All these discussions over these relatively tiny auction platforms I find amusing ... only because the largest of all of them (likely combined) don't even let us see who is bidding .. and thus might or might not be infested with fraudulent activity .. So sure these small platforms have serious issues .. but why everyone upset with the small players never seem to care about GoDaddy's lack of transparency is completely beyond me.
Note .. that I don't think there is any deliberate intent at GoDaddy to stimulate fraud .. but I just find it funny how everyone seems to attack the small guys while ignoring the biggest one of them all.
Also note .. that if anybody really wanted to commit fraud .. there really isn't anything anyone can do .. anyone could just call a friend in Australia or Japan or mask their IP and create a new account. Sure it's a pain .. but some people have nothing better to do it seems!
And DO NOT get me wrong ... yes people's attacks on the small auction players are often very justified .. and good on all of you for bringing all these issues into the open .. it most certainly is a help to the industry as a whole! So thanks to those who analyse and present good arguments with actual data to support the issues!
Godaddy has been attacked, and they did have some serious issues. I saw so many auctions many that you only know of if you were active on the platform when you got the second highest bidder chance, because the highest bidder failed to pay. About 2 plus years ago, I used to get many, and they were good, because the first bidder usually was so out of whack taking their bids out brought it to a wholesale amount. Now, I havent got one in ages. Godaddy enacted some good internal verifications, as well a $1500 cap verification also, I am not privy on everything they do, but they have cleaned it up quite a bit. The only downside is exposing those usernames, for ultimate auditing externally.
When you are talking dollar volume Dropcatch is not small, when you are talking about domains selling for $5,000-$30,000 in Dropcatch auctions, anyone partcipating needs to pay attention, volume maybe small, but when we are talking about dollars, it is fast, and fierce. This username WITTYNUT by Dropcatch's own admission bid, and did not pay for 69 auctions, sometimes bidding as high as mid 4 figures, his bill is mid 5 figures for those 69 unpaid auctions. He also bid others up, and then did not win the auction, this caused serious damages to other parties which is in the 5 figure range also. Then there are known instances of other bidders not paying for their auctions. The GlobalEnergy.com auction which closed at $20K, the two top bidders had the username NEWNEW, and POSTPOST, and at the last minute NEWNEW bids were revoked. NEWNEW also won powerofart.com outbidding legit bidders for $573, and still hasn't made payment a week later. This is just the topical stuff we can see, peeling back the layers, there is so much more there also.
Pheenix, user Arca won forexspot.com in a Pheenix auction, paid for it, then the owner pulls it back, refunds him, and lists it on a Pheenix landing page for $18K.
As to anyone using random friend, random ip's to commit fraud, you are right, and maybe we saw that at namejet, and it is was Webquest, Chad Wright who is a long time respected domainer who called it out.
Small, or big these stories need to be told, and it is up to these businesses to uphold themselves to strong set of ethics, and standards if they want their business to succeed. If they want to play these blacknet type games, so be it, they will continue to be discussed.
You can't even make this kind of stuff up if you tried. Anyone other brick, and mortar business would be out of business if did stuff like this. I think many are done with Pheenix, you don't do that to your paying customers.
Dropcatch's own owners promised their resolution a week ago, for their own deadline of today, so let's see what happens there, but they themselves admitted things were not going as they wanted over there.
Consumer laws, and protections are very stringent in North America, there are clear violations going on, and there is nothing wrong with the consumer speaking up to protect themselves.
You can't put a number on wrong doing, there is a very fine line of error on each side, but clearly we are way over it.
