Dodgy domain deals

[philipp]

Thought I'd tell you about a deal I've been working on for ages that has gone tits-up and would be interested to know what you think about it.

I found an undeveloped .com name that would be a perfect brand for my regular business. Contacted the owner and was told of an ongoing deal via their lawyers, coincidentally an outfit that I have sold through in the past. Drat. Anyway, negotiated over the next month and finally agreed a sale for mid £xx,xxx - expensive but worth it, I thought.

Asked the guy about the backstory and his ownership, all seemed good - he purchased it from a former employer. After going into escrow I request full details of how he got the name - not a problem that he's making a good profit on the sale, I just wanted to thoroughly check his entitlement with such a large transaction. Eventually it comes out that he was employed in the IT dept of this company, they had a couple of rounds of acquisitions and forgot about the domain! He just kept renewing it and now assumes it is his. Gaaaaahhhhhhrrrrgh!!

The acquisitions were 10 years ago, they probably don't care about the domain but I can't buy it as he has no real entitlement and they could reasonably come knocking for it. What a huge pain in the arse.

I'm going to abandon this one and rollback the escrow - but am interested to know what you lot would do in that situation.

P.

 

[Adam H]

Is the whois details in his name and email address ? I assume so if he has nominet access ? Has he been paying the renewals for the past 10 years ? Or does have just have access to their domains and thought id he'd try his luck ?

 

[Sound]

Is the whois details in his name and email address ? I assume so if he has nominet access ? Has he been paying the renewals for the past 10 years ? Or does have just have access to their domains and thought id he'd try his luck ?

Adam looks like its a dot com from the post above

 

[Adam H]

Adam looks like its a dot com from the post above

Ah so it does, forget the nominet bit then

 

[diablo]

Walk away like you did.

 

[bensd]

Why don't you try and buy it from the correct owner?

 

[Lovekraft]

I would definitely walk away, no way would i spend that kind of money on a domain where ownership is questionable, the potential headaches later on are not worth it and that prospect would always be hanging over you. At least you were proactive and took the time to dig deeper.

 

[gimpydog]

Déjà vu

http://domainnamewire.com/2007/08/06/200000-sofacom-domain-name-stolen-by-employee/

 

[humble pie]

I would have just bought then moved it on if it was that good. I think your worrying to much.

 

[jasman]

I would have just bought then moved it on if it was that good. I think your worrying to much.

Yeah but he said it was a perfect brand for his regular business so he was interested in it to keep. Plus if he sold it on and the original owner managed to swipe it off the party he sold it to, they would sue his arse

 

[philipp]

Thanks for your thoughts, this whole experience has been a reminder that one should not simplistically equate legal ownership with the ability to transfer a domain, and that using Escrow is not necessarily enough to keep you from being ripped off.

Caveat emptor as usual.