Somebody wants to buy a name I own

[Joe]

I got this message this morning. I was wondering if anybody else has had an email like this. I've never put any .com/net/org I've registered up for sale, so this came as a bit of a surprise.

Joe.

___________

Dear Domain Name Registrant:

An Afternic.com member would like to purchase the registration for a domain
name that you have registered, and has authorized us to submit a private
offer to you on his/her behalf.[nbsp][nbsp]The details of the offer are as follows:
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp] ____________________________________

[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp] Domain Name:[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp].COM
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp] Amount Offered: $250 (US$)
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp] Offer Expires:[nbsp][nbsp]Dec 27 2000 12:53PM EST
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp] ____________________________________

If you decide to accept this offer, Afternic.com can immediately accept
payment from the buyer.[nbsp][nbsp]Your domain name registration and receipt of funds
will be protected during the transaction AT NO CHARGE TO YOU with
DNescrow(SM), Afternic.com's exclusive escrow service.[nbsp][nbsp]Additionally, there
are ABSOLUTELY NO FEES for domain sellers at Afternic.com. To accept this
offer, learn more about Afternic.com, or negotiate the offer, please visit
us at the following link:

If you do not wish to be contacted with future offers, you can restrict
other members from contacting you through our service.[nbsp][nbsp]Visit Afternic.com
at the following link to prevent future offers from being sent to you:

If you are interested in future offers but don't want to receive offers
below a certain amount, please reply to this email with your minimum
acceptable offer.[nbsp][nbsp]To negotiate, accept the offer, decline, or stop
receiving emails, please visit the link below:

Thank you for your time.

Regards,

Afternic.com Virtual Broker

__________________________________

[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]virtualbroker@afternic.com
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]www.afternic.com (http://www.afternic.com)
[nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp][nbsp]the domain name exchange
__________________________________

ABOUT AFTERNIC.COM:

Afternic.com is a subsidiary of Register.com Inc., a publicly traded
company (NASDAQ: RCOM) and an ICANN accredited registrar.[nbsp][nbsp]Afternic's sales
history and secure domain transfer platform make us the foremost commercial
domain exchange in the world.
[This message has been edited by JB (edited 12-20-00@9:44 pm)]

[frankc]

Sounds like they're just trolling to me...

[nbsp][nbsp]Frank

[Jason]

This actually isn't anything sinister. Afternic has a feature that allows people to make offers on domain names, even if the domain owner hasn't put it up for auction.

If you go to www.afternic.com (http://www.afternic.com), and type your domain name in the search box, the response you get will be the following:

Make Unsolicited Offer
Afternic.com Virtual Broker

Since this domain is not on auction at Afternic.com, the Afternic.com Virtual Broker will attempt to contact and send the registrant of this name an Unsolicited Offer on your behalf.

Enter the dollar amount you'd like to offer.
This is, I'm sure, what has happened. Someone searched for your domain name (probably didn't even know who owned it, they just wanted it), Afternic reported that it wasn't for sale but that they'd make an offer anyway, and the site visitor entered $250 and clicked send.

It's actually not a bad system, although I think they should have info about it on the main page of their site (the only way I found it was by running a search - I found no mention of their "Virtual Broker" service on the main page of their site.

Jason

[Scott]

Register.com offers the same "make an offer" feature with every domain look up.

[Mandi]

There's probably no harm in responding, "I would be happy to negotiate with the interested party directly, but will not conduct business with a brokerage service."

That ought to sort out trolling from a genuine interested party.[nbsp][nbsp]IMO, someone genuinely interested in your domain, ought to have sufficient business resources to not require a broker . . . and can pay more than the sum offered.[nbsp][nbsp]The response also ought to get you off their spam list, if this is what it turns out to be.