I lost $5805usd through PayPal scam by Shane Bellone

promo said:

I have used Paypal for domain transactions since 2005. Never had a scam or chargeback against me (knock on wood). More than 2000 transactions total.

If you vet your buyers and only transact with individuals you trust, then is a nice medium to do quick deals through.

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You bring up a good point. How many domainers have ever done a charge back for a domain 3 months later ?

168 said:

Is NP investigating ?

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Not trying to speak for them but since the deal wasn't done here that I'm aware of I wouldn't think so..

mad409 said:

Not trying to speak for them but since the deal wasn't done here that I'm aware of I wouldn't think so..

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There was a post on SB listing the ones not returned here for sale under bipolar in October

168 said:

There was a post on SB listing the ones not returned here for sale under bipolar in October

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Yes I remember that now but don't recall any selling here. You know where that was?

All Interesting. Learn First Lesson Today.

mad409 said:

Yes I remember that now but don't recall any selling here. You know where that was?

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look at willtord pg 14 this thread

Wow always thought Shane was one of the more respectable domainers on NP

Looks like it was all planned way ahead by him.

Looking at his twitter feed I notice two things:

1) He has no regrets about what he did
2) He is an idiot

Bean said:

Wow always thought Shane was one of the more respectable domainers on NP

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You're joking, right?

pchip said:

You're joking, right?

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Well I mean I don't really know the guy, never even chatted with him but based on a few of his comments I always assumed he was a decent guy.
I only joined NP (and domaining in general) in 2015 and I don't really hang around these forums a lot so I might have missed a few threads/discussions, you mean to say he had a bad reputation on here even back then?

Let me channel my inner Sherlock here, here's my take.

Judging by his Twitter account history, listed here from newest to oldest ("Never trust a broker who's also an investor.", "Bought 7.6% for the cvcv.in market for a client last week. Curious to see how this plays out.","Anyone know a registrar that will give me a deal for transferring 900 domains in February?" & ".IN is the next frontier.") i think the following happened:

Shane was thinking he was onto something with the .IN TLD. Many pros expect them to go big/bigger in 2017 and he was obviously thinking of investing. He found a broker/investor who expressed interest in purchasing .IN in bulk, mainly 4L.in which are hottest .in property currently available for relatively cheap. The hypothetical broker/investor offered a solid price, e.g. $20+ per CVCV.in for every domain he can provide. Something along those lines.

He saw what he thought was an excellent opportunity to multiply his investment quickly and this is where the deal with OP comes in. He shelled out the 5K for a LOT of 4L.in domains (he bragged on Twitter about the 7.6% cvcv.in market, obviously proud) expecting a super fast flip.

The broker/investor withdrew his offer / chickened out / was bluffing all along, leaving Shane with a bunch of cvcv.in which are not exactly liquid. He tried to sell them for three months, being able to sell only 42, probably for low figures and most likely in bulk and when he saw that the $5K investment was about to go bust, he used the closing window/timeframe to submit a PayPal dispute and screw over the OP and get his money back over someone else's back.

Shane's general attitude is known around here, and he seems not to lose sleep over these things, but something tells me this one is gonna sting. Reputation is hard to build, but it is super easy to trash. Shane is finished in domaining, me thinks.

I'd just to like to emphasize that I do not personally know Shane B. or OP and this is just an exercise in deduction. Of course, that doesn't mean I didn't get a few things right.

I feel for the seller. Shane abused his position as a some-what 'pro' status domainer and committed fraud.

Shane, what goes around, comes around. Wishing you all the bad luck possible for this year and beyond.

DGWRX said:

Shane's general attitude is known around here, and he seems not to lose sleep over these things, but something tells me this one is gonna sting. Reputation is hard to build, but it is super easy to trash. Shane is finished in domaining, me thinks.

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Is it actually his real name then or not?

What's the point in doing a masters or phd when you finish and any prospective employer is going to google your name

If he has been smart and used a fake name then I guess that doesn't apply.

DomainGist said:

What's the point in doing a masters or phd when you finish and any prospective employer is going to google your name

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And then offer you a juicy job in banking or politics.

disaac81 said:

I feel for the seller. Shane abused his position as a some-what 'pro' status domainer and committed fraud.

Shane, what goes around, comes around. Wishing you all the bad luck possible for this year and beyond.

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Why are so many people taking this 'pro' status thing so seriously, its just a flipping tag on some forum, it isn't some sort of regulatory approval

In fact why does anybody take domaining seriously to any extent. Its just a bunch of people sticking hooks in the water hoping that a big fish will bite one day.

carob said:

And then offer you a juicy job in banking or politics.

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That's only if you have a rich daddy.

DomainGist said:

Is it actually his real name then or not?

What's the point in doing a masters or phd when you finish and any prospective employer is going to google your name

If he has been smart and used a fake name then I guess that doesn't apply.

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Something tells me that's his real name. I don't think this was premeditated, he went in for quick deal, which turned sour and his character or lack there of made him do wrong thing. Freaking money, turns us into monsters.

Again, this is just speculation. I may be slandering an honest man, Mr. Shane B. If I am, I apologize. As things stand now, that doesn't seem to be the case.

DomainGist said:

Why are so many people taking this 'pro' status thing so seriously, its just a flipping tag on some forum, it isn't some sort of regulatory approval

In fact why does anybody take domaining seriously to any extent. Its just a bunch of people sticking hooks in the water hoping that a big fish will bite one day.

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The name of this forum is NamePros. When certain members are appointed with name[PRO]s badges (with a font that incidentally has a similar red color tone as the NP logo), they come across as the titular pros of the namepros forum, and it looks like they are some kind of endorsed industry professionals or representatives of the forum. It’s a position that can be exploited as it provides a veneer of legitimacy to holders, particularly in the eyes of newbies, users who only visit the forum infrequently and outsiders. Moreover, why NP wants to encourage such hierarchization among members is beyond me.

Anyhow, the relatively low requirements for attaining a PRO badge ($50K in sales) enables many less-than-pro members to get one (you just have to apply if you fulfil the requirements), and Shane Bellone's apparent misconduct is certainly not the first time a namePRO badge holder has been embroiled in this kind thing, and there was another "scandal" involving another namePRO not too long ago as well, and it surely won't be the last time we see one of the namePROs being decidedly unprofessional (of course there are many pro badge holders who are domain investing professionals in every sense of the word as well).

But most of the members around here who I personally find to be really knowledgeable about domain names, and who clearly are real professionals in terms of how they go about their business, don't have pro badges. So it's certainly not an accurate indicator in general of who is a real pro among the NP user base. Rather it's just an indicator of who felt the need to apply for a shiny badge, and unfortunately it seems evident that many of those who have applied for one did not exactly have the best of intentions in mind in terms of how they were planning to use the "NP endorsement of PROfessionalism" that such a badge projects.

DomainGist said:

Why are so many people taking this 'pro' status thing so seriously, its just a flipping tag on some forum, it isn't some sort of regulatory approval

In fact why does anybody take domaining seriously to any extent. Its just a bunch of people sticking hooks in the water hoping that a big fish will bite one day.

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Money.

Just got a comment on my website about this in regards to our interview #2 which featured Shane.

12no3 said:

http://omarandwill.com/interview-with-the-expert-volume-2-featuring-shane-bellone/

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Going to look further into this but just letting you all know, I have taken this interview down. This is a long thread but thanks for updated me on this so I could remove it from my blog.

Thanks.

-Omar

sofiapartner said:

Money.

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I think that 15 years ago there were few opportunities like domaining. Today there are much better ones elsewhere I guess. Some will succeed even starting today but not many.

It takes a lot of effort, time and perhaps money to succeed and if you have all these maybe there are better options where you can invest your efforts.

if you enjoy it and it's profitable that's another story but if you view it purely as an opportunity I would also consider looking elsewhere.

It's well possible that fortunes are still to be made - who knows the future? - but things are harder than they seem in retrospect.

The churn rate is high. We hear about success stories and then a lot of these people drop out or disappear. There is a reason for that.

Did you check the WHOIS of those domains? All but one are registered by two Chinese people, with Indian email and US city, which obviously is fake and against the TOS. All nameserves are pointed to UNIREGISTRYMARKET. The only difference is that 42 transferred domains have new registrar - Wild West Domains and 2018 as expiration date.
Is it common practice for buyer to leave the old WHOIS info?

maybe a part of this story was that Shane somehow felt tricked by the broker and thought there was some kind of collusion going on between the broker and the seller.

Seems unlikely that this really happened as the seller turned out to be very well established.

barefooted said:

Did you check the WHOIS of those domains? All but one are registered by two Chinese people, with Indian email and US city, which obviously is fake and against the TOS. All nameserves are pointed to UNIREGISTRYMARKET. The only difference is that 42 transferred domains have new registrar - Wild West Domains and 2018 as expiration date.
Is it common practice for buyer to leave the old WHOIS info?

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Nameserver is left very often unchanged. Godaddy and Enom and at least some others will copy WHOIS from previous registrant.

barefooted said:

Is it common practice for buyer to leave the old WHOIS info?

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Its common for sure. I would say that more than 50% of my buyers need a reminder about updating whois post sale. I even have an org that 9 years later STILL has not removed me as admin contact. Thats after contacts in year 1, 3 and 7.

What does it mean when Adam Dicker has a better account standing than duo Shane Bellone and David Walker?

IMO, it means stay away.

My next question is where did Mr. Bellone's PROness go? Did he switch to a PRINcess?

(I'm just here for the likes)