So there is one helluva back and forth about a deal gone awry on Namepros. But it didn’t just go awry in one place and tears at the constructs of many beliefs people have about different parts of the domain industry.
I remember during the CQD.com episode many people asked me, “Doesn’t using escrow protect me from buying stolen domains?” Short answer, NO!
Platforms will protect their client right? That’s complicated.
So here was the deal on this transaction, two 5N.com made their way all over the net and a few people got screwed.
First the domain names, 28924.com and 82742.com.
These names were at auction on GoDaddy back in September, you can see where they closed by reading the Namebio report here
The two names sold for a total of $740.
The debate on Namepros started today when member @Draco stated he purchased these names on Namepros for $700. But GoDaddy repossessed the names from him after acquiring these names from Namepros member @Omer Doron.
He posted:
I paid with PayPal and the domains were pushed to my GoDaddy account. Three weeks later, I was notified that the domains were repossessed by GoDaddy. They told me,
“The original purchases of the domains in question were charged to an invalid payment method, resulting in the repossession of products and subsequent refund for initial cost. If the seller reverses charges for the services they purchased on your behalf, we “repossess” the purchase meaning the products are removed from your account. The original price of the domains must be paid in full before they may be returned to your account. We offer you the option of purchasing the domains for the original price of $761.34. This price is the cost of the original receipts connected to these domains which has been refunded.”.
The Seller is claiming that they bought the domains from someone, and they weren’t the ones that paid with the invalid payment method or did the chargeback. The $761.34 GoDaddy wants is actually more than I paid for the domains. The Seller claims I’m trying to get a refund from the wrong person, because they didn’t do anything wrong. I feel it’s their responsibility, since they sold them to me. They should go after the person they claim they bought them from.
Originally he said he would give me a refund after he verified the information with GoDaddy. Then he said he wouldn’t do it because he thought they were stolen. Then he asked me to post here anonymously and he would issue me a refund if he was convinced it was 100% the right thing to do. When I asked him what it would take to be 100% convinced, he wouldn’t answer.
I opened a dispute with PayPal. He lied in the response, claiming GoDaddy told me there was something wrong with my account. GoDaddy never told me there was anything wrong with my account. They just gave me the option to buy the domains back from them. It’s an option, not a debt I owe them.
So after Draco posted his side, in came Mr Doron with his side:
This is the true version:
I bought 2 domains from Undeveloped.com (82742.com and 28924.com) on September 20th.
I held them for a few time and then William Efron offered me 700$ for the domains so I sold it to him on October 17th.I transferred the domains to William’s GoDaddy account, William confirmed to me that he got the domains and the deal was successful.
On November 7th William got a message from GoDaddy that his domains are repossessed by GoDaddy and if he wants them back, he can purchase them from GoDaddy for 761$.
You can see the email William got from GoDaddy here (William sent me the copy):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dmnrnkj2yx2u86i/GoDaddy’s response to William’s Email.png?dl=0GoDaddy took the domains from his account and added them to his cart so if he wants he can purchase the domains for 761$.
William is saying that I bought the domains with a stolen credit card and this is why the domains were repossessed, but it’s not true.As I said I have paid for the domains via PayPal as you can see here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/bw3m3l3n41ae1mu/Completed Payments I made for Undeveloped.png?dl=0Also, these are the Invoices from Undeveloped.com:
Invoice for 82742.com:
https://undeveloped.com/invoices/asxw24br/buyer.pdf
Invoice for 28924.com:
https://undeveloped.com/invoices/kw0m4lp0/buyer.pdfI did not cancel any payment, I just bought 2 domains from Undeveloped.com which is a well-known domains website, and sold them to William because he offered me 700$ for them.
William contacted ME. HE wanted to buy the domains from ME. I did not force him to pay for the domains.
William just offered me 700$ for them so I accepted it.Now GoDaddy is telling William that something is wrong with his account, and instead of trying to solve it with GoDaddy, he looks for the easy (and the wrong) way to get his domains back which is getting a refund for 700$ from the seller (which has nothing to do with the fact that GoDaddy took his domains) and then purchase the domains from GoDaddy for 761$.
If I was responsible in any way, GoDaddy would have contacted ME, and added the domains to MY cart. but that is not the situation. They sent William an email and gave HIM the option to purchase the domains from them because HE is the owner and held them for more than 3 weeks in his account before GoDaddy contacted him.
*I* didn’t take the domains from William’s account. *I* didn’t cancel any payment. I am 100% legit, you are more than welcome to check my payment history and you will see that I NEVER did a chargeback or my payment wasn’t accepted.
I really don’t understand why he opened this case instead of keep contacting GoDaddy and explain the situation to them until they give him his domains back. After all, if they are giving him the option to purchase them, they can also give them back to him.
I can’t control GoDaddy’s actions and as much as I want to help, I will not take the hit for GoDaddy’s actions.
So there are four players involved:
GoDaddy who handled the initial auctions, the closing prices can be seen here, https://namebio.com/blog/daily-market-report-for-september-11th-2018/
The second player is that winner who spent $740 at GoDaddy then sold the names to the third player Mr. Doron for $550 on Undeveloped, the fourth player being Mr.Draco who bought them from Mr.Doron for $700.
Do you believe GoDaddy justified taking names from Mr Draco, someone who did not transact business with them?
So even though the closing prices were $740 it looks like GoDaddy is telling Draco he can have them for $761.34, they want the renewal fees added?
Undeveloped apparently has a buyer protection program, Draco posted:
Undeveloped has a Buyer Protection Program.
https://undeveloped.com/help/trust-and-safety
Omer should take advantage of it. I can’t. I didn’t buy from them. And Undeveloped can’t say anymore that no transaction has turned into a nightmare.
But Undeveloped apparently paid the seller in Bitcoin so they can’t get their money back.
There are so many variables to this story, if GoDaddy got conned do they have the right to take back domains from someone who purchased them on Namepros?
Should we all as clients of marketplaces state we will not be party to a transaction, where crypto is involved? Meaning I know a crypto transaction cannot be reversed, so if I am cheated by a seller the platform will just say sorry we can’t get the money back. Ok, I want to avoid that potential problem, so the seller cannot be paid with crypto on my transactions, can’t do that? Great, I am not doing business with your platform then, because you cannot give me the protections I desire.
One person believed the crypto angle was the heart of the scam, they might be onto something, Namepros member DNCafe wrote:
That seems to be the scam, using stolen credit cards to buy sought after domains that will sell fast, push to the users GoDaddy account, have the buyer approve the escrow and get your Bitcoin return….all before GoDaddy has caught the stolen credit card.
Once again we are shown that even in 2018 domaining is still a dirty, non transparent, inefficient business and analogies made to regulated businesses like real estate and the stock market are fairly naive.
It also shows how thin of margins people are trading names, if the transaction was legit, the guy who paid $550 was only looking for $150, it’s not terrible to flip quick but one wonders if the juice is worth the squeeze?
