ZipDomains.com Possible Scam Please Review
If you own a domain name, you might be the victim of a possible scam where these operators from Zip Domains tell you they found a website, similar to one you already own and recently took possession of the domain name and can get it over to you for a considerable discount.
Basically, here is what they say in the First email they spam out:
Our company specializes in acquiring expired domain names to help individuals and businesses protect their brand online.
The domain name XXXXXX.COM is expired and will become available soon.
We noticed that you own XXXXXX.NET and felt that you may be interested in acquiring the .COM version of your existing domain name.
We can assist in trying to acquire the domain name, as there are likely many interested parties competing for it.
There are no upfront costs, and the fee if we are successful is only $199 USD.
If you are interested, please let us know by XXX at the latest.
So, I actually emailed them, said, “sounds good, tell me what to do.”
I did not hear back until a few days later, and this time, I got almost an identical letter as the first, but, they dropped their price. This made me think, “Ok, this is a spam farm. No one read my letter, I better check on their name with a google search and see what people are saying about this program.”
The second letter said this:
Our company specializes in acquiring expired domain names to help individuals and businesses protect their brand online.
The domain name XXXXXX.COM expired recently and we were able to secure it.
We noticed the you own XXXXXX.COM and felt that you may be interested in acquiring the .COM version of your existing domain name.
It is available for a one-time fee of only $99.00 USD.
To purchase or learn more, please visit http://zipdomains.com/buy.php?domain=xxxxxx.com
I had even gone so far as clicking on the payment link and logged into Paypal and was about to pull the trigger on a pretty good domain name.
So I googled and found someone with the same experience. In their post, they talked about how they went to their regular registrar and just bought the domain for $9.99.
So, I called up Godaddy and I asked them if it was up for grabs.
Sure enough, it was anyone’s catch for $7.99. So… I nabbed it and thought I would make a post about it to save anyone the extra cost of this company basically doing an “end around” to get you a domain name which you could already buy off any site where domains are sold!
Thanks Zipdomains! You just saved me a ton of money!
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February 5th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Just got one of these too. Checked with my regular registrar and sure enough it was available so purchased it at their normal price. Nice of zip domains to alert me to the fact it was available!!
February 8th, 2009 at 9:25 am
I was about to send payment on Paypal when I decided to Google them and found your post. Thanks for saving me $90!
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February 9th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Praise Jesus!
I can not thank you enough for making us aware of this scam. Like the others who posted before me, I saved about $90.00.
February 10th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Thanks for the post!! I was being spammed by other domain terrorist “holding” the .com version hostage for $997. I received the email from Zip Domains for $99 and knew something was up. Then I found your story and saw that I could register myself for $9.
Thanks again and God Bless!
February 19th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
This makes me giggle that I’m not the only one hit by this. Got the email last night for the .com version I’d originally wanted for my domain and was lamenting that $99 was far too much to pay for it no matter how much I wanted it. I checked who.is out of curiosity since I could have sworn it had been renewed (I’d been watching for it to expire only to be disappointed) and instead of the registered info I had always seen before now it said it “might be available”! So I hopped over to godaddy and there it was. With a code it only cost me $7 to register too :3.
Zipdomains must be relying on those desperate enough to buy the domain without first checking to see if they can buy it somewhere else. Thank you for letting me know my much more preferred version of my domain was available, zipdomains! And thank you google for yielding a discount code that let me register it for $92 less than zipdomains wanted to charge me! ::laughs::
March 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 am
Thank you for posting your experience! I just had the same thing happen.
I too felt the need to research this company online and quickly found your posting, went on godaddy.com, and purchased the domain in question for $7.
Make sure you leave your posting up as this is surely happening a lot and others need to be aware of it.
- Toby, MA USA
March 6th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
It may come as no surprise that zipdomains.com is owned and operated by ENOM.
This entity has been doing shady business, slamming domains, and generally scamming folks for years.
They sent me one of these letters about how they “had secured xxxx.com”, and would sell it to me for 49.00. This domain was my first and last name dot com. Why would a company want MY name dot.com? What possible use, other than selling it directly to someone with my exact first and last name, could there be? I couldn’t see them actually purchasing it on spec, on the VERY off chance one of the 20 folks in the world with my name may purchase it. So, I did a whois…sure enough, it’s was available. Got it for 7.49. I did offer to sell it to ZipDomains for 5 Grand. No answer yet. Shucks.
March 9th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
ZIPDOMAINS IS A TOTAL F#$% SCAM. I actually bought my domain for $40. which I was waiting for about 2 years to be available and when I got the email, I felt for it. their phone is a voicemail and they never return any calls. what a shocker right? what should I do now to transfer it? any Ideas
March 10th, 2009 at 1:06 am
Yea, we hoped to avoid people doing the big buys…. Not sure exactly what you should do here in this matter…
$40 vs $9 is not that big a trouble… I would use the domain you got and move on, lesson learned.
March 15th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Great post. I bit on the 2nd notice and went to the website to order the domain. The cheesy unsecure login form is what prompted me to google this one. Had it been more professional with a SSL connection, I might not have taken a step back and googled it. I concur with an earlier post and thank zipdomains.com for the heads up that the site was available. Cheers.
March 16th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Thanks a ton, Jeff! I got an email from zipdomains.com 2 weeks ago. They made an offer for a pretty good domain name (I own the .net). Actually they grabed the .com domain 5 days before I tried to register the same domain name two years ago. I got four mails in the last ten days and they dropped their offer from 998$ to 49$, which made me suspicious. I started researching about this company and found your post.
Thanks again, I just registered the domain at godaddy for 9,99$!
March 25th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Thank you for “paying it forward” w/ this post. You were #1 on Google for zipdomains scam and I too was a 1/2 second from snapping it up, especially once the price went down. I just now picked it up at 1&1 for $7 – $42 savings over their newest offer. I would never have thought the domain I bought would have become available and never would have checked – thanks Jeff… and THANKS zipdomains
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March 31st, 2009 at 8:20 am
Jeff, you made me SO HAPPY that I did a google search about this. Your blog post came up #1 and you saved me over $500. Zipdomains has been emailing me almost daily with some great stuff and they’re asking 49-99 for each domain ‘they own’. I bought all of them combined for less than 60 with a normal registrar.
Thanks again!
Nathan
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April 23rd, 2009 at 11:18 am
You saved me some money. I just did a quick Google search before i paid them. Their email today said”
“The domain name XXXXXXX.COM expired recently and we were able to secure it.
We noticed that you own XXXXX.ORG and felt that you may be interested in acquiring the .COM version of your existing domain name.
It is now available for a one-time fee of only $30.00 USD.”
In fact they never secured it. It was open for registration. anyway thanks to them i registered the domain for $8
May 6th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Same as above. Checked with GoDaddy less than a minute after recieving email. Purchased at GoDaddy for 9.99
May 8th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
They said exactly what you have described. I bit. They wanted $100 initially and I said “how about $20″ and they said “sold”. I was wondering why I couldn’t pull it up under that domain name after a couple of months so I checked.
I called the guy who had bought it through GoDaddy and he said he’d gotten it about 3 months prior.
Now what? Who can I beat up? Where can I find these guys? Anybody?
May 20th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
The offered the .com version of a .net domain that I own. $49, so I checked & it was available. Got it at Godaddy for 7.49. I sent an email to zipdomains for letting me know it was available and told them I got it for $42 less than what they wanted. Thank you, zipdomains!
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:14 am
Yayyyyyyyyyyy, for you AND zip. Me too. They went down to $49 after I sent them a mail saying I got the net version for under $10. And was happy with it. Then when I received the $49 one, I researched it. That goodness my sister taught me to research emails. She saved my behind on that one!!!!
You ROCK, Jeff! God Bless!
May 22nd, 2009 at 9:20 am
Oops, that was THANK goodness sis taught me to research. Oh, and I originally researched the names I wanted to buy ON godaddy. My sis convinced me to try them and they were cheaper than my original service providers. When I tried to buy those names, the buy did not go thru so I put it off til later. Several months. The next time I tried, ALL the names I researched ON GODADDY were suddenly taken. So just know that godaddy may be involved in this lil scam trick. If it does not go thru, they may be snagging ones people have researched then holding them ransom.
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