I've had a similar situation, and in my case I secured the alternates, but realized that the one they squated on would be more likely entered by people just trying to type it in.

I didn't want to build THEIR GoogleAd/Spyware potential with my name.

Patience is a virtue. They started at $5K! and after almost a year of telling them what they could do with their offers (they sent me another message every other month or so) I was tired one day and raised my "don't even contact me if it's not under" from $50 to $100. The next day I got an invoice!

I used a one-use virtual credit card (come on, I'm not stupid) and paid for it. 2 days later the change over completed and I spent a couple more bucks to transfer away from this unknown (to me) registrar the next day.

More than I wanted to spend, but worth the future problems I hope would come if my product becomes succesful. :)

What I find more annoying is the people that tell me I need to sell them one of my active domains because they want it. Are they spambots that are not even looking at the site, or do they just hope I'm stupid?