'InTrust Domains' Interesting Business Model

I believe it was mid-February when I received my first email from Intrust Domains. It was in reference to a domain I acquired on Namejet at auction back in December of ’08.

The name was ‘Ongoing-tales.com’ – - with the dash.

Yes, name wise, it’s awful. But the traffic it receives ain’t, as it averages around 4,200 visits a month (via Sedo stats).

I dropped $460 to acquire it, and it took 10 months of parked revenue to pay off my investment. So nowadays, it’s my silent partner, humming along in the background.

So, mid-Feb, I receive my first email from InTrust. It didn’t seem legitimate, so I immediately trash.

Over the next two weeks, 5 (five) more identical spammy emails hit my inbox with the same message. Baiting me with their oh-so tempting God’s nectar.

Their message was this:

Domain Sale Notice:

ongoingtales.com is coming available for sale in a few days.

Since you own the domain ongoing-tales.com, we thought you’d be interested in ongoingtales.com.

If you do have interest in acquiring ongoingtales.com, please fill up priority notice form availble

here: http://initrustdirect.us/store/prioritynotice/6ec3a0f0-531e-4a2d-8a20-3fa8923d8b54

and we will contact you as soon as the domain is available for purchase.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,
The InTrust Sales Team

If you are not interested in future priority notices, please simply reply to this message

No more please: http://initrustdirect.us/store/unsub/6ec3a0f0-531e-4a2d-8a20-3fa8923d8b54

11605 Meridian Market View Unit 124, Suite 134 Falcon, CO 80831 USA

So, they wanna sell me the same domain without the dash, I get it. And in most cases, folks would prob be interested. But I ain’t. (And I don’t need 5 emails reminding me I don’t).

But it got me thinking…

Do they already own this name, and are trying to determine my interest in buying? Or are they playing an interesting angle – an angle I’ve actually chewed on, but gave up cause of the complexity and amount of moving parts involved.

That model being: Identify expired soon-to-be-dropping/somewhat quality domain names and attempt to contact related business owners to gauge interest in the name. If the business owner expresses interest, place a backorder, attempt to win at auction, then hold the domain ransom attempt to sell to the business owner with profit baked in.

Unsure, I started digging around to confirm..

Here’s their ‘priority notice’ (seen below)

Ok.. what I expected.. Now..a peek over at Snapnames,

And thar she is.. suspicion confirmed.

When I grabbed the screenshot, the date was 3/5, and the name was scheduled to drop on 3/7… giving them a few more days of wiggle room to operate…

I could have stopped there, but I didn’t. Like a VC hammering a business owner over specifics into their business – I had to know what their offer might be. So I indicated interest (cause, you know, I might just change my mind). And – as far as I could tell – there was no risk, cause they simply state I’ll be given an “opportunity to purchase”.

Monday, 3/8, I receive notification. Domain acquired. Offer price: $397

[golf clap] Well done Intrust. Not too greedy. You bought the domain at auction for $59, then attempt to sell to me direct for $397.. Profit margin=$338.. A nice chunk for you, but honestly, a fair price for the services you offer to the non-domainer knowledged crowd.

Now, since I expressed interest, I need to dig through the *additional* 5 emails you’ve sent regarding the acquisition, and my “potential” purchase… seems you’re still on the hook for the $59… hmmm