthew 7:3 (NIV) I get it, I really do.

It’s about paying attention to what’s wrong with our own brothers and sisters, rather than ONLY focusing on what we absolutely cannot ignore, then telling ourselves that we’re good people for it. But lets not let our zealous for shedding light on the forgotten and ignored cloud our judgement and start making wild accusations like that our nation is the ONLY country in the WORLD with these problems. Come on, lets be reasonable.

P.S. (by the way)

There are NUMEROUS organizations devoted to helping our own citizens. So if you’re really that upset at the neglect those charities are getting, why not DONATE to them? Copying someone else’s empty words not only does nothing, it’s insulting to the people who are -actually- trying to help someone.

You’re basically saying, “Man, someone should really DO something… But not me.”

But to those of you who DID repost that idiotic notion and you actually DO donate to domestic charities, good for you; but it doesn’t change the fact that what you re-posted was a massively insulting fallacy — especially to those who are in need in other countries.

So that was the first tip-off that this was a scam, and after doing a bit of research I found that this entire situation is nothing but one big scam aimed at anyone who owns a domain and is even slightly interested in knowing it’s value; so if that even remotely describes you, listen up!

Spoiler Alert! “Domain Trade, LLC.” is a PHANTOM company!
However, “Domain Trade, INC.” DOES exist, and is in fact a Japanese company that was involved in a lawsuit over reverse domain hijacking (among other things), but is, to the best of my knowledge, not affiliated with this scam.

The Scam

There are a number of posts over on DomainNameWire.com, DotWeekly.com, and many others that talk about this particular variety of scam and I will list them all later, but for now I’ll summarize:

It’s apparently an old and very popular (read: effective) scam used against domain name owners. Essentially, the owner is approached (through e-mail) by someone claiming to be interested in purchasing their domain name; but not without validation of the domain’s market worth. So they’ll require an appraisal of the domain name before naming their bid; and they’ll even be so kind as to provide exactly what appraisal sites they’re willing to accept.

This is the scam part: only one, maybe two of the sites they list are legitimate. The others are either owned by the scammer, or they are a paid affiliate; and rest assured, their sites will be the cheapest.

The scam e-mail might sound a little something like this: (it’s most recent incarnation)

In the past these e-mails have been signed with titles, personal names, company names, and sometimes a mixture of two or all three of them; which can be variations, the exact names listed here are simply examples of past letters.

Now, I was going to leave the titles, names, and companies out as I thought the specifics were not entirely necessary, but I found the sheer number staggering, so just to help give you a clue as to how big this scam really is, check this out!

I will mention, however, that the person said to be responsible for this scam owns a number of other sites, including toughguy.net and phreaker.net, which both redirect to a site called hotpop.net, which is an e-mail service that provides e-mail aliases (among other things). E-mail aliases allow you to mask your e-mail address and send messages to people that look like they come from someone else — a common scammer tool. Softhome.net is another site that this individual owns, and is a similar service to hotpop.net.

That aside, older versions of the letter might link to a forum where the buyer has asked some “experts” for advice; unfortunately I can’t find an active version of the site linked with these. To my knowledge, however, the sites were poorly disguised. First of all, he’ll try to make his URL look like another, more popular URL by using a subdomain such as “namepros.007sites.com” because many people know namepros and think that is the site they’re going to, when in actuality they are going to 007sites.com.

So when dealing with this approach, here are a few notes to keep in mind:

Legitimate forums will usually have…

• A register/login form somewhere on every page.
• The option to reply to posts.
• Date/time stamps on every post.
• Links to other threads within the same site.
• Links to members’ profiles.
• Some sort of home page for the forum

Legitimate forums will usually NOT have…

• Static HTML pages for the forum threads. *

* This is a big one. Usually URLS for forum threads will contain a bunch of data that the server uses to retrieve posts from the database; these strings usually start with a question mark (?) and contain a few variables (usually strings of numbers) separated by ampersands (&).

In the newer incarnations, however, the buyer includes a list of sites that s/he will accept appraisals from. So of course, here is a list of sites that have been included in these scam letters; take note and watch out:

Protect Yourself

Now, as I said, this scam makes it’s money through the appraisals that the owner pays for. I don’t know if the appraisals are bunk or not, but the MO seems to be that the owner will pay for an appraisal, send the results to the scammer, only to never receive a reply. See, they don’t really care about buying your domain, they just need you to pay for the appraisal and they have your money.

So here’s the deal, domains are like real estate, and just like real estate it is the BUYERS responsibility to research the value of the property they are interested in. If someone wants to buy your domain it is up to THEM to get an appraisal. In the end, appraisals are simply suggestions, they are not concrete. The final price comes down to negotiations between the buyer and seller and if the seller wants a few thousand more than what some expensive appraisal site says it’s worth, then that is their right as the owner of that domain.

But if someone demands that you, the seller, goes out and pays for an appraisal, just walk away. Any serious buyers will already have appraised your site before they contact you.

It should also be noted that payments through PayPal have the potential to be a bit iffy for things like this because you can’t dispute the payment for a “service”; even if the service offers a “money-back guarantee” after such amount of time, usually the time will be just long enough that even if you -could have- disputed it, it would be too late.

That not good enough? Try this: check out the “from” column of the e-mail. First, if the name is just the writer’s name with a couple of numbers behind it (like jeffmiller44), it’s probably not legit. But if you’re not convinced with that, take a look at the domain name. The letter I got was from “domain.trd@gmail.com”; the domain name here is gmail.com — this is NOT GOOD. A legitimate domain buyer is going to have their own domain and their own e-mail address. I’m not saying everyone with a free e-mail service is a scammer, but it makes them look seriously questionable.

Additionally, if they DO have a legitimate-looking domain name, throw it into your address bar. If it actually pulls up a site, that’s a plus; it doesn’t mean they are the real deal, it just makes them look better. If there is no site, however, or if the site looks like a 6th grader made it in Microsoft Word, then chances are they are not really interested in your domain name.

Still unsure? Okay, take that domain name and run it through Google. Oh, and add “domain name scam” after it. If this company has in fact scammed anyone on the internet, you can bet someone, somewhere, is bitching about it. Read some news articles, some blogs, or brows a forum or two; see what other people are saying about this company.

So there is it, seller beware; and if anyone out there happens to see another incarnation of this scam with different names, or (more importantly) different appraisal links, go ahead and leave a comment letting me know so I can add them to this post and keep everyone informed.

But don’t take MY word for it…

1. “Anatomy of a Domain Name Appraisal Scam” Andrew Allemann. Jun 13th, 2005. DomainNameWire.com http://domainnamewire.com/2005/06/13/anatomy-of-a-domain-name-appraisal-scam/ Accessed Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
2. “Domain appraisal scam is reborn” Andrew Allemann. Mar 23rd, 2009. DomainNameWire.com http://domainnamewire.com/2009/03/23/domain-appraisal-scam-is-reborn/ Accessed Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
3. “Domain Appraisal Scam Migrates to TrpicalNames.Com” Andrew Allemann. Apr 13th, 2009. DomainNameWire.com http://domainnamewire.com/2009/04/13/domain-appraisal-scam-migrates-to-tropicalnamescom/ Accessed Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
4. “Domain Name Appraisal Scam Now at NameOrange.Com” Andrew Allemann. May 15th, 2009. DomainNameWire.com http://domainnamewire.com/2009/05/15/domain-name-appraisal-scam-now-at-nameorangecom/ Accessed Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
5. “The incredible mutating domain appraisal scam” Andrew Allemann. Jun 3rd, 2009. DomainNameWire.com http://domainnamewire.com/2009/06/03/the-incredible-mutating-domain-appraisal-scam/ Accessed Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
6. “Fleos.com is open for fleecing” Andrew Allemann. Jul 29th, 2009. DomainNameWire.com http://domainnamewire.com/2009/07/29/fleos-com-is-open-for-fleecing/ Accessed Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
7. “PDDomains.com latest scam appraisal site” Andrew Allemann. Aug 10th, 2009. DomainNameWire.com http://domainnamewire.com/2009/08/10/pddomains-com-latest-scam-appraisal-site/ Accessed Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
8. “Domain name scam moves domains again” Andrew Allemann. Sep 2nd, 2009. DomainNameWire.com http://domainnamewire.com/2009/09/02/domain-name-scam-moves-domains-again/ Accessed Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
9. “Domain name appraisal scam update” Andrew Allemann. Sep 11th, 2009. DomainNameWire.com http://domainnamewire.com/2009/09/11/domain-name-appraisal-scam-update/ Accessed Fri, Sep 11th, 2009
10. “Bogus Domain Name Appraisal, just another spam?” EM. Sep 9th, 2009. KING.NET Web Buzz http://www.king.net/2009/09/bogus-domain-name-appraisal-just.html Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
11. “Domain Name Appraisal Scam” isolani. Apr 14th, 2007. isolani.co.uk http://www.isolani.co.uk/blog/spam/DomainNameAppraisalScam Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
12. “Domain Name Appraisal Scam” bluecrab. Aug 2nd, 2005. Web Hosting Talk http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=430411 Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
13. “Domain Appraisal Scam Targets Domain Name Owners” Lenny Zeltser. Mar 24th, 2007. Internet Storm Center http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=2504 Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
14. “Domain Name Appraisal Scam” Marcel Feenstra. Jul 30th, 2009. Locker Gnome http://www.lockergnome.com/dutch/2009/07/30/domain-name-appraisal-scam/ Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
15. “Domain Name Appraisal Scam” Jim Lesses. GoArticles.com http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1499787 Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
16. “Domain Name Appraisal Scams” Jun 3rd, 2009. 1nova.com http://www.1nova.com/blog/?p=519 Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
17. “Macez.com Another Domain Appraisal Scam” Jamie Zoch. Sep 1st, 2009. Dot Weekly http://www.dotweekly.com/2009/09/01/macez-com-domain-appraisal-scam/ Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
18. “Another Domain Appraisal Scam ~ Kevin Hill” Jamie Zoch. Jul 29th, 2009. Dot Weekly http://www.dotweekly.com/2009/07/29/domain-appraisal-scam-kevin-hill/ Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
19. “Domain Appraisal Email Scam Again” Jamie Zoch. Mar 10th, 2009. Dot Weekly http://www.dotweekly.com/2009/03/10/domain-appraisal-email-scam-again/ Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
20. “Another new appraisal scam email going around” Jamie Zoch. Jan 9, 2009. Dot Weekly http://www.dotweekly.com/2009/01/09/another-new-appraisal-scam-email-going-around/ Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
21. “Domain Name Appraisal Scams” Jamie Zoch. Dec 29th, 2008. Dot Weekly http://www.dotweekly.com/2008/12/29/domain-name-appraisal-scams/ Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009
22. “**** APPRAISAL SCAM ****” IDN auction. http://www.idnauction.com/appraisal-scam.html Accessed Sat, Sep 12th, 2009

Digger

Dig some holes, find some stuff, conquer the world!*
*(Results may vary…)

Digger.swf

Hosted by eSnips

Read more about this game…

Simulates 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20-sided dice in quantities up to 99 with special features for ease of use.

Read more about this game…

A Flash-Based Racing Strategy Browser Game

Note: This link is broken.

Read more about this site…

How to make a simple, quick heart graphic in Macromedia Flash.

View the tutorial here…

Progress Image

Health bars and pre-loaders work essentially the same way (continue to the end of the tutorial to learn how to apply this to a pre-loader bar), and they come in many varieties. The simplest health bar I can think of merely subtracts damage from the width or height of a solid bar. This type of health bar (what I call the solid bar type) is simple, easy, and (let’s face it) bland; but nevertheless, it’s a good place to start learning how to make them. To create the solid bar type, all you’ll need a movie clip containing a relatively bar-shaped graphic element, something to generate your damage, and a function to apply that damage by reducing the bar’s width or height.

Read this tutorial here…

Anyway, now that I’m back I’ve been thinking of uploading tutorials on how to do some of the things I’ve learned recently. Mostly because it took me for-freaking-ever to figure it out on my own. Why? Because there were NO FREAKING TUTORIALS on how to do them.

So be on the look out; and get your mind out of the gutter.

Anyway, I’ve rebuilt the database tables for the game and changed my control scripts to reflect that. I’m gonna work over the weekend to get a few more things done and hope that after next week I can finally link to this thing and announce it as open for play! Will the day ever arrive? God I hope so ><

I’m not a web developer per se. I know MySQL but I’m no guru. Nor am I the best at web security. Last week I logged onto the server and found some hacker ass-hat had broken in and deleted all of our files. This was a great annoyance, but luckily I keep back ups of my work… and just in case I’ll be backing up my back ups onto hard copy…

Cause I counted my code again (yes, I’m -that- nerdy, and yes, size DOES matter) and today I’m at 5,073 lines of code!