I read a Tech Crunch article about Anna Chapman, a woman who was recently arrested for allegedly being a Russian spy in the United States. The Tech Crunch article writes that Chapman is the founder of the New York real estate search engine website, NYCRentals.com. She is shown in the embedded video discussing her company, and TC reports that the video was filmed during New York Entrepreneur Week, which was held April 12th-16th, 2010.

When I saw this domain name mentioned, my eyes grew bigger because I recognized the name. According to a Whois history search, the domain name was transferred to Moniker Privacy Service sometime around June 22, 2010. I don’t want to mention who the previous owner was because it’s very likely he had nothing to do with the buyer.

Perhaps a telling line from the video was when Chapman mentioned, “we are trying to do NYCRentals.com” in response to the interviewer’s mention of her corporate entity known as Property Finder. When the video was filmed in April, the domain name had not yet changed hands.

Interestingly, the domain name was just listed in Ron Jackson’s recent domain sales report, which was published a couple of weeks ago. The domain name sold through Moniker for a reported $25,350, good enough to place #11 on the weekly sales list, and probably good enough to rank as one of the highest yearly domain sales.

It appears that this business hadn’t been around very long, and Chapman certainly didn’t own the domain name until recently.

I send out a lot of domain inquiries for domain names I’d like to purchase. Unfortunately, my inquires don’t always yield responses, despite the fact that I try to make fair value offers for these domain names. I am certain that I it’s not always because the owner doesn’t want to sell that I don’t receive a reply though.

There are many reasons why you may never hear from a domain owner when you make a genuine inquiry:

• Email gets marked as spam/junk
• Owner gets too many emails
• Email address not active
• Domain owner is out of town for an extended period

With social networking sites becoming popular for people of all ages, it’s much easier to get in touch with a domain owner on Facebook, and I have almost completed my first acquisition using the site.

When sending an inquiry via Facebook, I recommend a brief introduction, since sending a message on Facebook is more personal than a simple blind email. In the first message, after you introduce yourself, you should confirm that the person is the owner of the domain name. It helps to know where the Whois registrant lives and match it up with the Facebook profile.  Let the person know you’re interested in buying the domain name and would like to discuss a potential sale.

I’ve received a number of replies using Facebook to connect, and it’s a really good way to get in touch with someone, as many people rely on Facebook for their connections.

While watching the World Cup, I saw a Godaddy commercial featuring Chadocho Cinco, the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver previously known as Chad Johnson. In the commercial, Chad mentions that his domain name is registered at Godaddy.

Truth be told, OchoCinco.com, the player’s official website is in fact registered with the world’s largest domain registrar, Godaddy. However, CampOchoCinco.com, a website promoted on the official website is actually registered at Dotster, a competing registrar.

I guess it would be similar to an athlete who is endorsed by Nike wearing Nike cleats on the field but Adidas sneakers in the weight room.