Only Cyrillic letters are used in valid Russian IDN domains.
NamePros member Wot is well-respected domainer, strategically investing in IDN domains.
Stationed in Thailand, Wot has discovered and pointed out a large cache of pseudo-IDN domains, currently being offered on Sedo and other marketplaces.
According to Wot:
“They are shown as IDN but they are simply mixed script, English and other languages cobbled together, to look like real English words. Many people have been caught out by this type of worthless rubbish in the past both on Sedo and on the various forums.”
Indeed, listings for domains such as holíday.com – note the accented “i” – are mixing English with IDN characters, forming words that are not legitimate in the character set they borrow those letters from.
In other words, these domains are being sold, attempting to pose as the real thing; the all-ASCII domain holiday.com, in this example.
In the past, such silly registrations have used Cherokee letters, to form all uppercase-looking mixed IDN domains for use in spam campaigns.
For the full exchange on this serious issue, visit this thread on NamePros.
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৪৪.COM
This is what I have copied and pasted here from Sedo’s featured listings.
Has 2 bids.
Sedo should know better. It’s nice that Wot has pointed it out. Garbage names. Real idn’s do get traffic but marketing crap like that dilutes the value of real idn names.
Wot did hound Sedo for a long time to put a notice next to the idn auction names, the notice stands out to me, i would suggest if it is too good to be true …. we you know the rest (hopefully)
Newbies are normally the ones who get caught with this it does not matter what the warning may be, they see only what they want to see. But at least Sedo do show it.
DomainNameSales.com on the other hand do not, just cut and paste these!
Youxí.com
Credít.com
Nínja.com (there are many more!)
I have contacted DomainNameSales.com 5 times with no response, tweeted FS twice, no response.
Considering they are supposed to have a name vetting procedure they have failed miserably.
Excerpt from my blog:
Sedo you are a joke : Out of 47 names on Sedo.com marketplace auction more than 10 % are crappy fake IDN
ісе.com
сор.com
chì.com
mìng.com
৪.net
৪৪৪.com
Owned by those mentioned on earlier posts and a newb, from the Ukraine yet again! Most of them registered within the last 4 weeks.
Classic!
Having tried to contact DNS vis email/twitter,forums,blogs etc.
I signed up to DomainNameSales.com with a view to perhaps being able to actually contact someone there about all the “fake” IDN they have there with zero indication they are what they are.
Obviously they are simply up for quantity no matter what they are. I was rejected for submitting too few names!
I think I have just found out how Sedo are scamming bidders with the “fake” IDN despite saying how open and honest they are with their disclosures.
Go to Sedo’s where they show current marketplace auctions, feautured domains etc. On the auction section click on the domains that seem too good to be true, you will then be taken to the bidding page that shows absolutely no reference to IDN. ( fake or otherwise)
Pretty simple, people do not know what they are bidding on, scandalous!
Maybe I am misreading it? Check it out and let me know.
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