Payoneer is quickly becoming a go-to domain name escrow service

Have you every been scammed buying or selling a domain name? I have, it only happened once and since then I have sworn by online escrow services to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Here’s how I got scammed:

I sold a domain name to someone and decided to use Pay Pal for the transaction. It was one of my very early domain sales so I still didn’t have too much experience with the process. The buyer insisted on using Pay Pal, I had used Pay Pal for years, so I thought it made sense.

The buyer paid quickly and after receiving the money I transferred the domain. Then a few days later I received a notification from Pay Pal, apparently the buyer claims they never received the merchandise (i.e. domain name) and requested a refund. I responded to Pay Pal with all the details of the transaction, clearly showing that the domain was transferred and was now in their name.

I contacted the buyer to understand what was going on, and no surprises, I got radio silence. Pay Pal got back to me and said there was nothing they could do and they refunded the buyer. I got scammed, it sucked, but luckily it was only a few hundred dollars which is a small price to pay to learn a lesson like this IMO.

A domain name escrow service prevents scams like this by securing the money first, holding it until the domain name is transferred and then transferring the money to the seller. If the buyer tries to pull a scam like they pulled on me, an escrow service will verify if the domain was indeed transferred rather than just siding with the buyer.

Payoneer is one of the most trusted escrow services on the Internet, and having raised over $180M last year, they are also the most well-funded. After Escrow.com was sold to Freelancer, Payoneer brought the former CEO Brandon Abbey onboard, a domain industry veteran and domain escrow expert.

It’s been amazing to see how quickly Payoneer has grown as a go-to escrow service in the domain industry and this growth seems to be accelerating. Last week one of the top domain investing platforms, Efty announced integration with Payoneer and free escrow transactions for the month of April.

“Payoneer is very pleased to partner with Efty, enabling their marketplaces to offer our premier escrow services. Efty continues to excel in providing best in class solutions for domain investors. Payoneer recognizes the strong growth in the domain investing community, and we continue to add new features to our system to better support the needs of domainers.” (Brandon Abbey)

It’s exciting to see growth and innovation in the domain name escrow space. It’s definitely ripe for disruption and Payoneer is definitely leading the charge right now.

Have you ever been scammed before when buying or selling a domain name? If so feel free to share your story in the comment section below.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton