How Do You Trade Securely on Flippa? Share Your Tips and Win a $100 Voucher.
Posted on July 1st, 2010 by Luke Moulton
In most business transactions, there’s a level of risk. Risk that the seller will run off with your money before supplying the goods, and risk the buyer will leave town without handing over the cash.
At Flippa we’re dedicated to creating a secure environment for people to buy and sell websites globally. Initiatives such as integrated Escrow, phone verification and our trust ranking system go some way to building trust and verifying an individual’s credentials. However these aren’t fail safe and buyers and sellers need to take care when trading on Flippa – or any other website marketplace for that matter.
We’re interested to know, how do you keep yourself safe when buying or selling on Flippa. We’re putting together a list of trading security tips for buyers and sellers and we’d really appreciate your contribution.
WIN a $100 Flippa Voucher
How do you trade securely on Flippa?
We’re giving away a $100 Flippa voucher to the Flippa member who submits the best security tips for buyers and a $100 Flippa voucher to the best tips for sellers.
That’s 2 x $100 vouchers to give away to two different Flippa members.
Submit your best tips in the comments below to be eligible – your tips may be republished in a future post or help documentation.
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This competition is now closed…
THE WINNERS
And the winners are Aperio and Nate. Thanks guys for your great contributions, you both shared some great security and due diligence tips for both buyers and sellers. Congratulations! You’ll each receive a $100 worth of Flippa credits.
Comments (78)
Comments are closed.
July 1, 2010 - 4:05 pm
Using Escrow service!
July 2, 2010 - 1:36 am
Using an escrow service, using a rating system, checking identity with line phone confirmation, credit card validation, IP geo location validations…
July 1, 2010 - 5:22 pm
As a seller, I send high bidders a PM and ask them what questions they have on my site, BEFORE I accept their bid.
If they’re new to Flippa, I also ask them to submit info about themselves as far as where they can be found online.
I carefully check their responses and also try to find them online via the info they sent me.
It helps me gauge their professionalism and also tells me if they’re being honest, based on what matches up with what I find online.
Plus gets issues or simple questions out of the way, before a transaction is ever entered into.
July 1, 2010 - 6:04 pm
As a Seller I check the previous feedbacks of the buyer first and if the buyer is new I search on google with his username so I can check his profile somewhere else.
July 1, 2010 - 7:15 pm
As a buyer, I ask to either see video proof or arrange a meeting through skype/msn where we can do application sharing and he/she can walk me through earnings history and traffic reports. It’s harder to spoof earnings/traffic this way.
As a seller, I tend to ask for money upfront, or simply use escrow.
July 1, 2010 - 7:25 pm
Things I do To Keep Things Safe, when trading above an amount of $1000
1. Keep a strict eye on the feedback level of the user (before trade and accepting the BID)
2. Using Escrow
3. Prepare an invoice/letter with all the details of the things to be transferred
4. Get A Signed FAX copy from the buyer/seller that the domain/items will be sent to me.
5. If possible even call the guy and sort things out.
6. Trying to make the transfer live (i.e. make/get the payment and receive/send the good at one time only and avoid the time differences)
These steps may sound absurd but $1500 is a very big amount for me and may be for many people. Offcourse $1500 is BIG for me, but for some another person the milestone could be more.
p.s. I have not added the step by Abdul Muqeet , but i do search for the guys email elsewhere, mainly on webmaster/trading forums.
Cheers
July 1, 2010 - 7:42 pm
I have learnt a lot from flippa and heard many things. My ideas are:
1. As Ali said, I always pay attention to history of feadback that seller/buyers have received from others. If there are over 80% positive, that could be a good signal.
2. Looking at the seller/buyer profile and his/her trust rating. The more rating s/he has the more trust I can put on. I can not trust someone who has just joined and bid right away and not mentioning their country of origin.
3. Using Escrow as always but it is not a must as many sellers/buyers need a fast transfer then PayPal with seller/buyer protection on.
4. Discuss carefully with sellers/buyers on how to transfer and to do in a secure way to make sure, we are not fooled and avoid scams.
5. Use teamviewrs soetimes to see whether the stats and images the sellers shows are correct or fake info. Many seller use PS to fake earning proof. It is very important if I do not want to say “MUST”
6. Ask Flippa for support. Flippa is the only one who knows sellers/buyers private info then they can advise us how to securely and safely transfer from one to another. Do not trade outside of Flippa as the risk is very high.
7. Talking directly by the phone also a good way to interact with sellers/buyers.
That is my comments and tips for you all. Hope they are useful
July 1, 2010 - 8:34 pm
As a seller, I will transfer my domain through GoDdaddy before my buyer send their money.
After the domain transfer complete, I will ask the initial payment to my buyer, let’s say the initial payment is 50% of the payment amount. The other 50% to be paid after the files transfer complete
Regards,
Erdy
July 1, 2010 - 8:52 pm
There are several things that I do before I enter into a sale with someone despite whether I’m the buyer or the seller.
The first thing that I do to start the process is to put as much information in the auction that I’m selling as to limit any type of confusion or misunderstanding. I try to make it very clear what I’m selling, why I’m selling and what the potential buyer will receive. I also always leave a post (comment) on my own auction right after it’s posted encouraging questions before someone bids or during the auction. I find that just letting people know that I’m available to answer questions is helpful.
I check a person’s feedback and see how long they have been a member of flippa. The longer you’ve been around and the more established you are in the flippa community the less chance for risk in my opinion.
I make myself available pretty much all the time to answer questions that are sent via PM or the comments field in the auction. When you respond quickly to a person’s comments it helps them to know that you’re serious about your business and are professional. This is a business transaction and as such you should respond accordingly with as much information as possible.
I do accept PayPal and make sure that a buyer is confirmed and verified before I release the sale of the site to them. Once an auction ends I immediately contact either the seller or the buyer and congratulate them on winning my auction or ask them how I can make payment. This shows that you’re serious about finishing the transaction. Once I get their information or the information I need we move on to the next step. Communication is the key to a good business transaction and being up front and available help the process tremendously.
July 1, 2010 - 8:56 pm
I was selling a lot of website on flippa and 95% is safe. Dont worry if the buyer not pay the sites, fillpa has mechanism to handle this problem. We can dispute the auction and relisting the site for free. This is my simple tips when my site sold.
1.Ask the buyer to pay 50% of the price, and then we send the files and database backup on zip format to the buyer.
2.Ask the buyer to transfer 50% of the rest payment,after we received the 100% of payment, we can push the domain to the buyers.
3.Escrow is not available on my country, but that is not a problem, we can still trade safely.
Sory for my english
July 1, 2010 - 10:44 pm
I’m sure I’ve missed a few and possibly repeated others but these are some quick thoughts from what I’ve seen and learned.
Buyers:
1. Use escrow
2. Verify anything and everything with the seller, it they’re being sketchy about certain information, then they may be trying to hide something.
3. Probably one of the biggest buying mistakes is not going in with a plan, budget, and an idea with what you’re looking for. Flippa does a great job getting a lot of info about the site listed, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go out and do your own research. Google the site, look at backlinks, and utilize the tools on the web like dnscoop to look up extra information about the site.
4. It helps when the transfer is being completed, to be up on an instant messenger service to gain instant access to help. You can sign up for a general one for transactions in case you don’t want to use your own personal one.
5. Realize what kind of work will have to go into maintaining the site before buying. Don’t get buyers remorse! Verify with the seller the time it takes to manage the site and ask them to divulge as much as possible as far as managing goes.
6. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
7. Seller feedback.
8. Like said before, utilize a written sales contract.
9. Did I mention Escrow? It takes out most of the headache of wondering if the transaction will be secure or not.
10. For a very large site buy, involve a lawyer.
There are many other ways to make sure you are jumping into a secure transaction and everyone has their own preferences. I’d say the biggest thing is to have a list of everything you’ll need to feel comfortable buying a site and make sure it’s fully checked before pulling the trigger.
Seller:
1. Use escrow.
2. Look at the feedback of the user.
3. Be patient. Many times the best buyers will do their research and think about making the buy.
4. Don’t try to hide anything. Sounding suspicious or not posting the right info will scare away good buyers from a listing.
5. Create a great sales pitch. Sites that put too little info OR too much THIS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE sales content will push away good buyers.
6. Be a communicator. When you’ve listed your site, answer PM’s promptly and courteously. Good buyer’s appreciate a great seller.
7. Don’t be a car salesman, be a good realtor. You’re showing a property which someone will take pride in and fine tune it to their liking. Flippa is your ability to have an open house for people to come inside and take a look around. Some will look at the place talking big, but really have no intentions of buying being they can’t afford it. Others will just browse around and eat the free snacks offered then leave. Then there are good buyers who are interested and will try to divulge as much info as possible in the most courteous way and will go out of their way to make sure the transaction is done right if it’s priced right. You’ll also find some of the best buyers to not say anything as they are experienced, do their own research, and if you’ve provided great info and attachments, don’t need to ask any questions.
8. A quality site will attract quality buyers.
9. Did I mention escrow?
10. For a very large site buy, involve a lawyer.
I think outside of escrow, the best thing a seller can do is provide a quality listing. You will get great buyers if you provide a great buy. Great buyers will gladly pay more for a quality site than get a “great deal” on some site that sounds like it has a lot of potential. Like the realtor example, if you prepare your house well, you’ll get great buyers looking at it who will go out of their way to make sure a good transaction is done. If you walk into the place and it’s trashed, well, like in real estate, you’ll have those 1-800 I’ll buy your house knocking on your door. Websites are indeed property and should be bought and sold as such.
July 1, 2010 - 10:58 pm
Well that’s a though question. I can read a book about this subject!
Anyway, here are my toughs:
As a buyer first I want to do my own due diligence. First I check the domain/website to see what I can find about it. I really like to see how popular it’s the domain. You can do that with a simple query in google (use as a keyword the domain name)
For me this is an important aspect. If there are thousands of results, it proves that the owner has worked and he has promoted his website pretty well (also the search results needs to be relevant to his niche)
The next step (and I think this one is important for everyone) is the revenue. Now once we have found how much revenue is generating the website the next questions witch comes in my mind is “what’s the source of the revenue”? Ad sale (adsense, etc), ecommerce websites, affiliates, etc.
If most of the revenue is coming from the adsense, the website is well established and it’s over 1 year old and the revenue was constant over this period, it means that this website will continue to produce the same revenue. There are some risks also: over time this website might get banned by the adsense them or might drop in rankings, witch will affect the traffic and eventually the revenue.
Next are the ecommerce websites and here I like the most those websites which are selling their own products (no matter if they are physically distributed or digital – in my case I prefer digital)
Here are a lot to say about them, but having your own products you can make a lot with them. If you know the niche, and you have a good marketing plan, you can make a fortune with this kind of websites!
July 1, 2010 - 11:17 pm
I hope all goes fine.
It’s the unique thing that I can do !
Escrow is too difficult to setup for an italian.
July 2, 2010 - 12:08 am
Escrow
July 2, 2010 - 12:10 am
I always ask potential buyers for a photograph.
If their eyebrows are too close together, then the deal is off.
July 2, 2010 - 12:14 am
Good thing I only have one then!
July 2, 2010 - 9:37 am
Never thought of this technique. Great tip! (lol)
July 2, 2010 - 12:15 am
tips from me to transact securely in flippa
1. when I was a seller’s position, I’ll check to those who do bid, in the sense that I do not approve of the bid will make it clear before I knew who it was (the buyer), for example, check whois, feedback, profile, etc.
2. when I’m doing transactions, I will be very careful because some people are not malicious or just want to disrupt my auctions, I do it the same way as I said at no.1. My sense of mutual trust among member needs to be increased again, thus creating a cozy and safe in every transaction
July 2, 2010 - 12:17 am
Well, as an person from aboard i have a lot of experience with scammers on the internet.
You need to trust people if you want to buy and sell things. and i think the websites like flippa need to take bad reactions serious if people did not deliver the goods thay are selling.
Maybe suspend there accounts. aLSO I WAS THINK OF SOME KIND OF PORTAL WHERE THE SELLER AND BUYER COME TOGETHER TO DELIVER THE GOODS AND PAYMENT AND CROSSOVER AT THE SAME TIME or the payer checks first of the goods are what the buyer told him and then can pay.
I hope this will work.
July 2, 2010 - 12:31 am
Nothing is ‘Safe’. I just don’t suffer from Paranoia like the other sheep or suffer from Me, Me, Me. “God, everyone will find out!!”
July 2, 2010 - 12:33 am
As a seller,
I check the feedbacks history of the buyer
if the buyer is new I search on google and yahoo with the buyer username.
I carefully check their responses and also try to find them online via the info they sent me.
and I maintain my performance as a seller. fast, convenient, and professional
July 2, 2010 - 12:35 am
I have not used Flippa before and I am new, Is listing on Flippa free or fee payable ?
July 2, 2010 - 12:35 am
As a buyer I check there feedback and always pay with escrow or paypal. With those services you can always open a payment dispute to get your funds back.
July 2, 2010 - 12:37 am
Always talk live!
What I mean is CALL them either on the phone or Skype. This way you know what they are like and you can drill them with the crucial questions.
If you just email and PM back and forth you never really know what they are like and you don’t know if you can even start to build trust with them.
I also love using Skype video chat, most people have a built in webcam so you can talk face to face and really get to know them.
Bottom line, if they are afraid to give you there phone number or instant message names then they are probably hiding something. I think people these days act stupid and think that if you give out your phone number someone will come after you. THIS IS NOT TRUE.
Call call call, be safe and know who you are selling to or buying from. Don’t be afraid of live communication!
Jason
July 2, 2010 - 12:38 am
Check his/her reputation, such as feedbacks, phones, facebook account, check his/her in many forums also the reputation. Check his/her track record in online business with google. That’s it.
July 2, 2010 - 12:42 am
I have been buying and selling domains for about 2 years now (outside flippa) and i feel that even tough we check through the feedback of buyers & sellers the transactions does turn bad sometimes.
to avoid the big cry deal later i usually keep the below things focused instead of the feedbacks and the buyers sellers online profile
1. Call the person from whom you are buying the domain or to whom you are selling it. There is no bad thing about verifying an identity – just ask for number saying u wanna discuss a few points and get the verification done. I also call up back a day later just to be sure that its not a public phone
2. Insist on an escrow service and share the fees. 25 bucks on bigger sales wont make much difference. but looking 500$ or even 5K will make u regret later
3.Heard of the name google?
good
now take the buyers email id /phone number/ profile name and google it both with and without inverted commas
check what you get
(try adding scammer scam cheat to the keywords just incase)
if all is good then you may move forward
4.IF not chosing a escrow then pay 50% before delivery and 50% after.
5.buyers while paying through paypal do write – payment for XYZ domain/website bought on XXX forum at this time on this link
sellers when making invoices do write – this invoice is for the domain/website/service sold to xyz on this forum/website on this date and delivery has been made/will be made to this address/domain registrar account
6. for buyers
check whois and email @ that address for cross verification
ask them to write anywhere in the whois saying for sale to ur name or something
7.hope for the best
8.when all is done
go out n party
July 2, 2010 - 12:54 am
Me, when I sell websites, I usually transfer the domain name to the buyer, so that we’ve both got some leverage while I do the transfer. Like everyone already said, I check their past feedback and like asking some questions before accepting them as the winning bidder.
July 2, 2010 - 12:59 am
Hello
The safest thing to do is if Flippa.com accepts payments from the buyer, pay to the seller and have transfer of domain/website ownership to the buyer.
Thank You.
July 2, 2010 - 1:00 am
I just completed my first sale on Flippa.
My buyer had a high trust ranking and I was able to confirm his identity through a simple search on google.
My first experience was very good, as my buyer sent me the $2500 via Paypal after I send a complete breakdown of the details of the transfer process.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I trust the dispute resolution process on Paypal and proceeded with transfering all details and files.
I’m still in communication with my buyer – keen to help him with any detail of making sure the site, email list and social media profiles are moved over smoothly.
I checked out Escrow.com, and their fees are very acceptable. I plan to use them when I sell my higher value properties.
Doug
July 5, 2010 - 3:03 pm
“Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I trust the dispute resolution process on Paypal and proceeded with transfering all details and files.”
PayPal provides absolutely zero help with any purchase or sale of virtual goods such as websites and domains. Unfortunately that lesson cost me $600.
For any purchase or sale above $1,000 I highly recommend using escrow.com.
Their fees are high, however when faced with the possibility of losing thousands of dollars in a deal that goes bad, it is definitely worth paying for.
July 2, 2010 - 1:03 am
The solution is to be a mediator between the seller and the buyer
July 2, 2010 - 1:03 am
I require a copy’s ID and a phone number but that is not mobile.Or ask him a copy of utility bill.
July 2, 2010 - 1:13 am
I would like to request that flippa improve their service by requesting a zip file of the site(s) the seller is advertising and any instructions required to run the business before the user is allowed to advertise the site for sale. This way the domain name could be transferred and then the payment could be made and only then flippa would release the files and the instructions.
July 2, 2010 - 1:18 am
1. Check the other party’s reputation and feedback – and see how long they have been a member of Flippa
2. Check the other party’s history – have they sold sites before on Flippa? If so, how big of a deal (dollar wise) was it?
3. As Missy suggested, send a private message to the highest bidder BEFORE you accept their bid to confirm their bid and to gauge their responsiviness
4. Communicate with the highest bidder (or the seller if you are the highest bidder) REGULARLY during the auction.
5. Ask the other party for their Twitter id or Facebook – or at the least their full name (if it’s a big money deal) so that you can do a quick “background” check on them. If they don’t want to give that, just ask them casually if they manage any other sites and if you can check them out. Then visit them and go to their About Me page. You’ll get a feel for what kind of person you’re dealing with.
6. Use an escrow service
7. ALWAYS have at least one LIVE conversation with the winning bidder (or seller if you are the winner) before exchanging any money. Call or Skype but make sure you at least have one personal conversation prior to completing the deal. This will be your last opportunity to take a gut check before exchanging money and goods.
8. If the other party is slow to respond to any of your communications or provides short and incomplete responses, a red flag should go up immediately. Proceed with caution. If they are slow to respond to a simple message, how do you think the deal will go down when you have to exchange money and goods???
Travis
July 2, 2010 - 1:19 am
For buyers – make sure the seller verifies all the stats through a screencast video of all the revenue accounts, logins, etc… This is the only way to make sure that the screenshots have not been edited in photoshop
For buyers – Always pay with a credit card because you are protected through your credit card company, even if the purchase is made through paypal
July 2, 2010 - 1:26 am
There is no magic formula to stop scams on the internet , there are more ways to get ripped off when buying and selling online than ever before. The good news is that with a little common sense, most are avoidable.
Im working online over the past 3 years and i haven’t got scammed before and believe me it’s not that hard to avoid being scammed , those are some tips to help you :
First rule is that you have to remember ‘If an offer sounds too good to be true it probably is’.
Im seeing some websites on flippa calming that are making thousands of dollars being sold for less than 1 month income and i personally call this a SCAM , for high profit websites always ask for a video proof (pictures can be edited easily) and when watching the video remember to take an eye on the link on the address bar and that the recorder is online when he is recording the video (he can fake a video buy recording some stats offline after editing them).
-Get to know the seller by looking at their previous feedback and the websites they sale.
-Scam artists pretending to be legitimate sellers have some tricks to get buyers to wire them cash:
“Our credit card account is having technical difficulties.”
“We’ve had problems in previous sales with buyers who pay with online payment services.”
“We’ll provide insurance for your wire transfer.” Ya right lool.
“We’ll pay all the fees for the wire transfer.”
-Avoid dealing with sellers who end auctions early, yet continue to strike a deal with you via email which i think flippa can take care of this by hiding all the buyer details if he wants so.
-If the seller changes email addresses on you, stop dealing with him.
And “Always ask yourself, have I won the website, or have they won their next victim?”
And about the payment systems , there is no one better than the other , even with escrow (escrow just deal with domain names changes which can be faked if the seller create a fake account with the buyer’s name and transfer the domain to it)
So my point is that you have to know the buyer (you can know everything about it from the way he talk and even from his email address ..)
July 2, 2010 - 1:30 am
I think that Escrow Service is the only secure way.
July 2, 2010 - 1:32 am
Buyers
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
1. Check the ratings of sellers, see if there are successful transactions.
2. Always be specific on acquiring information about site and ask a lot of questions so you don’t end up
having no knowledge of your bought services..
3. Check with hosting company if everything is OK wit site, is everything paid and done, so you can just
get to business.
4. Check with the domain name provider (sometimes different company then hosting) if everything is set
up.
5. Check the site your self.
Sellers
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
1. Check the rating of buyer, see if there are successful transactions.
2. Be specific, informative and professional.
3. Create an account on website (if possible) so buyer can check that your site is real deal.
4. Send notice to hosting company and domain name provider that someone will ask a questions about
selling site (tell them to give regular but no precise info about site… e.g. site is paid for one year,
everything is fine). This will entrust the buyer.
5. Give as much info as it is need to ensure the buyer.
Few tips for both buyer and seller.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
– Let the buyer/seller give you his facebook account or some other where you can check identity of
seller/buyer. (if someone who is selling/buying real professional he can do as much as that to ensure you
of his intentions, so he will let you in his private world as people do in real world).
– Use familiar and secured services for payments and deals, like Paypal and Escrow.
– NEVER give any information or login information about your bank account or paypal account or any
other that may contain info about your credit cards.
- AND for LAST and most important: If you are Newbie, have someone who knows what he is doing to
check / fix everything for you. Otherwise expect to get fast “don’t scr.w me please” course
.
July 2, 2010 - 1:40 am
its very easy .
if flippa have a personal payment system.
1st buyer send payment to flippa account . but the seller cant withdraw it before buyer confirm he get his website .
After buyer confirm that he get his site then flippa can transfer the money to seller credit card or Paypal.
Hope it ll a nice idea
July 2, 2010 - 1:44 am
ask potential buyer their address, phone number etc, id card and then check their identity that’s true or fake. because a lot people using fake address and identity. or we can use escrow agent.
July 2, 2010 - 2:07 am
Hi
1/ look at the sellers feedback and trust it
2/ Check their text in the sales preposal against the information supplied by flippa. If the text says unique content and flippa through copyscape says its not check it out in detail
3/ Ask a few questions. If they are slow irritated or dont answer your question. take note, would you buy from a shop that treated you that way. But not stupid questions like whats WP.
4/ do research on the domain name. Use wayback to confirm domain age and see what was on it if aged before.
5/ google the seller have they had bad reputation elsewhere.
6/ use tools to look at the website such as seoquake, seobook.com toolbar, cashkeywords tool bar, seo4 firefox plugin (you douse firefox
)
7/ Mcafee and other security companies have plugins which will valididate the website and warn you if it has malware on it. I found one for sale on flippa recently and the seller had no idea they had been hacked.
8/ be vigalant. A deal which is to good is not worth jumping on.
9/ dont pay to paypal directly pay flippa invoices. I have a seller thats trying to get me to pay directly I wonder why?
regards
Steve Wyman
cloudnomadic
July 2, 2010 - 2:20 am
Use paypal the best saftier payment in the world today.
July 2, 2010 - 2:23 am
My statement are :
1. The buyers must paid fully.
2. Using Escrow service.
July 2, 2010 - 2:38 am
Do due diligence on both the website and the seller through search engines.
If either show up with any complaints of people being ripped off, it’s more than the immediate transaction that can be a problem. The past sins of a former owner can taint a website for a long time.
July 2, 2010 - 2:50 am
To me, the most important thing is to call the person on the phone and talk to him\her.
You can qualify the buyer or selling, and just as importantly, ensure the a smooth sale by confirming all parties understand the details properly.
July 2, 2010 - 2:51 am
As a seller, I send high bidders a PM and ask them what questions they have on my site, BEFORE I accept their bid.
I ask to either see video proof or arrange a meeting through skype/msn where we can do application sharing and he/she can walk me through earnings history and traffic reports. It’s harder to spoof earnings/traffic this way.
after a time of discussion we move to do business arrange for payment through paypal upon confirmation i do the transfer of ownership of the site/ blog
July 2, 2010 - 2:59 am
Every Transaction can be approved by merchants.
It’s easy.
1.Flippa can add virtual money (i think it is currently in) ,
2. An email with code is sent to the domain owner’s Email id – from Whois history – Incase of privacy protect, it can be disabled for short period .
3. A Buyer has to add funds in Flippa from PayPal
4. Buyer Sends Virtual money to seller via Flippa
5. The trade is approved on both parties by Flippa employee
July 2, 2010 - 3:03 am
Here :
When buying : check the page rank, sites linking in, content, comments, contact .
When selling : verify the identity of buyer and their experience my my industry to manage my site .
July 2, 2010 - 3:24 am
@ Doug – I do not trust PayPal’s resolution system at all. I have been scammed via sellers usings PayPal (although not for domains).
Here are my security tips for buying domains (these are general and not exclusive to flippa.com):
1. I believe using an Escrow service is best.
2. If someone hides behind an obscure email address and does not provide real contact info, I just stop communications.
3. It’s ideal to be able to have other contact info for the prospect such as a website or social media profile (i.e. LinkedIn) to verify they are who they say they are.
4. Check the whios record to make sure the contacts match. If not and they won’t update them to match, that’s a bad sign to me.
5. Do a Google search on the persons name to find out if anyone has had issues in dealing with them.
I am new to flippa.com but I believe that the platform provides a level of security for the users which is one of the reasons I am using it.
July 2, 2010 - 3:26 am
I’m fairly new to selling on Flippa, but already I have taken the following precautions.
1. Before accepting any bids I verrify the bidder. I’ll ask for some history or some other trust worthy virtual property I can check (ie facebook, twitter, other websites they might manage). On top of that I will send them a PM them on that property to confirm ownership.
2. After a sale, I’ll use Escrow (depending on the price) for a safe transaction.
3. Prior to escrow, a live voice conversation. This is to discuss transaction term and to secure a way of contact other than email.
4. Always check back with the customer after 1 week and after 1 month, after the transaction. You want to make sure you buyer is always happy. This will help avoid refunds or chargebacks, not to mention repeat business from happy customers. If your an honest seller, this step should not be a problem for you.
Alex
July 2, 2010 - 3:30 am
The best thing I’ve found out is that you have to ask a lot of questions. Make sure you have direct contact with the seller. Some sellers want tell you things until the deal in final.
July 2, 2010 - 3:35 am
Always check the seller out through the who’s who. Keep contact with the seller at all times. Make sure that contact information it up to date.Ask question before the purchase and make sure you get a clear understanding of the transaction. Those last minute things can cause a lot of problems when your money is out of your hands.I made a purchase and the seller did’t tell me that with the price I paid. They didn’t offer set up of the site. Which lead to me spending more money to get the site up and running. Also if the site is to make money you want to know how much money. Along with the time limits so you don’t get your hopes up to high.
July 2, 2010 - 3:52 am
How about something NEW like :
‘FACE IMAGE VERIFICATION’
someone who want to be a ‘VERY-trusted member’(buyer or seller), should send their new Face Image…
& Flippa Team, Verification that Image with a Webcam……..
I hope it’s work
coz I think someone have fear to do something bad when people has know their face…..& Flippa would be the first website which have this kind of security …
July 2, 2010 - 4:00 am
1. Do a whois lookup on the domain and send an email to the contact info found there.
Something like…”I saw your site xx.xxx.com for sale on Flippa and want to verify that you are the proper owner and that you are selling this site.”
2. Do a google, facebook, and twitter search of the seller.
Now that you have the seller’s real email address, run some searches on that address and see what pops up.
3. Verify the stats that the seller lists on the auction through 3rd party sites.
Check all of the places that the Flippa due diligence report uses…Alexa, Complete, SEM Rush, etc. Flippa makes this very easy. If you are buying elsewhere you will need to do these searches manually. If the seller is dishonest in their listing, I generally ignore the auction. Thanks for adding this feature Flippa!!!
4. Verify Traffic with seller provided reports.
Ask for the full Google Analytics Report. If that isn’t available get the full AwStats report or whatever reports they have. Many sellers will provide only the first sheet of the Google Analytics report (red flag that they are hiding something) or just the monthly breakdown of the AwStats report (again, red flag).
5. Review the seller’s other comments on Flippa.
If the person looses their cool, when posting on this site, there is a higher risk that a small issue may blow up into a big issue with your transaction as well. Remain professional at all times.
6. Also I second many of the ideas above (PM the seller, Phone/Skype verify, Escrow, etc.)
If the seller is new to selling websites, help them through this process. You will be helping that person learn the business while ensuring a smooth transaction with your own purchase.