Just writing this to warn people of receiving emails from the so called company called “Domain Listing Services”
Don’t get sucked in!
This is the email I got, or one of many I get on a monthly basis.
DOMAIN LISTING SERVICES
8171 Yonge St. Suite# 149
Thornhill, ON L3T 2C6
Canada
________________________________
FINAL NOTICE
________________________________
(Please make necessary changes)
ATT: XXXX
ADMINISTRATIVE CONTACT
XXXXX
DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES:
Premium Package
ANNUAL WEBSITE SEARCH ENGINE SUBMISSION
FROM SEPTEMBER 1,2008 THRU SEPTEMBER 1,2018 OR FROM SEPTEMBER 1,2008 THRU SEPTEMBER 1,2013
TOTAL
$295.00
$185.00
SUBSCRIPTION INCLUDES:
* Custom keyword research
* Optimized title and meta tags
* Submission to 900 search engines and directories
* safe follow-up re-submissions every 3 months
* Helpful professional support
THIS IS NOT A BILL. This is a solicitation. You are under no obligation to pay the amount(s) stated unless you accept this offer.
________________________________
Domain Name
www.ozphone.com Amount
Requested Reply
August 11th,2008
THIS NOTICE IS A SOLICITATION AND A RECEIPT OF PAYMENT WILL CONFIRM YOUR ANNUAL SUBMISSION *100% SATISFACTION IS GUARANTEED OR YOUR MONEY BACK
Please select the number of years you would like to signup for [ ] 10 Years ………. $295 (Best Value, Most Recommended!)
[ ] 5 Years ………. $185
[ ] 2 Years ………. $99
[ ] 1 Years ………. $75
If you have other domains you may list them below (please send a separate check for each domain and write your domain name on the memo section of the check) Other domain(s) __________________ , __________________ , __________________
Total $ _______
________________________________
Signature
________________________________
Date
Payment by Check or Money Order
Print and mail a copy of this order form along with a check or money order to the address listed below:
Domain Listing Services
8171 Yonge St. Suite# 149
Thornhill, ON L3T 2C6
Canada
Please do not forget to include a copy of this order form with your payment!
Payment by Credit Card
If you wish to make a payment by credit card, just fill out the information below and fax this order form to (718)208-4213 OR you may mail it to us to the address provided above.
Name:
E-mail address (please print clearly):
Phone:
________________________________
By accepting this offer, you agree not to hold DLC liable for any part. Note that THIS IS NOT A BILL. This is a solicitation.
You are under no obligation to pay the amounts stated unless you accept this offer. The information in this letter contains confidential and/or legally privileged information from the notification processing department of the Domain Listing Services Inc.
This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) named above. Email domainlistingservices@hotmail.com if you do not want to receive further updates from DLC.
If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents for this letter is strictly prohibited.
* 100% satisfaction guaranteed, you may request a refund within 30 days if your are not satisfied with our services.
This email is just a scam, I will post more as I get them.
Tags: domain name scams, domain scams, scam, Scams
I decided to write about this topic because I caused a bit of controversy in regards to my last blog topic Don’t Let Your Domain Name Expire! I stated the following…
You could call them cybersquatters … well most of them are, but they prefer to call themselves “Domainers” or “Domain Investors”
I upset a few Domainers at Namepros when I mentioned the term “cyber squatters” in that blog post.
So I decided to write this blog post on the difference between cybersquatters and domain investors.
Cybersquatters
Cybersquatting is carried out when a person registers a domain name in bad faith for which that domain name may be associated with a registered Trademark or the Domain Name represents a famous subject, person or product which may confuse people when visiting the domain name or website.
These domain names are only registered by people for the pure aim of profit.
Cybersquatting is also associated with the term ”Typosquatting” or a domain name is known as a typo this is where Domain Names which are usually registered in bad faith containing spelling errors. Internet users browsing the Internet will accidentally type the domain name incorrectly into their browser bar expecting that they will go to a companies website, and then be misdirected to the misspelling of the companies domain name and visit a website which may or may not be confusingly similar or offer items, whether they be e-products or hard products for sale in competition to where the visitor intended to go. Therefore the “typo squatter” will hope that the person who misspelled the companies domain name, may either buy a product or click on an advertisement for a quick commission.
I would like to state that not all people who invest in Domain Names are cybersquatters or typo squatters, and not their is only a very small percentage of domain names registered are associated with Trademarks or famous items, objects, people and so forth, and the risk of a lawsuit is very small.
In regards to Domain Name investors registering misspelled Domain Names I would like to give you 3 examples on how valuable a misspelled Domain Name can be worth.
Well I am sure you’ve all heard of the very popular website called Download.com … well look at the following amazing misspelled Domain Name Sales, I have retrieved from DNJournal for you:
Misspelled Domain Price Year
Downlaod.com $26,667 2004
Donwload.com $26,667 2004
Dawnload.com $26,667 2004
Why so much for a misspelled domain name you may ask? Well as I mentioned above, it is only natural for people to make mistakes when typing on their computers in the browser bar, some people just do not how to spell, so they guess, some people may not be from an English speaking country, so once again they guess, or think it is correct, and some may be just little kids.
Speaking of little kids, there was a very famous case of the Domainer John Zuccariniwho was actually jailed for over 2 years and fined over one million dollars for registering misspellings of Disney Domain Namesand pointing the domain names to pornographic websites. Can you imagine that? What person in his right mind would be that stupid to redirect his illegal Disney Domain Names to pornographic websites, knowing that most of the visits to the misspelled domain names would be children. As far as I am concerned he deserved a sentence a lot longer that 2 years.
Companies who feel that people have registered domain names which may be confusingly similar or are associated to their Trademark or business do have a right to challenge who they may believe are cybersquatters for the legal right to “their” domain name.
They can lauch legal action through the World Interllectual Property Organisation(Wipo) via the Domain Name Dispute Resolution
Search WIPO Cases and WIPO Panel Decisions
So, hopefully the above may explain in my own terms what a cybersquatter is.
Domain Name Investors
Domain Name investors are ordinary people like myself who register Domain Names as an investment, similar to that of buying shares on the share market.
But in my opinion, I believe that in the long run Domain Name investing pays far more that what the share market does.
Domain Name investing is like a hidden underground market that I would say 95% of the worlds population would not know about. I found out about Domain Names in the year 2000, just after the dotcom bubble burst its banks, I remember one day soon after getting my first computer, I was extremely bored and was searching the internet on tips on how to make money.
I cant remember the exact keywords I used for the search but I remember my search taking me to Afternic and it was there I saw many domain names being sold for thousands of dollars, and much more.
But I remember another website which listed the highest selling domain names on record at the time, like altavista.com, autos.com, wallstreet.com, wine.com and from there it was the start of a new adventure in making easy and hard money.
I was a domain name newbie and I did not listen to advice and as a Domain Newbie usually does he or she just goes and registers a lot of domain names thinking they will make themselves an easy million dollars!
But it was not as easy as that, I registered a lot of names, and 99% of those names were absolutely ridiculous.. some I remember were winetodaytonight.com, wowdots.com, ozemarketing.com and many others I cannot remember or refuse to mention due to the embarrasment it may cause.
It took me over twelve months to make my first sale after spending a small fortune on my little portfolio, I remember the day, I was so happy to have made a sale finally, the domain name I sold was tiesrus.com (ties r us) for the price of $500USD not bad for an original registration fee of around $15 for the name.
That was a profit of $475 from a $15 investment, better than the sharemarket, but then again I still had to pay ongoing registration fees for the rest of my domain names… so I suppose with that portfolio at the time I would have broken even or maybe even lost out.
But thats just part of the domaining game, you need to take risks and to use speculation.
An example of where I have used speculation and taken a risk is when Saddam Hussein was captured, I was watching CNN and I saw the headlines about the Americans having just caught him, so luckily I was on the net and I quickly registered the domains, HusseinTrial.com and SaddamHusseinTrial.com, it paid off, later in the year I sold HusseinTrial.com for a nice price… but not SaddamHusseinTrial.com, so I evently dropped that name.
In anycase the sale of HusseinTrial.com paid for all of my domain name portfolio at least twice over and I either invested the money in other domains or put the money to good use.
Domain Name investors invest in Domain Names purely to make money from potentional end users who could use the Domains to develop sites with as part of their business, we hope for a big sale in the thousands and more, but usually those big sales are rare and we end up selling our names in the $xx - $xxx figures.
There are also domain name investors who register many domains and “Flip-Sell” them for small profits, but when you “Flip-Sell” many domains over a small period of time, the profits can be very high.
There are many types of Domain Name investors who specialize in all forms of Domain Names such as LLLL.com, .com, .net, .org, .mobi, Numerical Domains, Hyphenated-Domains, keyword domain names, casino domain names, poker related domain names, medical domain names and so much more.
I wont say how much I have made from my Domain Name investing, but I believe it has definately paid off, it has saved my financial ass a few times, like when I need money, I can sell a domain name I own, or strangely enough when I financial crisis does arise, suddenly I will get a offer for one of my domain names.
There are so many lessons to learn when it comes to Domain Name investing, and I would say the biggest lesson to learn is not to be too greedy! I have lost two potential good domain sales thanks to my greed, one for example was when I got an offer of $3000 for a domain name I still own, I countered offered $500 and the potential seller cancelled all negotiations through Sedo Brokers, at the time I really needed the money and was so pissed off at my greed and stupidity. For a name that only cost me $10 on registration, for an extra $500 it was not worth the risk!
So I am a Domain Name investor, although I wont deny I have had one letter threatening a lawsuit over a domain name I once held when I was a newbie, the domain name was Olympic orientated and a stupid sound domain, yet I got an email from a lawyer representing the International Olympic Committee… I was scared, but when I look back now it was pretty funny and a lesson learned!
Oh by the way back to the misspelled domain names, remember Download.com misspellings? … one year later … look below at the increase in value, they sold again!
Misspelled Domain Price Year
Downlaod.com $68,000 2005
Donwload.com $68,000 2005
Dawnload.com $68,000 2005
Tags: cybersquatters, Cybersquatting, Domain, domain name, domain name investing, Domains, investing, misspellings, typo squatters, typos, WIPO
