I'm a 20 something internet geek, and I nearly got scammed by email today... (Pics included)

Hi Steemers!

I want to share with you all how I nearly fell for an email scam. This is especially a pertinent lesson for those involved in domain buying.

Now, I'd like to think of myself as quite aware of phishing scams. But alas, today I was very much made a fool of - at least at first!

Without further ado, here is my story:

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CONTEXT:

I recently became interested in buying domains, and had purchased a few. There is a site called "Whois" which lets anyone look up who owns a domain. You can choose to keep your contact information anonymous, however, I didn't because I want to be easily contactable in case anyone is interested in purchasing one of the domains I own.

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Today, I was checking my email, and saw the an email waiting for me with the subject "Offer to purchase mydomainname.com"
I was quite excited seeing this, as it was the first time I had anyone email me about my domain.

This is the email I received (with my domain name blacked out for my privacy)

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When I first read this, I must admit my first reaction was more excitement. It didn't seem "too good to be true" at that point because receiving emails from people interested in your domains is normal practice. I checked the supposed company the person was associated with, and it was a legitimate Japanese website that I checked was reputable.

So I replied that I would be willing to sell it for a reasonable price. I asked them to make an offer, and said that the transaction would need to go through escrow.com (a service which helps sellers and buyers transfer goods and money safely).

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Within 30 minutes I received the following email.

Fortunately, this email did raise some alarm bells. Primarily because it was quite an overwhelming amount of information, combined with quite odd demands.

I was particularly perplexed with the use of this link (safe to click): http://answersgoogle.org/answers/threadview/id/70351682.htm

Google Answers has been extinct for over 10 years, so I thought it was very strange why they were referring to it.

However, admittedly, despite all these red flags, I still hoped it was a real offer (you don't need to tell me how very naive I am - I feel like an idiot now, through and through!).

I asked my friend who has been buying domains for a long time, and he fortunately saw it for what it is. He said there is NO WAY I should have to pay for an appraisal report as it is not standard practice. He told me to reply that I am not interested in doing a domain appraisal, and if they truly want it, they will know what it's worth. While he did not tell me at the time (I think to teach me an important lesson), he just wanted me to reply to see what they would reply with.

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While I was waiting for their reply, I did a bit more digging around. It did take some digging, because my google search did not immediately turn up websites saying that the email was a scam. But there were 2 websites with people reporting that they'd received an email from this same sender.

As you can imagine, seeing that I felt like an absolute idiot. The full weight of how silly I'd been hit me. I felt so disappointed - I wanted it to be true that someone wanted my domain, so I let it cloud my better judgment.

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While I was no longer waiting for a reply, I did receive one. This is the most bizarre one yet:

FINAL WORDS:

On the bright side, I learned an important lesson from the ordeal: I am more naive than I thought. I never thought I'd be someone that would fall for an email scam (at least, temporarily).

I imagine that many of you who've read my story are thinking, "Wow, how can this person be so blinded by this obvious scam? I would never be that stupid!".

If you did think that, that's good. You are evidently more clued in than me!

However, imagine if you did get an email offering something you were after, something TARGETED to you. Could you 100% say you would see through the cracks?

In any case, I just hope my story can serve as a cautionary tale that email scams are getting more sophisticated by the day. Gone are the days of "Hello, I'm a prince who wants to deposit $13 million in your account. Send your info now." Scammers aren't so blatant anymore.

We think of the people who fall for scams as ignorant older people who aren't internet-savvy. But that's simply not true anymore. People of all ages and of all kinds get scammed every day.

I am certainly not trying to scare anyone. I think the internet is incredible, and I am grateful for all the wonderful knowledge I have learned from it, entertaining hours spent, and the opportunity to connect with wonderful people like you all!

However, there are people (just like in "real life") who want to take advantage of others. Scammers have mastered the art of manipulation to the extent that even a person like me, a twenty-something internet-a-holic can (nearly) fall prey for their conniving ways.

So, just be careful, Steemers. Stay on guard, and remember, sometimes if it sounds to good to be true, it is.