Ripped Off On Flippa?

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SirLucius

How difficult are lawsuits between states for deals that go bad on Flippa? How do you recoup money lost from a Flippa.com transaction?

Thanks,
Vernon

Can you name a situation where you/someone has "lost" money from a Flippa transaction?

You should treat it like any other serious business transaction and ensure you have a contract written up every time you buy or sell a site. Use a safe payment method (Escrow is 95% secure) and you should be okay.

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sbucciarel

Banned 14 years ago

I don't know the cost of litigation but I've never had a deal go bad. Almost did but circumvented it. If the sale is a high dollar sale, I use escrow.com and that protects you from a bad deal.

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Hugh

14 years ago

Sometimes, common sense is not so common.

Hugh

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coco28

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SirLucius

How difficult are lawsuits between states for deals that go bad on Flippa? How do you recoup money lost from a Flippa.com transaction?

Thanks,
Vernon

Can you give an example of the sort of situation you are referring to? Do you mean you bought a site that was mis-sold for whatever reason?

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Fenshon

14 years ago

I would also want to know ways of protecting yourself at flippa.

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OnlineMarketingSys

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SirLucius

How difficult are lawsuits between states for deals that go bad on Flippa? How do you recoup money lost from a Flippa.com transaction?

Thanks,
Vernon

Contact an attorney in the state the buyer is in, and proceed that way. If the dollar amount is under $5,000 , you should be able to take them to small claims court and the attorney's fees should be well under $1,000. Of course, if you prevail you can recoup the fee's so your really not out anything if you believe you have a solid case.

Bear in mind that unless the person did not transfer the site to you or grossly misrepresented the site. There is going to be a large burden of proof on your part that you will have to prove.

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Marhelper

14 years ago

I had one problem where the buyer would not pay and Flippa could only do so much such as allow me to relist the site for free and ban the "buyer." I was fortunate in that I did not transfer the domain or site until the money came through. As was said, a little common sense goes a long way.

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SirLucius

14 years ago

I was just ripped off about $9,000 plus fees. The seller sold me a package of websites, only delivered of them. Never delivered the other half of them, and never gave me the actual PDFs to sell to customers. The auction also claimed $3,500 / month in revenue when in fact there was no revenue and the site had been down for months, the clients long gone. All I have is the sellers name. Everything was going smoothly until about two weeks ago, when he just disappeared, number disconnected, and I'm left high and dry.

I still owed another half of the final payment that was to be delivered when everything was up and running, so I'm not out the full amount of the sale, but I'm still out 50%. I'm contacting lawyers in his state, but all I have is his name and city. So the attorney may have to hire a Private Detective to track more information down on this individual because I do not have his address. We used Escrow.com, but this was a complicated sale with multiple sites, and he assured me he was going to be delivering the rest of the sites and content "in a few days". The first batch of things went smoothly, but then he just disappeared. He took well over 60 days to get everything to me, so I'm outside many of the review and complaint periods on Flippa.

Lessons learned:

1) Stick with simple sites/business models and transactions
2) Everything should be handed over within 24 hours
3) Ask for verifiable proof of income
4) Request a mailing address, and some verification of it (utility bill, drivers license, etc.)
5) Ask for verifiable proof of traffic/conversion (can be submitted directly from Google Analytics)

Thanks
2 replies

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Jenna Paulson 14 years ago

Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

If you can engage a lawyer on a no win/no fee basis, you might have a chance. But think you face a difficult battle, without knowing his whereabouts. Furthermore, the seller could turn around and say, you agreed with the escrow T&A and were happy with the site, as you released the funds.

Was there no proof of income on the auction? Or are you saying it was fake or misrepresented?
- Thanks
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Michael Silvester

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SirLucius

I was just ripped off...Never delivered the other half of them, and never gave me the actual PDFs. claimed $3,500 / month in revenue when in fact there was no revenue and the site had been down for months,

Hi Mate,

All this comes down to is crappy due dilligence.

How can a site be down for months, and you still buy
it without actually taking the time to do some research
before spending your money.

You lost your money because you released the funds
before you even got the whole package.

I know this sounds a bit harsh, but bottom line you
actually ripped off yourself off by not taking the time
to do some real research into what you were buying.

Dont get me wrong...you were probably still dealing
with a scumback who was trying to rip somone off, but
it just simply wouldnt have happened if you did your
proper due dilligence.

Due diligence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Probably not what you want to hear, but it
just has to be said.

Take Care,

Michael Silvester

Thanks

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Jenna Paulson

14 years ago

Originally Posted by SirLucius

How difficult are lawsuits between states for deals that go bad on Flippa? How do you recoup money lost from a Flippa.com transaction?

Thanks,
Vernon

If you could illustrate how you were ripped off, then others can avoid it, when transacting on flippa.

Thanks

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l3vi501

14 years ago

Probably cheaper to chalk that one up as a lesson learned. I'm looking at filing a lawsuit with a company. It's going to take about $7,000 just to get the ball rolling. Keep in mind my lawsuit is trademark related and more cut and dry. Its never cheap, and if your wrong about the terms of the deal and they win, then your out more than just 3,000.

Thanks
1 reply

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SirLucius 14 years ago

It was claimed by the seller, no verifiable proof was provided.
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sarafina

14 years ago

This is a case for small claims court and you should definitely pursue it.

Thanks
1 reply

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SirLucius

14 years ago

My company has a legal plan program that I am a part of, so like medical insurance, there is no out of cost pocket for me to use lawyers within the network nationwide. Unless civil litigation is not covered there is no reason for me to not pursue this, this is a clear case of misrepresentation and borders on fraud, if it isn't. I have PDF copies of the auction listing (both versions, because it was changed); the original website, and all of our email correspondence in addition to receipts for all of my fees and payments. Looking back the red flags were clear about this seller and auction, but I was just too emotional about this transaction and ignored my gut.

Thanks
1 reply

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sbucciarel

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by SirLucius

My company has a legal plan program that I am a part of, so like medical insurance, there is no out of cost pocket for me to use lawyers within the network nationwide. Unless civil litigation is not covered there is no reason for me to not pursue this, this is a clear case of misrepresentation and borders on fraud, if it isn't. I have PDF copies of the auction listing (both versions, because it was changed); the original website, and all of our email correspondence in addition to receipts for all of my fees and payments. Looking back the red flags were clear about this seller and auction, but I was just too emotional about this transaction and ignored my gut.

Ah ... good that you have a legal plan to pursue this. You did everything wrong to protect yourself ... this is not an insult ... just meant to be a word of warning.

You went with escrow, but apparently you released the money to the seller before he released the sites to you. Bad move.

You didn't do anything to verify the income stated. This guy is a fraud and others are too, so always verify with screenshots. If they can't come up with screenshots, don't buy.

If you have his name and his state, see if you can't purchase a day on a reverse lookup site to find his address and phone number for legal action. Ask Flippa if they have him as "telephone verified" and will give you his phone number.

All Flippa can do is ban him. That won't help recover your loss. Sorry this happened to you.

Thanks

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Oic

14 years ago

I am sorry to hear this thanks for the tips since i am planning on using flippa in the future but myself am worried about using it since it does not sound like there is any good protection. sound more like its up to you at the end of the day or at least thats the feeling i get.

Thanks

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OnlineMarketingSys

14 years ago

Domain tools also has archived history of whois records, while it's a paid service and isn't exactly cheap it maybe a viable option. Domain Tools: View Historical Whois Records
.

Flippa only does so much. Here is an example of a recent auction that has gone up twice:

In which the individual claims to be earning $9k a month, from 5,000 visitors from CPA banner ads. Now, you do the math and tell me what an insane conversion rate that is.

http://flippa.com/auctions/101647/Es...ellent-Revenue

The interesting thing is, that only days before he had listed the similar site on DP, claiming to have earned $125 all month.

Thanks
1 reply

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Flipfilter 14 years ago

Originally Posted by OnlineMarketingSys

The interesting thing is, that only days before he had listed the similar site on DP, claiming to have earned $125 all month.

Maybe it was being in the spotlight at Digital Point that saw his / her revenues increase by $8K
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Digital Storm

14 years ago

Ouch, sorry to hear about your misfortune.

Robert

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seobro

14 years ago

Typically, I buy only from people in nearby states because it is easy for them to disappear after they snag my money. Fact is that I seem to live inside small claims court now. Usually you get back some of your money.

Sadly, many people do not pursue scammers. I must add, judges take a very dim view of people who take your money and do not deliver a product or service. The problem is that you will win the case. However, the scammer will leave the country and you will never see them again.

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Ripped Off On Flippa?

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