I received an email recently from someone offering to sell me a domain that is a variation of my name. I own a lot of domains already, including a number of TLD variations of my name so I decided to pass on this one, but the offer was interesting.

I did a check and saw that the domain had actually been registered only a few days before it was offered to me.

The seller was asking for $600 for the domain, but basically volunteered that he’d accept any amount or would transfer the domain to me for free if I wanted it. He only asked that I create an account at [REDACTED] domain name registrar to transfer the domain to me.

The willingness of the seller to transfer the domain to me for free makes me wonder if this is actually a registrar’s ploy: buy domains that can be potentially sold to people that own domains with similar names, then try to sell or give them the domain to get them to sign up and hopefully renew the domain from that registrar to generate ongoing revenue.

It’s an interesting scheme. Or perhaps I’m reading too much into this…

UPDATE: I feel less like a conspiracy theorist after receiving this response to my rejection:

I’m not entitled to have that domain.
Please take a moment of your time for create an account on [REDACTED] so i can push your domain now.. ty