Over the last several days I have been receiving over 20 emails a day offering me domains for sale for $39.95 each.
Until tonight I didn’t pay too much attention but the sheer volume of the emails I have received today led to me to check it out.
So the emails are coming from [email protected]
Here is the email including just one of the many domain names I was offered:
“Thank you for your interest in the domain name, clearwateraccident.com.
As you are probably aware, domains are valued based on many factors such as marketability and brand-ability, the industry it is related to, similar domain sales, and if applicable traffic and associated revenue.
Clearwateraccident.com is currently at 39.95
All sales are on a first come, first serve basis.
If you are interested in this domain, I encourage you to secure it today by clicking here.
The process is instant and completely secure.
This is a one time cost for complete ownership and control over this domain, other than annual renewals.
If you have any questions or would like some personal assistance, please feel free to contact us.
Regards
Monte Carlos”
So if you click on the link to buy the domain you go to Defendnames.com in this case to this direct link:
https://www.defendnames.com/id/unzfnt43vj
So I went over to see who owned the domain name clearwateraccident.com (which unlike many of the other domains I was offered isn’t a bad domain) and found the domain was not registered.
I checked several other domains I received in other emails from the same company and none of them are registered.
Now for the email itself, it starts out with an untruth:
“Thank you for your interest in the domain name, clearwateraccident.com”
I don’t know you and I didn’t inquire about this unregistered domain, so no need to thank me.
As for the rest, this is the kind of stuff that gives the “domain industry” a black eye.
All someone has to do is go to Godaddy.com and see that the domain can be registered for $8.19 assuming you don’t have a coupon code.
So in essence this company is trying to “sell” someone an unregistered domain name at around five times the cost it can be registered at Godaddy.
Plus filling up my mailbox and yours probably too.
Not cool.
I can only assume that the $39.95 would be the renewal fee as well.
As for DefendNames.com not too surprisingly its registered under privacy at Tucows.
For the record here is what I got when I searched for the domain on Godaddy.com:
