In early February of I bid approximately $650 for the website, Jpegz.com, on auction at eBay. The bid did not meet the reserve, nor was I high bidder. I contacted the seller in March inquiring about the status of the website. The seller, Lamont Grey Cooper of Cyberbulk Internet, informed me the site was still available for sale, and that it generated $1000.00 a month in profit. The asking price was $9000. I proceeded to ask the seller some questions and made an offer of $4000. We eventually agreed upon $4500, with $3000 paid through Escrow.com and $1500 paid through PayPal.com.
The transaction was then set up with the online escrow company, Escrow.com. After the funds were transferred to Escrow.com, Lamont Grey Cooper gave me control of the site and 'supposedly' transferred ownership to me. No transfership of ownership actually occured.
Escrow.com released the funds to Lamont Grey Cooper on 04.27.2006. Soon after Escrow.com released the funds, click-through traffic on the advertising on the website dropped to almost nothing. It became painfully apparent Lamont Grey Cooper was deceptive about the profitable 'traffic' for the website.
I requested a refund from Lamont Grey Cooper on June 6. Almost immediately after the request, Lamont Grey Cooper seized control and ownership of the website that I had mistakenly assumed was under my control and ownership. Shocked by this action, I began investigating domain name transfer protocols and discovered that website owners have the ability to reacquire control and ownership of any website in their possession for a period of 60 days after the initial transfer. Escrow.com should have held the funds for this 60 day transitional period, and I find them 100% to blame for not providing me with a safe transaction and allowing the previous owner to reacquire the website without my consent. Since Escrow.com did not provide any escrow service, I expect my $3189 payment to them refunded.
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