Checking my emails as usual and have been coming across an email from a guy called Paul Timmers. Paul Timmers is offering to sell me a .com domain name that I own the .info for.
Last Call For Domain *DOMAIN*:
We will be offering *DOMAIN* for sale today. We see that you previously respond to an email about this domain, but did not submit an offer. This is your last chance to submit an offer on *DOMAIN*, or we will make other arrangements.
To submit an offer of at least $97 now, click URL REMOVED
But I don’t know how much to offer!
Often people do not submit offers, because they don’t know how much to offer. Our minimum offer price is $97. If you submit an offer of at least $97, then you will reserve your position for this domain. In almost all cases, this is enough to win the domain.To submit an offer of at least $97 now, click here
How do I know that this is a safe transaction?
We do everything possible to make sure our customers are confident that this is a safe transaction:
1. We deliver the domain to you BEFORE you make payment! That’s right – you pay only after you have full control of the domain!2. You can pay by PayPal, bank wire, check or Western Union in order to keep your payment details confidential
3. We are BONDED by BuySafe.com.
4. We have been VERIFIED by TrustGuard.com.
To submit an offer of at least $97 now, click here
Will my personal information by kept confidential?
YES! Our privacy policy is very simple – your data is never shared, reused, sold or distributed in any way whatsoever.To submit an offer of at least $97 now, click here
I don’t want to pay this amount every year for the domain.
This is a ONE-TIME payment, after which the domain becomes your exclusive property. You never have to pay us anything for the domain ever again.To submit an offer of at least $97 now, click here
I don’t want to rebrand everything with the new domain name
You do not have to rebrand at all. Our service includes FREE domain and email forwarding! You simply redirect the traffic from *DOMAIN* to *DOMAIN* and gain the benefit of having the preferred *DOMAIN* without having to change hosting or rebranding at all.How will I know that I own the domain?
After purchase, you will be the exclusive owner of the domain. All rights and title are transferred to you. You will be able to verify ownership by checking the WHOIS record for the domain, and you will see that the domain is in your name. Also, you will be able to manage every aspect of the domain, including name servers, whois record, host records, domain forwarding and email forwarding. You will also be able to obtain the authorization code for the domain.To summarize – you can bid as low as $97, you do not pay until you receive delivery and you never have to reveal your personal payment details to anyone. This your best possible opportunity to get the preferred *DOMAIN* to complement your *DOMAIN* domain.
To submit an offer of at least $97 now, click here
Act now and get a free SEO analysis of your website (a $250 value!).
Kind regards,
John Timmers
InTrust Domains
4845 A Pearl East Circle
Boulder, CO 80301
Of course there is 1 problem with the fact of him trying to sell me the domain. HE DOES NOT OWN IT.
The following is the whois for this particular domain name:
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Status: pendingDeleteExpiration Date: 2009-07-02
Creation Date: 2008-07-02
Last Update Date: 2009-09-13Name Servers:
ns31.domaincontrol.com
ns32.domaincontrol.com
ns49.domaincontrol.com
ns50.domaincontrol.com
See psntrophies.com DNS Records
As you can see it is currently sitting in the “pending delete” status. What he is actually trying to do is confirm a sale prior to actually trying to catch the domain in the drop market.
As you can see in the email he is claiming to be able to sell the domain name today and insinuating that he owns the domain name. If you receive an email like this I strongly suggest that you delete them immediately. Do not even click on the links in the email as they are used to track who click on the link and helps them gauge interest.
If you actually do want the domain in question I strongly suggest you use a reputable drop catcher associated with a registrar (preferably the registrar that currently holds the domain, in this case GoDaddy). Avoid scumbags like John Timmers and “services” such as bestinitrustdomains.us.
Domains he also seems to use are initrustway.us and itdomainnames.net.
Tags: Domain For Sale, Domain Name, Domain Sale, Email Domain, Emails, Free Domain, Last Chance, Paul Timmers, Payment Details, Time Payment, Western Union
heard from the same scumbag! I’ve read about the same scumbag in many other websites too. such filth of the inter-tubes should be flushed away!
hi all,
i am getting emails from him also, however i have been slowly piecing together info about him, when i find out where he lives and his mobile number I’ll post it up here so you can all have a go at him.
also my job is to get websites pulled off the internet for spam / child porn / scams etc.
so once Ive found him i will make a few calls and the following domains he uses will be suspended
ITDOMAINNAMES.NET
initrustway.us
INITRUSTNETWORK.COM
rosemccaige.com
rosemckaig.com
Peter & Commentators: THANK YOU SO MUCH for posting about this. I was about to make a $97 offer on a client’s domain name (owns the .net), when I got a weird feeling and decided to check into this guy and his domain a bit more. I am so glad I found your blog. I (a very experienced Internet Marketer) was very close to being had. Just imagine what the average Joe would fall for? I legitimately HATE assholes like this and hope KARMA pays him a special [f*****g] visit. I hope Mat finds the info and slaps this bastard of a person.
Hey Eric.
Glad that it has stopped at least 1 person. And you are indeed correct there are probably a lot of average Joe’s that fall for this simply trusting what they are being told.
Too many scumbags on the internet.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Eric Itzkowitz and Eric Itzkowitz. Eric Itzkowitz said: PLEASE RT: $97 domain name scam (aka John Timmers): http://cli.gs/vX90Ms – Yeah, I almost got sucked in. [...]
hi all, mat again
i have gotten as far as getting his work number and the cell phone number of his on-call manager (his underling if you will) and am in the process of working out where he lives and what his home number is. as soon as i find those numbers i will be posting them EVERYWHERE so he gets spammed for a change. might even call him up and abuse his then put a recording up on youtube lol.
Hi Chaps
was being offered a .com version this morning, 16th Oct 09. Fasthosts tells me that the .com is presently being registered so I was beginning to smell a rat – and what a rat!
Thanks for the blog
Frank
OK
@Mat
The guy, John Timmers(if that really is is real name), is almost certainly reading and keeping up to date on this blog. So, is it really wise to reveal what you are going to do before you actually do it?
Please don’t take this the wrong way, it is simply my advice. It seems like great work you do so keep it up please. I have found many BAD/CORRUPT people and companies on the net. I have discovered that even the large companies are more CORRUPT than the small businesses. I would love to do the work you do.
Peter Hi
Many thanks for your hard work. Got the identical mail but checked his link address out on Google first and guess what, I found you. I would suggest that everybody does a quick Google check on any dubious mail with links like this.
Kind Regards
Mike
Thanks, everyone for your comments. I received a solicitation from “John” this morning so if he’s reading the blog, he doesn’t seem concerned. Like Mike, I decided to Google the link instead of clicking on (I’m a bit paranoid about viruses) and found the blog. In an attempt to look legit he included the following address on my email; haven’t check it out to see who it really belongs to:
4845 A Pearl East Circle; Boulder CO 80301
Thanks for saving me a hassle.
Lorraine
We could just Google bomb the guys name! >:) Or, we could just continue to push everybody to this blog post.
He seems to have changed he address on the emails. Also he’s changed his tune somewhat, still he’s got all the characteristics of a scammer. And he’s persistent…
InTrust Domains
11605 Meridian Market View #124-134
Falcon, CO 80831
I thought he was a scammer too when he wanted $397 for my name .com but when I did a whois I found this:
in Name: *DOMAINNAME*.COM
Registrar: THAT DARN NAME, INC.
Whois Server: whois.intrustdomains.com
Referral URL: http://www.intrustdomains.com
Name Server: NS1.INTRUSTDOMAINS.NET
Name Server: NS2.INTRUSTDOMAINS.NET
Status: ok
Updated Date: 04-nov-2009
Creation Date: 04-nov-2009
Expiration Date: 04-nov-2010
So maybe if I did decide to spring for $397 it would really buy me that domaine name. Not sure if I’m that confident it would even if I was prepared to pay that amount for my name.com
I shall keep an eye on this blog
I have an email from these guys at the moment, they do own the domain, but I am not sure what to do. I said the price of $397 was too dear and they dropped it to $97?
I got a phonecall from them yesterday asking if I was still interested & didn’t argue or defend themselves when I said I’d found information on the web which made me unsure as to whether I’d get anything for my $397 and that it was more than I’d want to pay anyway. Very curious, they seem to go to a lot of trouble for scammers.
I’m repeating a post here that I made on another blog as I was almost put off using Timmers & Co after reading the comments here. This was my experience this week:
I got an email from InTrust Domains / John Timmers which I also assumed was a scam. They said a domain name similar to mine but without the annoying dash/hyphen was coming up and would I be interested.
Out of curiosity, and because it was safe enough to do so, I named a relatively low price, which was accepted.
I thought I would wait and finally they mailed me to say they could offer the domain to me for the price I asked. I sent a couple of emails with pointed questions to check if they would scam me e.g. by not releasing the domain once I had paid. Both emails were answered personally and fast.
As the sum of money was low, I decided to risk it. I actually screwed up the CC info (right name,wrong cc brand), so mailed them to see if the transaction had gone through. Again they replied back personally to say no problem. I now have the domain in my name on WHOIS and have been told I can transfer in 60 days.
Their business model seems to be to hunt out ‘better’ domain names that are expiring (i.e. ones that don’t have fiddly things like hyphens) and alert the owner. If the owner is switched on / got time on their hands, they will zip off to see if they can purchase the expiring domain direct.
If not (I was too busy with work), once they detect the prospective purchaser is happy to purchase and states a value, they register the just expired domain themselves (paying to do so, I assume). They then (in my case) accept the offered bid – no painful haggling as I was expecting – and just pocket the difference in fees.
Frankly their quality of service (i.e. responsiveness) was better than most web firms I encounter. They may be cute, but – up to now – they aren’t scammers. Frankly, if you aren’t smart enough to keep any eye out for domains you want, these people are doing you a favour.
Hi Campy 1
It is good to hear that you have had a positive experience with the company however I feel I must point out why this is a bad working principal. Firstly my apologies if the following sounds patronizing. As I do not have have any knowledge of who you are it is hard for me to know how much knowledge you have on this matter so I may cover things you already know (of course this information will be useful to others).
As I do not have any knowledge of the domain name you have bought I will use the domain they offered me as an example. The domain they had offered me as you can see from the whois was originally ordered on the 2nd of July 2008. When the domain came up for renewal a year later the owner chose not to renew the domain. At that point the domain went into something called the redemption period (indicated in a whois result with something like Status: redemptionPeriod). The redemption period is a time in which the registrant can opt to renew the domain name. After the redemption period has run its course the domain will be put into a pendingDelete status (shown in whois as Status: pendingDelete). What this means is that now nobody can make any changes to the domain name and the domain will drop back into the registry after 5 days of entering this status. As you can see this is the status the domain they offered me was in.
At this point John Timmers did not own this domain name and could not even be sure he could get it. The domain was to be dropped into the registry and if there was any interest in the domain would have been caught by a drop catcher. Most registrars are associated with a drop catcher system (for example eNom is associated with Name Joet).
If more than 1 person shows interest at a drop catching service the domain tends to go to an auction and the interested parties are left to outbid each other.
When John Timmers offered me the domain name he did not have any possession of the domain name nor did he know whether he would actually be able to get the domain name. Essentially what he was doing was gauging interest in the domain name to see if he could make a profit from the name. If for example I had seen the name in the drop catching services and attempted to get this domain myself and also showed interest with John I could have ended up essentially bidding against myself for the domain name. What is more the email that he is sending out are trying to suggest that if you agree to buy the domain from him that you are guaranteed on receiving that domain name. John Timmers has no ownership over the domain name as of yet he has no way of keeping that promise.
They arent ’scammers’ I dont believe.. They are just preying on those who cant get domain names as fast as they can. So the are just squatting on it when it becomes free and reselling it for a hefty profit. Its low but its legal.
Hi Chad
I understand and appreciate where you are coming from but I do believe you are partially wrong.
In my instance they were trying to sell me a domain name that they did not and could not have had control over. They were however trying to claim they did have ownership.
Well there can’t be a lot of interest in that domain name since I now have an email offering it to me for $97, much more reasonable than their original offer & maybe worth it to me.
it appears they’re not just hooking names as they’re cast back into the great domain name ocean in the hope that someone will pay a premium for them, they’re guaging the potential market by contacting anyone they think might be interested before the name comes available. To be honest this is not what I’d call a scam. Taking money for something you don’t have and selling it with no intention of being able to supply it, that’s a scam. Using specialist knowledge to buy something that might be worth more to someone else and then offering it to them at a profit is usually called business.
I woudn’t have known how to go about finding out this domain name was coming available, I don’t have a clue how to go about getting it and I’m guessing that it would take some considerable amount of time and effort to catch it myself. This company has done all that for me and I have to decide what it’s worth to me. Not $397 for sure and apparently it’s not worth that to anyone else either. Is it worth $97? Maybe but probably not so they’ve paid out, I don’t know, $15-20 and now they have to wait in the hope someone will buy it before they have to pay to renew. That’s their risk & if it pays good money overall then fine, if it doesn’t then they’ll be gone in time.
Hi Yiam.
Yes they are gauging the interest in the domains before they are available however they are claiming they have ownership of the domain to try to hook you while doing this. At that time they do not have ownership nor can they be sure that they will get ownership of the domain name.
That is deception, they are offering to sell something that they do not own.
This guy sent me a few emails about domains too.
For one of them, I had the dot-net domain, and then noticed that the dot-com was available so bought the dot-com and let the dot-net expire. A couple of weeks later I got an email offering me the dot-net, so I clicked on it and said I was interested just to see what he would do.
Well, it looks like when I expressed a bit of interest he bought the dot-net and offered it to me for $90-something… I said no thanks!
I got this same email from John, I made the offer and presto… all the computers that have no cache now come up with my offer listing of $101 meaning that you or I can submit this same offer amount and get the domain. It must mean that he has already captured it as my desired domain has my offer but it is a little unprofessional to let not just me, but all of you capture that domain that I won the bid on. It must be owned by him but I am too scared to send it the money after reading your posts. If he owns it, which obviously he does as my bid is listed on the actual desired domain (to the very last dollar sign) then would he not release that domain to me if I paid him? I will check back here in a day to see if there is a reply. Thanks.
Depending on the domain other people may not be interested in paying the price for it.
Regarding the fact he must have it because he accepted bids. This is not the case, if you win and he does not get it from the drop market he will simply not take your payment. If you wish to see if he does own it simply do a search for the whois (http://www.who.is) on the domain name. The chances are it is sitting at pending delete (which means he does not have it)
This guy contacted me twice. On a private email address which I only just set up and have never given out or even used! (… i wouldn’t mind so much but I am paying MobileMe £60 a year for that privilege).
No idea who this guy is or how he came across my information, he should definitely be reported/ deported/ arrested.
Cheers.
binder
Peter,
Thank you so much for this post and alerting me to this scam.After I received that selfsame Timmers email I did research online and found your excellent alert. I monitored the domain name’s availability on GoDaddy (terrific company that I highly recommend), especially today because our buddy Timmers sent me a “last call” email this morning, so I figured the domain was freeing up at any moment. And a few moments ago, I snagged it! With out paying these people. Knowledge is power, baby. Thank you again, Peter.
Hello All of you,
this person contacted me. I put him into the spam filter but he manged to get throught. Thank you for alerting me. I copied yome of your comments into my reply warning him to stop it.
I am in Europe, so it’s probably better to track these guys down where they try to make a living of well-believing people.
He did same thing to me. Funny part is he doesn’t own name and selling like he own and offering me $99 instead of $8 a year via http://initrustsolutions.com. I am sure that his name is not “John Timmers” ofcourse his site is not real one when you click to http://intrustdomainsonline.com finally I searched this guy at the end found this site “rosemckaig.com” which you can not find more information because He or she locked his information with “Private Registration”
This guy is a pain in the ass and should stop spamming us: John Timmers
john@initrustdomain.org
Hi Scott
Sorry for the delay in your comments showing. I tend to monitor comments due to the amount of spam i get.
And I certainly agree he is a damn pain.
hai
thx for the post, and i am save from his SCAM!!!
——————– email that i get —————————-
In the next few days, xxxx.com will be listed for sale. Since you have a similar domain name, we thought you might be interested in acquiring xxxx.com.
You can confirm your interest in the domain xxxx.com by filling out the form here: XXXXXXXXXX
After we receive a confirmation that you are interested in the domain xxxx.com, our sales staff will be in touch with you promptly to make arrangements.
We look forward to hearing back from you.
Kind regards,
InTrust Domains
11605 Meridian Mkt V #124-134
Falcon, CO 80831
If you are not interested in future priority notices, please simply reply to this message
No more please: xxxxxxxxxxx
———————— EOF ————————–
from email: john@initrustbestnames.info
be careful guys…
WHat it do is i just put this email under phishing scam filter……
“we already have so many trouble and don’t add more trouble to our head Mr. John”
I knew it was a scam, did a small google search n got it… THE FAGGOT IS TRYING TO SELL ME A DOMAIN THAT I OWN… WTF ?? The DOmains still under my authority and I dont want to renew it and out comes this fag trying his scams on me …
this is his web, ban the fag… http://initrustdomainnames.com/store/
Well, I just received an E-mail from the same John Timmers trying to sell me a .com domain of which I own the .nl. Thanks to this blog I know what to do now. Thanx a lot.
Well, what I’ve done when I got this e-mail I checked the whois own the domain and when I found it was going to expire soon, I just waited then the day domain would be available to be purchased then I bought the domain directly from my regular domain company such as domainmonster.com, 1and1.com or godaddy.com. Then you know what I did I just sent called John Timmers a thank you note and told him, “Thank you for letting me know…I just bought it for $6.99 compare to $99.97 wow what a deal…You’ve done a good work today! Thank you. ” now I own both .com and .net thanks to John Timmers…that’s my fifty cents hopefully it will help the others what to do next time when you get an email from John Timmers
Cool Steven
Bet he was well chuffed.
Hi!
John Timmers also works in germany!
Er versucht es auch mit .de-domains.
Thank you for your entries!