'Halvarez' at Snapnames auctions uncovered

[prague7]

Ooer - this one's going to run for a while... :O

From DomainNameNews:
SnapNames User Name “Halvarez” Was Nelson Brady, VP of Engineering Bidding on Domain Names [Updated]

[Updated] According to a statement from Oversee.net’s SnapNames, an employee was found to have bid in 5% of their auctions since 2005 and in some cases arranged for a partial refund of the sales price after winning an auction. DNN also confirmed the bidder as Nelson Brady, the VP of Engineering. He was bidding under the username “halvarez”.

From Snapnames:
SnapNames User Name “Halvarez” Was Employee Bidding on Domain Names

To avoid any question about whether the company benefited from this conduct, SnapNames will offer a rebate to impacted customers, including 5.22% interest (the highest applicable federal rate during the affected time period), of the difference between the prices they paid in winning auctions, and the prices they would have paid had the employee not bid in the auctions. Impacted customers will be notified by SnapNames or its representative with instructions for the offer of a rebate.

SnapNames also has taken further action to ensure its policies regarding auctions are followed, and the company remains committed to taking whatever action is necessary to protect the integrity of its auction platform.

SnapNames deeply regrets this situation and is committed to addressing its customers’ needs quickly and fairly.

There's also a FAQ page at Snapnames

 

[toptek]

I am a 100% sure that:

1) HAlvarez was not the only bidder name involved in bid shilling (there was also SnapWater for instance). It's that Rust Consulting devised a strategy to cut losses by acknowledging HAlvarez as the only shill bidder and then apply a whimsical rule where if there was another bidder topping HAlvarez (i.e. SnapNames and others) then they don't pay for HAlvarez-induced bid inflation. This is a manifestly untenable criteria for reparation.

2) There is no way Snapnames did not know about this, it's ridiculous that they want us to believe they didn't know. Clearly it was a company whose business model relied on systematic shill bidding and payed employees to do it.

 

[DN BROKER]

I am a 100% sure that:

1) HAlvarez was not the only bidder name involved in bid shilling (there was also SnapWater for instance). It's that Rust Consulting devised a strategy to cut losses by acknowledging HAlvarez as the only shill bidder and then apply a whimsical rule where if there was another bidder topping HAlvarez (i.e. SnapNames and others) then they don't pay for HAlvarez-induced bid inflation. This is a manifestly untenable criteria for reparation.

2) There is no way Snapnames did not know about this, it's ridiculous that they want us to believe they didn't know. Clearly it was a company whose business model relied on systematic shill bidding and payed employees to do it.

Well said. :bingo:

 

[DomainTalker]

It's that Rust Consulting devised a strategy to cut losses by acknowledging HAlvarez as the only shill bidder and...

...then apply a whimsical rule where if there was another bidder topping HAlvarez (i.e. SnapNames and others) then they don't pay for HAlvarez-induced bid inflation. This is a manifestly untenable criteria for reparation.

This is the key point about the Snapnames offers of rebates...


Snapnames has pocketed millions of dollars of bidder's money, on the inflated end-price of auctions that Halvrez participtated in - but, when he did not come in as second highest bidder........Winning bidders simply paid far too much, in those auctions, too, because Halvarez bids, earlier in those auctions, pushed the price up.


...Yet Snapnames offers NO reparation to winning bidders of those auctions.


To restore full credibility, Snapnames need to improve their offer - to be fair....Rather than operate a damage-control exercise designed to limit their repayments to the minimum they MIGHT get away with.

.

 

[dnpimping.com]

Did someone say Halvarez?

 

[liveitup]

Did anyone get their rebate check yet?

 

[deb]

im waiting until after DomainFest.

Lawyer says no rush...

 

[gazzip]

Anyone from Snapnames Support here ?

More schill bidding at snapnames ????

I am currently in a closed 3 day bid for a domain that was sold at snapnames last year, the person that won the domain last year at snap is the only other person who is in the auction with me and he's bidding against me at this time. (same username at snap)

As far as I can tell the domain was'nt a deleting one as it still shows the original reg date from a few years ago and is registered until 2010 so (to me) it does'nt look like he dropped it by mistake and is wanting to buy it back which would/could be a genuine reason for being there.

(the whois still shows his info)

So,my conclusion at this time (which may be right or wrong ?) is that he still owns the domain and is shill bidding against me at snapnames.

I'v tried emailing snapnames support but they still have'nt replied, no answer so far by telephone either.

Anyone from snapnames still monitoring this thread cause I have some questions I would like answered before this auction ends, please PM me or leave an email address I can contact you on asap

I may be wrong about this but considering the other crap that has gone on - I'm wary !


ps - I am not saying that snapnames is involved in this particular one.

--------------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE

Oversee have told me that the name had expired and was passed to them from Dotster (even though the whois details still show the previous owners details today), they said they have checked and he's a genuine bidder so I can only assume he just forgot to renew it and he's wanting to buy it back again at snapnames, expensive mistake !



.

 

[aceeca]

Did anyone get their rebate check yet?

halvarez, is that you?

 

[ecigs.net]

I suspect that there were (and maybe still are) other shill accounts at Snapnames; however, I do believe it becomes a bit tricky when you have just suspicions.

If law enforce became involved and took all of snap's auction records, it would be relatively easy to find out how many shill bidders snapname used.

 

[Ronald Regging]

If law enforce became involved and took all of snap's auction records, it would be relatively easy to find out how many shill bidders snapname used.

Halvarez is in the back room shredding documents!_\|/_

 

[garptrader]

After the terms were modified I decided to take the payout which for me was under $50. Check received...

 

[ecigs.net]

How did you get your payout? They owe me money too and I haven't heard a thing from them about payouts.

 

[deb]

Looks like this has all blown over...

Did Nelson Brady just get away with this scam? No Criminal Action etc

 

[Ronald Regging]

Yeah, seems like people got bored of talking about it. Or they all got nice Payoffs with NDAs

 

[DN BROKER]

Looks like this has all blown over...

Did Nelson Brady just get away with this scam? No Criminal Action etc

I'll call the RCMP on Monday and see if they have any updates. FBI has also been informed. These types of criminal acts that involve millions take time to build a case.

 

[cache]

seriously, have people received checks? I have not heard from them.

 

[Embrand]

seriously, have people received checks? I have not heard from them.

I received mine, but it's worthless... Since the check is not from a large international bank, the fee to cash it in in my country is greater than the amount (about $50)!

Well, will keep it as a souvenir :lol:

 

[gazzip]

Looks like this has all blown over...

Did Nelson Brady just get away with this scam? No Criminal Action etc

"If" he did get away with a scam of this magnitude then there has to be something seriously fishy going on.....and we deserve to know



.

 

[DN BROKER]

I just got off the phone with Reporting Economic Crime Online - to check on the status of my complaint which was forwarded to RCMP and FBI.

They said they will call me. As soon as I have an update, I will post here.

All members should be filing complaints for criminal charges.

For Canadians:

RECOL at: Reporting Economic Crime Online

For Americans:

Internet Crime Complaint Center(United States)

International Complaints should also be submitted to:

Internet Crime Complaint Center(United States) and your Federal Police

 

[exsedo]

So what happened to Poorman ?

 

[deb]

Is anyone going to Domainfest? It will be interesting to hear what the fallout from all this has been...

 

[exsedo]

I just read the article about the top 16 domainer's thoughts on 2009 and predictions for 2010 on DN journal. Snap are reporting no loss in trade whatsoever. (The only change is that Halvarez username has been banned and 25 new usernames have been created)

The bit in brackets is ficticious. :hehe:

 

[deb]

Has Oversee SUED Nelson Brady?

Where is Nelson Brady?

Looks like everything has been sorted out...no further scandals. Time to settle i guess....

 

[DN BROKER]

Has Oversee SUED Nelson Brady?

Where is Nelson Brady?

Looks like everything has been sorted out...no further scandals. Time to settle i guess....

Im not dropping this, im going to contact the RCMP and FBI again and get an update.... they need to be taken down.

 

[cache]

what is the conclusion on this story? Are we going to receive any money?