Originally Posted by polish_aristocrat

i hate explaining this in particular cause no one ever explained the domain biz to me, but well here we go,

they contact you with a high offer, which you want to accept

they construct the email in such a way that it sounds profeessional and makes them look trustworthy, so e.g they mention that the sale will proceed via escrow etc (BTW when sending domain offers i always mention escrow too, heh, but im not a scammer!)

but they also say they want to do an appraisal before they buy it cause they cant risk overpaying etc
then they recommened an appraisal company to you (their own), you pay $300 or whatever for the appraisal and then you never hear from them anymore

quite sure its the case here, althoguh i dont know all the details and don't care enough, but be warned