Unsolicited Offer For My Personal Domain Name?

Batzerto writes "Last Friday I received an unsolicited email offer for my domain — click the link below for the message. Their company name matches my domain, but with a country-specific top level domain (.NL in this case). They do seem to be legitimately using the domain in their country. As for my usage, the domain is my last name(.COM) and I'm only really using it for email. I'm not really that attached to it other than the hassle of changing email addresses. There are other flavors of the domain available (.US for example) that would suit my purposes just fine. So, Slashdot veterans, I ask you, what should I do? I'm leery of making an offer and falling into someone's legal trap. I wouldn't mind getting a chunk of cash out of the deal though."

From: ---
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 4:56 AM
To: ---
Subject: sell your domain ?

Dear Sir,

For my company I need the domain --- .
Is it possible to sell your domain to me?

Best Regards
N. de Robles

Turn the Screws on Their Thumbs

This is capitalism.

Google bomb your url with their company name by creating a Slashdot user account with their name and submit thousands of stories each week with your url in the homepage. You can also drop the company's name with an href to your url in CNN comments and on comments for popular blogs to get your pagerank up.

Then inform them that your Search Engine Optimization Chief just caused your URL to be at the top of Google's result list.

If they fail to triple their offer, begin redirecting to goatse. You should see them quadruple their offer then. It's called hardball.

Re:Turn the Screws on Their Thumbs

You should see them quadruple their offer then. It's called hardball.

Or they bring out the lawyers and everybody loses. It wouldn't be the first time [nissan.com], either.

Why?

If they fail to triple their offer, begin redirecting to goatse. You should see them quadruple their offer then. It's called hardball.

If you wanted to be really evil and as much of a bastard as a typical domain squatter for some reason, then sure. But why? By doing what you've suggested, you also end up polluting Slashdot, CNN and Google with crap, which is no better than your average link spammer.

There are many domains which people own that they're not particularly attached to and would be happy to sell. For someone looking in from outside, it's reasonable to think that this might be one of them, particularly if it's not immediately clear that the person's using it. (Lack of a website would imply this to some people.)

All they've done so far is politely ask if they can buy it. The request was short on words but that looks more like translation issues rather than an angry demand to hand over from a corporation full of lawyers. It could just as easily be someone's small family business which thought it'd be useful to have .com on the end of their name. How else are they supposed to find out if the owner's interested in selling if not by asking?

Re:Turn the Screws on Their Thumbs

No. The submitter has a legitimate cause to use this domain name. He's also free to sell it to anyone at whatever price he/she wishes.

It's mikerowsoft.com all over again.

Re:Turn the Screws on Their Thumbs

There is an exception to this which is valid in this case. The trademark in question (if it is a trademark, as the submission is not explicit here), is the last name of the person owning the domain. In this case, the last name should take precedence over the trademark [wipo.int] unless it was registered "in bad faith".

It appears that the Respondent registered the Domain Name in order to be identified by his surname, in line therefore with the provision of paragraph 4(c)(ii) of the Policy.[...]The use of one's own surname in a domain name corresponds to a legitimate customary practice and is, as a rule, sufficient evidence of a legitimate right or interest in the domain name. The scope of the Policy is limited to cybersquatting. Trademark owners shall not be allowed to use the Policy to dispossess summarily a third party of a domain name reflecting his or her surname (G.A. Modefine S.A. v. A. R. Mani, WIPO Case No.D2001-0537).

Re:Turn the Screws on Their Thumbs

And I would certainly mention that you own it because it is your name. That would give them the reason why you have it, and that you aren't trying to squat on it.

Everyone's talking about lawyers and whatnot... what happened to just being polite? I guess lawyers have ruined that too.

On that note, I wonder if it would hurt your case that you posted the question to Slashdot? It's not hard to figure out the site name as others have posted it already, which would turn up a search result... you get the picture.

On the condition...

Sell it, on the condition that you can keep your email address on the domain.

Win-win!

Re:On the condition...

You would trust your personal email to a random company who bought your domain off you?

The world you live in must be nice.

Re:On the condition...

yeah and i was thinking from the POV of the business. They are going to support this guy who they bought the domain from. the guy doesn't work for us, we don't know him at all and he's going to be able to send out valid emails from my companies domain.

No thanks. Pass.

Finally a use for the 'itsatrap' tag

As you probably noticed yourself, it's likely a legal trap; if you show that you're interested in taking money for the domain name, they will then use that as an argument during legal proceedings that you're a domain name squatter.

So simply don't respond.

Re:Finally a use for the 'itsatrap' tag

I saw this in several comments already. Think, people, think ! :-) How the f*ck can be considered a domain name squatter if the domain carries his own name ??

No, not likely

Legal proceedings are expensive, lengthy, and not guaranteed. Thus a company would rather pay a reasonable sum to just get what they want, rather than have a fight. If you make them a reasonable offer, maybe a grand or two for your trouble, they'll likely accept.

The company my father used to work for went through this. They wanted a domain that a guy had. So they contacted him and offered him $10,000. They figured, as it was just a personal site, that he'd jump at it. It was an easy way to get what they wanted, and not a lot of money in the scheme of a company's operations. However, the guy decided that he wanted millions. Well, then they took him to court and won. However it probably cost them over $10,000 in legal fees.

So, if you respond with something like "Yes I'd be willing to sell my domain. However, there is going to be some inconvenience in dealing with a transition. So if you'd agree to $2000 to cover my expenses, I'd be happy to sell." I'd bet they go for it. That's not expensive to a company, and it makes everything real easy.

Re:Finally a use for the 'itsatrap' tag

This is /., people would rather get wrapped up in a 1/1,000,000 chance of something being a big trap than suggest this guy try and profit.

I've sold three domains I was legitimately using and made a pretty nice wad of cash. They all initiated with similar emails. The highest one being $19k USD.

Let fear reign and opportunity escape.

www.zerba.com

I think this is the website in question.

Don't know if I crossed a line, but it took all of 1 second on the google.

dear slashdot

A lonely girl has sent me an email seeking a relationship. I am a man and this sounds good. Should I seek to get into a relationship with this unknown but self admitted pretty girl?

Re:dear slashdot

See if you can trust her first. Send her all your bank account info, and see what happens.

Sales 101

Tell them you'll entertain offers. If they throw out a number, it can only go up. If you throw out a number, it can only go down.

Offer to Post Link

As others have noted, offering to sell your domain to them can be used as evidence of bad faith if there is other evidence you are cybersquatting. However, you can write them a letter and say you aren't really interested in selling the domain, what with the heavy email use you've been making with it for years, but if they request it you will put a link on the front page which says "Looking for Zerba the fashion designer? Click: www.zerba.nl" You could also offer to forward email to specific accounts to them if applicable -- in my case I have the dot-com for a name which some bloodsucking lawyer has the dot-net for, and people are forever sending me his mail. I have set up auto-forwards for all the accounts that seem popular at his office (so that I'm not accused of looking at private legal mail).

DNS is your friend

Keep it, but offer to lease DNS records to them. Basically, rent "www IN A ....." while keeping control of the domain itself.

I had a good sale

I recently sold my domain to a french company that reached me in a similar way. I told them i had no interest in selling the domain as I use it for personal and business reasons. I told them if they wanted to buy my company, then to make a reasonable offer (but again I had no interest in selling the domain at this time).

They provided a very attractive offer and I did end up selling the domain. They simply redirect the .com to their french site. I got 6 months of email forwarding.

My experience was good, but that does not seem to be what people here are saying...

No need to be.......

......a dick.

Seriously. We all complain about the bullshit that surrounds us on a daily basis here at /. yet we see posts like the 1st one up. I am hoping he was being funny/sarcastic (as he was properly modded).

Try being the good guy, write them an HONEST email explaining your concerns, and ask them for a reasonable offer. You will always retain the right to reject (unless you foolishly give it away). So, what have you got to lose by being honest about things up front? IF, and I emphasize, IF, it ends up in a courtroom, you will have already scored some points in that you will be able to prove a good-faith effort to remedy the situation.

While I can agree with the "talk to a lawyer" suggestions, to some extent, I do feel that lawyers are sometimes wholly unnecessary and are merely a moneypit. Send the email, get a response, and then decide whether or not a lawyer is called for. And don't forget your gut. It talks to you. Listen.

Maybe the sender is lonely and wants a response?

The letter is very unbusinesslike. Its grammar is poor. It doesn't have the 'look and feel' of something legitimate. Most interestingly, the email conveys absolutely nothing to identify the potential purchaser.

If somebody doesn't have the time or ability to compose a good email, I would suspect that they wouldn't have the money to fund a substantial domain name purchase either.

If somebody isn't going to tell you (verifiably) who they are, why would you want to do business with them?

This smells bad.

Try to help them out

Think about it from their perspective. They're probably worried they're missing out on a small number of customers who inadvertantly go to your site instead of theirs.

I would guess their lost revenue is low to very low, so don't get greedy. There are plenty of reasonable alternatives that could be worked out to make you both happy. Examples:

A priminent link on your website to theirs would be my favourite - sell it to them as 'advertising space' or donate it if they seem nice and you can't be bothered collecting a few dollars.

Offer to sell them a HTTP redirect service and keep the domain yourself.

Sell them the www subdomain but keep the MX pointing to you.

Sell them the domain and ask for an email alias.

Think of it as a normal business transaction between two individuals. Bargain in good faith and you're not opening yourself up to much legally. Try to charge something outrageous and you're likely to fall foul of the squatter rules.

This happened to me

This happened to me back in 1999. Actually, it happened to me a lot, but 1999 was when I finally won the domain name lottery.

I told him the same thing I tell everyone who asks: "Well, I'm not really looking to sell my domain name but feel free to make me an offer."

He said, "I'll give you $5000."

I said, "That's a reasonable offer, but I have both the .com and the .org and I'd want to sell them as a pair."

He said, "Okay, I'll give you $5000 each."

I said, "That's a very fair offer. I need to think about what it would take me to change my address and migrate everything off the name."

A week later he called and asked for my decision. I said, "You made me a very fair offer. I'm still thinking it through. Give me a little more time."

A few days later he called and asked for my decision. I said, "You made me a very fair offer. I'm still thinking it through. Give me a little more time."

He said, "Look, I need to move forward, have graphics made for my business and so on. If you'll decide now, I'll double my offer."

I said, "Give me one hour. I'll call you back in an hour."

An hour later I said, "$20k? Done."

Down payment on my house, right before the real estate market headed for the sky.

And why did *you* own chrysler-dodge-jeep.com?

If you were a car dealer or specialized repair shop, then it may have been reasonable for you to own a domain using several of their trademarks. That's certainly too broad a set of categories to be a likely hobbyist organization. Sounds like you were cybersquatting.

That's a different case from acquiring generic names (which can be rather dubious as well), and a much different case from what the main article was about, which is somebody who owns a domain that's based on his own name.