Maurits Rijkeboer Video.pro Video.us Mystery

akcampbell · 04-25-2008, 03:29 AM

In March 2007, 4 very substantial .Pro sales were reported by Afternic, the seller was Michael Silver, MJS on NP, and the buyer was Maurits Rijkeboer from the Streaming Group in Belgium. The selling prices were as follows;

Video.pro $35,000
Movie.pro $22,000
Stream.pro $11,000
Streaming.pro $18,000

When you consider Travel.pro was reported as having sold for $3,900, Porn.pro $1,000, Sex.pro $2,000, and Poker.pro $2,427 in July 2006 these 4 Afternic sales stood out.

What struck me as odd when I got into .Pro domaining in September 2007 was that none of these Afternic .Pros had been developed. You would think that somebody willing to pay 10 times more than previously and subsequently reported .Pro sales had development plans. Furthermore, the web site of Maurits Rijkeboer's Streaming Group was not resolving.

I didn't think any more about this until I saw a thread on NP about Video.us, reported as being purchased for $75,000 through Afternic in Mar 2007, again by Maurits Rijkeboer, had deleted and been auctioned by Pool for $18,500 in February 2008.

A guy on usforum.us said he contacted Neustar and they confirmed the owner was investigated, presumably for not being a US resident, but never responded. Again, I thought this was odd. Who would spend $75,000 on a .us and not meet the criteria for holding it? Even if you didn't you could register a US company and hold it through the company.

By now I'm thinking Maurits Rijkeboer must be dead so his 4 .Pros acquired for $86,000 are going to delete. I didn't think Stream.pro or Streaming.pro were worth much more than the $99 Encirca reg fee but I was watching Video.pro and Movie.pro. On 25 March, 23 days after it expired, Video.pro had its' details switched to Encirca's.

I emailed Tom Barratt at Encirca and he confirmed he had switched the reg details to his own to give Mr Rijkeboer's "estate" more time to claim the domains and to reduce the risk of hijacking because Streaming Group's own domain had expired. I took the use of the word "estate" to imply Maurits Rijkeboer was dead which tallied with what I thought had happened.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/461763-maurits-rijkeboer-video-pro-video-us.html

I wasn't sure what to think about this. I like Tom, I think he's done more than anybody to keep .Pro afloat. I wish he'd reduce his $99 .Pro registration fee and make his money from volume rather than margin to encourage more take up but that's his decision. I did wonder if this was a genuine good deed or a cover for pocketing a couple of premium .Pros which as far as I know registrars are within their rights to do anyway.

I decided to find Maurits Mijkeboer's family because if Maurits was dead, they'd already lost $75,000 and were about to lose another couple of premium domains. I did some research, found out where Maurits Rijkeboer had been working and contacted the company he was hired by in July 2007, Menno Design. A guy called Menno, presumably the founder of Menno Design emailed me back and said he would forward my email to Maurit's "lawyers".

Then a couple of days later I got an email from...Maurits Rijkeboers!!! My email to Menno Group a few days before was copied below. He said he wasn't dead and asked which domains I thought he owned. A bit of an odd question if you forked out $86,000 for them the previous year but hey, maybe he's just a very rich guy and lost track so I sent him the details. And then...nothing. I emailed him again a week later to see if he got reunited with his domains but got no response. The registrant details of Video.pro and Movie.pro are still in Encirca's name.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=461763

I figured I had the wrong Maurits Rijkeboer so I did some more research. I cross checked his middle name or initial P or Paul and his MBA to a Streaming Group press release, the email I received from him saying he was still alive and a press release from Menno Group when they hired him in July 2007.

The Menno Group press release is here;

http://www.moodiereport.com/document...4&doc_id=14646

Here's a Press release directly linking Maurits P Rijkeboer MBA to both Menno and Streaming Group.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb530964.htm

I emailed various Maurits Rijkeboer links to Tom Barratt at Encirca asking for his views but he didn't respond. There is something going on here but I don't know what it is. Nobody drops $156,000 of domains 1 year after buying them.

Either Maurits Rijkeboer died at some point in the last 9 months and so when I contacted Menno Group, Menno emailed back initially and said he would forward my email to Maurit's lawyers, then got curious about the domains Maurits had held and invented the email from Maurits to find out. That would tally with the fact whoever emailed me claiming to be Maurits didn't know what domains he held. Otherwise, there is some wider conspiracy, maybe involving identity theft.

What do other people think the most likely scenario is here?

Devil_Dog · 04-25-2008, 04:43 AM

Wow, sounds like a "Made for TV" movie plot.

sdsinc · 04-25-2008, 05:13 AM

Interesting. At first I wasn't surprised to see Neustar stepping in to delete video.us as it was obvious the buyer was in breach of nexus. But the whole thing is intriguing. Another domaining mystery.

dotprofan · 04-25-2008, 11:24 AM

I would really love to hear the real story here. Something shady appears to be going on - though who knows what it is.

steveteva · 04-25-2008, 12:49 PM

This story is amazing and could be a TV episode.
He might be dead or in jail or else, we really don't know why he didn't renew it.

Some people are so rich they can buy something and drop it.

I have a buyer of 1 of my domain name (he already spent $5000 last year buying my domain names) that bought for $450.00 and never accept the transfer of domain name by clicking one link in email message sent from registrar. I've contact him many times to tell him to check spam box and make sure to accept account change so the whois will be updated to his name and he could take full control of it.

Well he still didn't do it, he only replied once saying OK, thank you, then no other replies from my other emails. Also he is not dead or else, he simply maybe have no time or I don't know???

I'm wondering what should I do if he never transfer (still in my account) and will be expired, should I renew it for me or can he claim it later or let expired???

sdsinc · 04-25-2008, 03:56 PM

Originally Posted by steveteva

I'm wondering what should I do if he never transfer (still in my account) and will be expired, should I renew it for me or can he claim it later or let expired???

Spoiled boy

Maybe you should create a user account for him, push the name into the account, send the username and password to him and be done with it

steveteva · 04-25-2008, 05:47 PM

Originally Posted by Kath

Spoiled boy

????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=461763
Maybe you should create a user account for him, push the name into the account, send the username and password to him and be done with it

Thanks excellent idea, hope he will get it. But I will need to create a new email account on Yahoo or Gmail just for that because it request an email to activate change of ownership?

Jasdon · 08-08-2008, 03:44 AM

Originally Posted by steveteva

Thanks excellent idea, hope he will get it. But I will need to create a new email account on Yahoo or Gmail just for that because it request an email to activate change of ownership?

Just use the email that you contact him on now.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=461763

akcampbell - awesome detective work Columbo! Do you know the whereabouts of Lord Lucan?

l-l-l.com · 08-08-2008, 03:51 AM

grt work

do you own detective.pro

Charley · 08-08-2008, 04:31 AM

I would like to hear an update, strange situation.

soggyindo · 08-08-2008, 05:23 AM

Originally Posted by akcampbell

What do other people think the most likely scenario is here?

maybe encirca sells domains and then bumps people off, thus being able to resell and continue their nefarious scheme

re people not claiming their domains after over-the-top reminders, etc. i say keep the domain, park it (or even sell it 6 months later) and worry about it if and when they follow it up. i'm usually a big cheerleader for ethical domaining, but if you're running around thinking for these people, you're not doing them any favors IMHO

ssamriga · 08-08-2008, 07:15 AM

ok this is an old thread, but I'd really like to hear more about the original story

Spade · 08-08-2008, 09:53 AM

Originally Posted by Charley

I would like to hear an update, strange situation.

As would I.

DotUSDomains · 08-08-2008, 10:11 AM

Yes me also,

akcampbell any more time for some detective work.

akcampbell · 08-08-2008, 04:07 PM

From what I can gather this guy Maurits Paul Rijkeboer MBA is still very much alive. He put out a Press release for his site Money.be on 4 June 2008.

http://www.pr-inside.com/money-be-of...rd-r623925.htm

Here's the same press release with a photo of a very young looking and unlikely to be dead Maurits Paul Rijkeboer, again dated 4 June 2008.

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/M.../emw988074.htm

On another .pro thread yesterday MJS said "The referenced sales were remarkable for both .PRO and .U.S. Further, as you, and others have ably noted, the circumstances that later separated the buyer and his investments were unusual, and, if true, somewhat tragic. Either way, my sales were legit. This much I know."

One thing that struck me as odd is that the technical and contact details of video.pro and movie.pro are in the Encirca account reference CT388-RSC whereas the registrant details are CT3269-RSC which is the general Encirca proxy. The only other .pros I can find with technical details for the Encirca reference CT388-RSC are owned by Michael Silver, the guy who sold Video.pro and Movie.pro eg. Media.pro, Wine.pro, Casino.pro.

MJS' most recent .pro registration Banks.pro has the account name CT873-RSC for registrant, admin and technical details. All my .pros have my own client reference CT4734-RSC in technical and admin which was set automatically on registration (eg. Training.pro, Expert.pro, anything else in my signature), the earlier .pro registration I know of Business.pro, Trademark.pro and Attorney.pro have the same account reference for registrant, admin and technical. Hence CT388-RSC must have been an original Encirca reference on registration, whoever bought it didn't change it or the old MJS account code was changed to CT388-RSC.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=461763

When Encirca can't hold .pros by proxy it will be interesting to see who ends up as the registrant for Video.pro and Movie.pro. Will it be MJS, Maurits Rijkeboer or Tom Barrett from Encirca?

I don't dispute that MJS sold the domains because the sales were registered independently by afternic but I'd be interested to know who the current beneficial owner is behind the Encirca proxy ownership.

04-25-2008, 03:29 AM	THREAD STARTER #1 (permalink)
akcampbell .Pro Regular Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 1,346	Maurits Rijkeboer Video.pro Video.us Mystery In March 2007, 4 very substantial .Pro sales were reported by Afternic, the seller was Michael Silver, MJS on NP, and the buyer was Maurits Rijkeboer from the Streaming Group in Belgium. The selling prices were as follows; Video.pro $35,000 Movie.pro $22,000 Stream.pro $11,000 Streaming.pro $18,000 When you consider Travel.pro was reported as having sold for $3,900, Porn.pro $1,000, Sex.pro $2,000, and Poker.pro $2,427 in July 2006 these 4 Afternic sales stood out. What struck me as odd when I got into .Pro domaining in September 2007 was that none of these Afternic .Pros had been developed. You would think that somebody willing to pay 10 times more than previously and subsequently reported .Pro sales had development plans. Furthermore, the web site of Maurits Rijkeboer's Streaming Group was not resolving. I didn't think any more about this until I saw a thread on NP about Video.us, reported as being purchased for $75,000 through Afternic in Mar 2007, again by Maurits Rijkeboer, had deleted and been auctioned by Pool for $18,500 in February 2008. A guy on usforum.us said he contacted Neustar and they confirmed the owner was investigated, presumably for not being a US resident, but never responded. Again, I thought this was odd. Who would spend $75,000 on a .us and not meet the criteria for holding it? Even if you didn't you could register a US company and hold it through the company. By now I'm thinking Maurits Rijkeboer must be dead so his 4 .Pros acquired for $86,000 are going to delete. I didn't think Stream.pro or Streaming.pro were worth much more than the $99 Encirca reg fee but I was watching Video.pro and Movie.pro. On 25 March, 23 days after it expired, Video.pro had its' details switched to Encirca's. I emailed Tom Barratt at Encirca and he confirmed he had switched the reg details to his own to give Mr Rijkeboer's "estate" more time to claim the domains and to reduce the risk of hijacking because Streaming Group's own domain had expired. I took the use of the word "estate" to imply Maurits Rijkeboer was dead which tallied with what I thought had happened. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/461763-maurits-rijkeboer-video-pro-video-us.html I wasn't sure what to think about this. I like Tom, I think he's done more than anybody to keep .Pro afloat. I wish he'd reduce his $99 .Pro registration fee and make his money from volume rather than margin to encourage more take up but that's his decision. I did wonder if this was a genuine good deed or a cover for pocketing a couple of premium .Pros which as far as I know registrars are within their rights to do anyway. I decided to find Maurits Mijkeboer's family because if Maurits was dead, they'd already lost $75,000 and were about to lose another couple of premium domains. I did some research, found out where Maurits Rijkeboer had been working and contacted the company he was hired by in July 2007, Menno Design. A guy called Menno, presumably the founder of Menno Design emailed me back and said he would forward my email to Maurit's "lawyers". Then a couple of days later I got an email from...Maurits Rijkeboers!!! My email to Menno Group a few days before was copied below. He said he wasn't dead and asked which domains I thought he owned. A bit of an odd question if you forked out $86,000 for them the previous year but hey, maybe he's just a very rich guy and lost track so I sent him the details. And then...nothing. I emailed him again a week later to see if he got reunited with his domains but got no response. The registrant details of Video.pro and Movie.pro are still in Encirca's name. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=461763 I figured I had the wrong Maurits Rijkeboer so I did some more research. I cross checked his middle name or initial P or Paul and his MBA to a Streaming Group press release, the email I received from him saying he was still alive and a press release from Menno Group when they hired him in July 2007. The Menno Group press release is here; http://www.moodiereport.com/document...4&doc_id=14646 Here's a Press release directly linking Maurits P Rijkeboer MBA to both Menno and Streaming Group. http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb530964.htm I emailed various Maurits Rijkeboer links to Tom Barratt at Encirca asking for his views but he didn't respond. There is something going on here but I don't know what it is. Nobody drops $156,000 of domains 1 year after buying them. Either Maurits Rijkeboer died at some point in the last 9 months and so when I contacted Menno Group, Menno emailed back initially and said he would forward my email to Maurit's lawyers, then got curious about the domains Maurits had held and invented the email from Maurits to find out. That would tally with the fact whoever emailed me claiming to be Maurits didn't know what domains he held. Otherwise, there is some wider conspiracy, maybe involving identity theft. What do other people think the most likely scenario is here? __________________ Total.pro August 2011 registry stats added 4 December 2011

04-25-2008, 04:43 AM	#2 (permalink)
Devil_Dog Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: az Posts: 1,434	Wow, sounds like a "Made for TV" movie plot. __________________ .::: e-nic.com :::.- semperfidelis.com - stow.org - shopbooks.com - and more....

04-25-2008, 05:13 AM	#3 (permalink)
sdsinc Domains my Dominion Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Web 1.0 Posts: 9,558	Interesting. At first I wasn't surprised to see Neustar stepping in to delete video.us as it was obvious the buyer was in breach of nexus. But the whole thing is intriguing. Another domaining mystery. __________________ NameNewsletter.com - free lists of available domain names ZoneFiles.net (beta) - ccTLD and gTLD droplists

04-25-2008, 11:24 AM	#4 (permalink)
dotprofan NamePros Regular Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: San Diego, CA Posts: 386	I would really love to hear the real story here. Something shady appears to be going on - though who knows what it is. __________________ Videos.pro \| Gamble.pro \| Military.pro \| Telecom.pro \| Value.pro \| Beijing.pro

04-25-2008, 12:49 PM	#5 (permalink)
steveteva TelShowcase.com Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: hawaii Posts: 1,321	This story is amazing and could be a TV episode. He might be dead or in jail or else, we really don't know why he didn't renew it. Some people are so rich they can buy something and drop it. I have a buyer of 1 of my domain name (he already spent $5000 last year buying my domain names) that bought for $450.00 and never accept the transfer of domain name by clicking one link in email message sent from registrar. I've contact him many times to tell him to check spam box and make sure to accept account change so the whois will be updated to his name and he could take full control of it. Well he still didn't do it, he only replied once saying OK, thank you, then no other replies from my other emails. Also he is not dead or else, he simply maybe have no time or I don't know??? I'm wondering what should I do if he never transfer (still in my account) and will be expired, should I renew it for me or can he claim it later or let expired??? __________________ █ Mobile Phone Simulator Last edited by steveteva; 04-25-2008 at 12:54 PM.

08-08-2008, 03:51 AM	#9 (permalink)
l-l-l.com Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: India Posts: 1,860	grt work do you own detective.pro __________________ T-R-Y.COM L-U-L.COM R-R-U.COM F-W-D.COM I-I-A.COM Y-O-G.COM U-U-S.COM G-G-O.COM Y-I-I.COM D-R-Y.COM O-E-E.COM O-O-A.COM G-U-Y.COM L-U-B.COM U-R-S.COM U-P-P.COM

08-08-2008, 04:31 AM	#10 (permalink)
Charley Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: In a 3 Bedroom Flat Â© Posts: 3,691	I would like to hear an update, strange situation. __________________ â€* Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide â€*

08-08-2008, 07:15 AM	#12 (permalink)
ssamriga Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: EU Posts: 1,872	ok this is an old thread, but I'd really like to hear more about the original story __________________ SnowyRange.com 16 years old PR3 GEO name with traffic My domains for sale: DNFit.com - Domain Names that Fit Your Business

08-08-2008, 10:11 AM	#14 (permalink)
DotUSDomains Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: www.move.us Posts: 3,054	Yes me also, akcampbell any more time for some detective work. __________________ Visit www.about.us for dot us news!

08-08-2008, 04:07 PM	THREAD STARTER #15 (permalink)
akcampbell .Pro Regular Join Date: Sep 2006 Posts: 1,346	From what I can gather this guy Maurits Paul Rijkeboer MBA is still very much alive. He put out a Press release for his site Money.be on 4 June 2008. http://www.pr-inside.com/money-be-of...rd-r623925.htm Here's the same press release with a photo of a very young looking and unlikely to be dead Maurits Paul Rijkeboer, again dated 4 June 2008. http://www.emediawire.com/releases/M.../emw988074.htm On another .pro thread yesterday MJS said "The referenced sales were remarkable for both .PRO and .U.S. Further, as you, and others have ably noted, the circumstances that later separated the buyer and his investments were unusual, and, if true, somewhat tragic. Either way, my sales were legit. This much I know." One thing that struck me as odd is that the technical and contact details of video.pro and movie.pro are in the Encirca account reference CT388-RSC whereas the registrant details are CT3269-RSC which is the general Encirca proxy. The only other .pros I can find with technical details for the Encirca reference CT388-RSC are owned by Michael Silver, the guy who sold Video.pro and Movie.pro eg. Media.pro, Wine.pro, Casino.pro. MJS' most recent .pro registration Banks.pro has the account name CT873-RSC for registrant, admin and technical details. All my .pros have my own client reference CT4734-RSC in technical and admin which was set automatically on registration (eg. Training.pro, Expert.pro, anything else in my signature), the earlier .pro registration I know of Business.pro, Trademark.pro and Attorney.pro have the same account reference for registrant, admin and technical. Hence CT388-RSC must have been an original Encirca reference on registration, whoever bought it didn't change it or the old MJS account code was changed to CT388-RSC. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=461763 When Encirca can't hold .pros by proxy it will be interesting to see who ends up as the registrant for Video.pro and Movie.pro. Will it be MJS, Maurits Rijkeboer or Tom Barrett from Encirca? I don't dispute that MJS sold the domains because the sales were registered independently by afternic but I'd be interested to know who the current beneficial owner is behind the Encirca proxy ownership. __________________ Total.pro August 2011 registry stats added 4 December 2011

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