Hi Guys hope you can help. I've just agreed to purchase a domain and don't know the seller. Is there an escrow service you use /recommend or other risk minimisation techniques?

Cheers
David

Hi David,
Call Liz at http://www.ddns.com.au They will do it all for you for $120 which includes 2 years reg.

Don

sedo have escrow for domains that are outside their listings , above sounds good though

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Thanks for the responses guys. I'm a fan of drop.com.au so was hoping to send it there but if I don't get some comfort from the seller will check out ddns.com.au for sure.

As far as I am aware, only financial institutions can legally offer Escrow Services in Australia. So I would be careful when dealing with any registrar or domain company that claims to offer such services. Check their credentials.

Personally, I think some companies may not have done their due diligence concerning the legality of offering an ESCROW SERVICES. It may sound like a simple business model, but there are financial laws that govern and protect people. Otherwise why don't we all open a bank too!

It's all innocent and well intentioned, till someone gets hurt!

So, to answer the escrow requirement. I think you need to get a trusted registrar involved to manage the transaction. The money is not held in trust, it is a direct transaction between the parties (upside no fees to third parties), and an agreement is entered that the Transfer (Change Of Registrant) will not be executed until both parties are satisfied. The only fee will be the COR fee!

RE: Sedo - yes they offer escrow services but they can;t do anything with the domain. They are not au Registrar and they frankly have no clue about .au policy.

If anyone needs help in this area, don't hesitate to contact me at DROP!

Regards,
George Pongas

If you trust people, then generally it's no problem. Of course, apply common sense principles and go on your gut feeling and feedback from others.

If it's a high value sale, and you are concerned or don't know the person, why not use a good Registrar as George suggests - but pay by PayPal.

If you both are committed to the deal, then sharing the PP fee of 2% / 3% is next to nothing for peace of mind. Because on PayPal, if the seller doesn't do what he says he will do, then you can make one phone call and have the transaction suspended etc. Best also to make sure everything happens same day - RNC forms from both parties to Registrar to hold, then make PP payment, then both buyer and seller confirm by email to Registrar that the transfer can go through. Done deal!

Cheers, Ned

as stated sedo can act as third party , true they dont do the reg but that was not the question , also consider escrow.com ......aussie names are slow to transfer , another setback for our industry ,........ fees, faxes and time = very annoying

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re paypal,
OK for you as the buyer but not safe for the seller.
I have lost as a seller of domains via them.

1. Buyer paid - I transferred domain name A week later paypal pulled the funds saying the buyers account had been hacked. Lost the money and the domain name

2. Buyer paid, I transferred name - I'm happy buyer is happy.
Then two weeks later - paypal "investigates" buyers account and freezes funds before finally removing them(leaving my account in debit that I had to repay!!!!)
Luckily in this case buyer was honest, had no idea what paypal had done and repaid via money order and I didn't lose out - no thanks to paypal though.

A friend of mine also lost a claim with paypal as he could not prove that they had "posted" the domain to them in the mail. Whois screen shots and a letter from the registrar confirming the domain had been pushed to the buyers account did nothing to protect him as they just refunded the buyer.

As a buyer I use paypal a lot, as a seller Id be very wary of accepting payment via paypal from a new customer and I have never accepted payments over $500 via them even when I trust the buyer as paypal can muck around and freeze your account for any reason holding your funds for months.

I haven't sold an Australian name yet but for .coms I can recommend sedo and escrow.com. I will look into the suggestions above for the future for Australian sales.

What annoys me though is there is no real safe option for low value domain sales. If you are flipping a name under $100 there are no cheap, safe (for buyer or seller) options available (not just in Australia) paypal is just not safe for non tangible items and there is neither seller nor buyer protection on digital items.

A cheap safe option for non tangible items is needed.

I have been paid via a google echeck , it took about 5 days to clear , i dont think there can be a chargeback on this form of payment

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If the end user used a CC to fund the echeck I guess there could be.

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