Bidding on your own names at NameJet...?

[webquest]

Once in awhile I see people bidding on their own domains at NJ. I would think it would be frowned upon.

Today's seems more obvious than normal. Or am I missing something here?

Airlinejobs.com owned by Andy Booth at Booth.com and high bidder is BQDNcom (James Booth).

3 bids down we see Boothcom as a bidder.

Same thing with MovieZone.com. Owned by Andy Booth in which he currently appears to be the high bidder.

High Bid: $2,475 USD by boothcom

They actually won their own domain airplanesforsale.com. Im guessing it didnt get as high as they wanted so needed to protect it.

Bidder Amount Date
bqdncom $2,001 7/17/2017 12:23 PM
boothcom $1,950 7/17/2017 12:23 PM

 

[Lox]

Domain Sherpa is fun and insightful,

In future, always read disclaimer, terms, etc , first #1 rule. For any website ... auction etc

http://www.domainsherpa.com/disclaimer/

You should not treat any opinion expressed by Sherpas as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy or use a specific product or service, but only as an expression of his/her opinion.

 

[betthelot]

The Booths are feeling a sigh of relief because it seems a bigger fish is telling stories that are even harder to swallow than the Booths.

hahahaha

 

[xn--v4h.com]

If any of you are buying any of the excuses provided by the players in this shill bid drama, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you!

Sorry, 5am here and I haven't slept yet... I messed up the first query about how many auctions matched those patterns. The first two paragraphs are inaccurate, and I don't have anything to show that it wasn't a bot. My mistake. But the rest of the post stands, doesn't really matter if it was a bot as long as you control what it does. And who wants to monitor two NJ accounts instead of one, I don't see why you'd create the new alias.

You should go back and edit it in case someone reads it and missed this correction post.

 

[xn--v4h.com]

In future, always read disclaimer, terms, etc , first #1 rule. For any website ... auction etc

http://www.domainsherpa.com/disclaimer/

You should not treat any opinion expressed by Sherpas as a specific inducement to make a particular investment or follow a particular strategy or use a specific product or service, but only as an expression of his/her opinion.

Cyger and I discussed this before. It would be ridiculous to warn everyone of every possible shenanigans and pitfalls in domaining. We are all adults. If there is fraud involved, then there are legal means to make you whole should you so choose.

 

[betthelot]

Namepros members, holding the industry's feet to the fire. You gotta love them

 

[offthehandle]

Techcrunch. 2009

Today SnapNames admitted that one of its executives was shill bidding on auctions. 5% of auctions from 2005 – 2007 were affected, the company says, and a lesser number since then.

The employee was shill bidding on auctions to pump the price up. When he won, he’d arrange for a partial refund from the company.

SnapNames is saying they’ll reimburse the difference between what an auction should have closed at and what it actually closed at, plus interest.

https://techcrunch.com/2009/11/04/domain-industry-rocked-by-shill-auction-bidding-admission/

 

[offthehandle]

2011

• 
  Gnanes
  May 5, 2011 at 9:51 pm
  This happened to me on SnapNames couple of times. I think some guys list their names and tell their buddies to shill bid. I stopped bidding on any names on SnapNames auctions or private auctions.
  
  In your case I think the runner up bidder wasn’t a verified user. Non verified bidders can only bid up to $2500.
  
  Reply
• 
  BullS
  May 5, 2011 at 10:50 pm
  Don’t be surprised that domain is back in the auction.
  
  The game will go on until the next sucker get hooked….sinker and line.
  

http://www.tld.org/the-suspicious-bid

 

[karmaco]

The saga continues. Its interesting to say the least how affiliated business parties defend one another because its in their best interest to do so. Anyone advising new investors not to come to Namepros is suspect in my book.

The pool of people to look up to is dwindling by the day on this thread. I think it's a pretty accurate statement to say anyone doing very well in this business is likely to be held to a higher standard by other domainers who "admire" or look to for sound advice. Take all advice with large grains of salt.

Most of us are a small fish in a big pond with multiple sharks. That part is not news to anybody.

 

[offthehandle]

2008

https://m.slashdot.org/story/103431

A GoDaddy Vice President has been caught bidding against customers in their own domain name auctions. The employee Adam Dicker isn't just any GoDaddy employee; he's head of the GoDaddy subsidiary that controls the auctions. Dicker won some of the domains he bid for, and pushed up the bid price on auctions he didn't win. The conflict of interest is unethical, but could this practice also be illegal? Said a representative for a competitor, 'Even if controlled, that practice has bad news written all over it.' This comes hot on the heels of news that despite earlier promises to ICANN to end their 60-Day ban on transfers, GoDaddy quietly circumvented it by forcing customers to agree to the ban anyway. ICANN doesn't appear to be investigating or asking follow-up questions about this. What can be done to force ICANN to police the registrars for which it is responsible?"

 

[equity78]

@Oliver Hoger
Show attachment 64745

You were the seller of moviezone.com on NameJet. Andy Booth claims that he sold this domain to you, and that you are the owner. However, Andy Booth was still listed as owner in WHOIS when you auctioned the name on NameJet.

Both you and Andy Booth bid on your auction listing for moviezone.com, a domain owned by either you or him. Why did you bid on your own auction listing?

Andy Booth won the auction and you were the second highest bidder.

It appears that Andy Booth won the auction for a name that he himself owns according to WHOIS, and you were the second highest bidder on a domain which you put up for auction.

Please explain this situation.

This needs to be explained in my opinion.

 

[offthehandle]

2002

https://sedo.com/us/about-us/news-p...nic/?session=a90285ba17a6dd83c2431fc9a37f7e54

In addition to removing its community features, Afternic has drawn criticism for its failure to control shill bidding and other scams, and for mismanagement of domain name transfers. Customer complaint sites such as AfternicSucks.com tell stories of e-mails and phone calls going unanswered for months, domain sellers not receiving payment, and other examples of Afternic’s “failure to perform to reasonable business standards”.

The result for parent company Register.com is that, instead of fulfilling its pre-ordained role of developing a healthy domain name secondary market in the US, the Afternic acquisition has created only continued financial headaches. One year ago, Register.com recorded a $32.5 million write-down in goodwill related to the acquisition of Afternic. The recent closure announcement accompanied disclosure of more disappointing results for Register.com in the third-quarter. (Which makes one wonder if—now that Afternic can no longer be used as a scapegoat—Register.com will finally be forced to reflect upon the sustainability of a business model based upon selling for $35 a product that is widely available elsewhere for under $10…)

Register.com CEO Richard Forman commented that, “after two years and a lot of hard work, we’ve determined the Afternic segment does not have sufficient opportunity to continue devoting resources toward it.”

Fortunately, there are many others eager to pursue opportunities in the “Afternic segment”, in the belief that Afternic’s demise was a function not of the infecundity of the domain name secondary market, but of Afternic’s own inability to provide services that truly add value for domain name buyers and sellers.

Further, the cooling of the late ‘90s speculative craze means that fewer aftermarket domain sales today consist of speculator-to-speculator sales, which were Afternic’s bread-and-butter. Instead, domain reselling today requires effective marketing to end-users, the businesses and individuals with the resources to put domains to use either as new websites or as traffic-generating tools for existing sites.

Finding these end-users and educating them about the opportunities for purchasing high-quality domain names through the aftermarket is thus a central concern for the team at SEDO.us, the new domain marketplace launched fortuitously only days before the announcement of Afternic’s imminent closure.

 

[offthehandle]

Yesterday. Not sure what date this issue occured.

https://dsad.com/daily-list-domains-auction-wednesday-july-19th/

On another note, our tagline for this site is “Domain Auction Specialist”.

Which means we make our living using the domain name auction houses.

I have not talked about it publicly but I have talked about it with the people that manage the auction houses. In order to keep the faith of the buyer and sellers on these platforms the bidding must be natural. An unnatural bid is a bid that was made by an owner or collaborator that somehow effects the natural flow of the auction. ANY bid. It doesn’t matter if it was first, in the middle or last. Adding in those bids effects the natural flow of the auction that would have happened without the shill bid. TLDPros was a part of unnatural bidding at Namejet and I reported it and Namejet took care of it.

 

[realcostdomains]

Wow... That was an exhausting read, I guess BIN is the way to go for me in the future.

 

[campout]

TLDPros was a part of unnatural bidding at Namejet and I reported it and Namejet took care of it.

TLDPros still has auctions going: http://www.namejet.com/featuredauctions/tldpros

What sort of unnatural bidding was going on with them?

 

[Chris Hydrick]

@Dnbolt

Can you help?

 

[offthehandle]

Here is a "how to article" and blackhat world post from goo gle.

. This is really sickening, all these crooks and scandals. I am really having my eyes opened on all platforms and all this bad history. I think its important to share it. This is a chronic problem.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23779323_Optimal_Shill_Bidding_in_the_VCG_Mechanism

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/tips-to-get-more-bids-on-flippa.360878/


make a second account.

Wait till your website goes into the ending soon section, less than 4 hours. Now, your website will be featured on the ending soon section of flippa homepage, probably page 3-4.

Wait till there are about 20-30 minutes left on the auction. Now your website will be featured on the ending soon section of flippa, probably in the first 4-5 results. A lot of eye balls you get there, try to keep it there as much as possible without letting the auction end.

Before the auction is ending - 10-15 minutes, place a bid with the second account below the reserve price. So that you are sure that you will not win it. The clock resets to 4 hours.

Wait another 4 hours, again you will be featured in the ending soon section on flippa homepage. Wait again till you have 10-15 minutes left on the auction, so that you are placed in the ending soon section within the first 4-5 results. Again plenty of eyeballs there.

Before the auction ends, bid with the second account again. Make sure you stay below reserve price. The clock resets for another 4 hours.

Do this for 1-2 days. If you do not get normal bids even when you are featured that much in the ending soon section, your website is not interesting for potentially flippa buyers.

When you have about 4 hours left, you can also do a featured section.

Alternatively, you could do a fake bidding war, that would list you in the flippa most active section, but you should have planned that from the beginning of the auction.

Talking from experience, i had to use flippa these days, and was forced to put my blackhat hat on.

Good luck.

 

[offthehandle]

TLDPros still has auctions going: http://www.namejet.com/featuredauctions/tldpros

What sort of unnatural bidding was going on with them?

I posted the url from Shanes blog.. @Domain Shane

 

[Domain Shane]

TLDPros still has auctions going: http://www.namejet.com/featuredauctions/tldpros

What sort of unnatural bidding was going on with them?

The had 4 or 5 people in their office bidding on names. Then canceled some of the bids and left users and tracking accounts as the new high bidders and stuck with the names . I haven't seen anything fishy lately. Owner claimed he didn't know that wasn't normal. Ironically it appears it might be normal

 

[xn--v4h.com]

Here is a "how to article" and blackhat world post from goo gle.

. This is really sickening, all these crooks and scandals. I am really having my eyes opened on all platforms and all this bad history. I think its important to share it. This is a chronic problem.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23779323_Optimal_Shill_Bidding_in_the_VCG_Mechanism

https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/tips-to-get-more-bids-on-flippa.360878/


make a second account.

Wait till your website goes into the ending soon section, less than 4 hours. Now, your website will be featured on the ending soon section of flippa homepage, probably page 3-4.

Wait till there are about 20-30 minutes left on the auction. Now your website will be featured on the ending soon section of flippa, probably in the first 4-5 results. A lot of eye balls you get there, try to keep it there as much as possible without letting the auction end.

Before the auction is ending - 10-15 minutes, place a bid with the second account below the reserve price. So that you are sure that you will not win it. The clock resets to 4 hours.

Wait another 4 hours, again you will be featured in the ending soon section on flippa homepage. Wait again till you have 10-15 minutes left on the auction, so that you are placed in the ending soon section within the first 4-5 results. Again plenty of eyeballs there.

Before the auction ends, bid with the second account again. Make sure you stay below reserve price. The clock resets for another 4 hours.

Do this for 1-2 days. If you do not get normal bids even when you are featured that much in the ending soon section, your website is not interesting for potentially flippa buyers.

When you have about 4 hours left, you can also do a featured section.

Alternatively, you could do a fake bidding war, that would list you in the flippa most active section, but you should have planned that from the beginning of the auction.

Talking from experience, i had to use flippa these days, and was forced to put my blackhat hat on.

Good luck.

Money isn't everything. Besides this is all a game. You think you can take the chips with you? I rather play it properly and feel a real satisfaction of truly winning albeit less frequently -- making it even sweeter! -- than winning and knowing that I cheated to win. Not the type of image I want to remember on my deathbed.

 

[wwwweb]

How was tldpros allowed to remain on the platform after such an incident?

 

[tonyk2000]

as per the forum profile page:

"NameJetGM was last seen: Today at 8:36 PM"

Recent activity: "NameJetGM replied to the thread Bidding on your own names at NameJet...?." Yesterday at 6:14 PM

@NameJetGM - do you have any news after 1 full complete business day?

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Assuming the buyer backed out, or just another WHOIS didn't change at transfer. Just pointing it out...

WHOIS still says Oliver...

 

[Recons.Com]

*******
I can not explain to you why those names in my parking account that HKDN bought. Probably he didn't update nameservesr or didn't add to his own account. I have many domains I sold which we still make money on because buyers never updated

This I can confirm too. I have bought few names on GD that turned out to be Oliver's. Normally all names I get from GD get GD nameservers until I get to them, but those had Oliver's info for long until I went through all my names and found out. When he does a push, he chooses the option to leave things unchanged.

This still does not explain why hkdn and these guys paths cross so often, from bidding that willingly or not benefit each other to selling back and forth, to having the same offshore addresses etc.

 

[offthehandle]

Money isn't everything. Besides this is all a game. You think you can take the chips with you? I rather play it properly and feel a real satisfaction of truly winning albeit less frequently -- making it even sweeter! -- than winning and knowing that I cheated to win. Not the type of image I want to remember on my deathbed.

What are you saying anyway? I didnt write that. Goo gle indexes it all, I was shocked to read it. My point of posting all that I found was how pervasive an issue this is. This isn't a game, and these platforms are not trustworthy without being able to police and prevent these scandals. This is been going on forever.

 

[wwwweb]

as per the forum profile page:

"NameJetGM was last seen: Today at 8:36 PM"

Recent activity: "NameJetGM replied to the thread Bidding on your own names at NameJet...?." Yesterday at 6:14 PM

@NameJetGM - do you have any news after 1 full complete business day?

I think tbey have been sweeping a lot under the rug, than actually throwing out in the trash.

People are comparing scenarios, and not much is making sense.

At this point HKDN is the wildcard to a lot of questions? At this point it seems like a script gone AWOL.