'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

 

[Peter]

So you are suggesting that these mute spectators (top management apparently) who kept their mouths shut for years and let the fraudulent activities taking place in an organised and well planned way are off the hook. Amazing ideas!!

Ok first things first who the hell do you think Snapnames would of asked to investigate to see if the practice was ongoing? Yes that's right quite possibly the person in charge of development funnily enough that sound like the job of someone with the title of VP of engineering.

Secondly why not aim your negative aggression at someone who has actually done you wrong instead of me or of course Oversee Rob (who seems to be trying to give people the information that he can).

Do yourself a favor and think before you speak.

 

[mwzd]

Actually, having read through most of the posts, I'm inclined to give Oversee the benefit of doubt - looks like they just found out about this and doing the best they can to provide transparency and restitution.

They are agreeing to restore records and give you the difference in price if that person were to not have been a bidder, plus interest. Pretty fair I would think. Smart to offer a settlement instead of being hit by a multitude of cases? Sure. But in their position would any of us do differently?

How many people would be affected if oversee / moniker / snap were to shut down? Too many. And it would benefit no one, since then they might be unable to offer restitution in any case.

 

[globegenius]

Speaking of law suits, how many will loose any money they might possible have coming when they get counter sued for slander of a person or company ? I'm not defending anyone or a company. Just food for thought. Everything posted here is recorded.

 

[TheBaldOne]

1. Nelson has not been arrested and charged - no charges have been laid against him by Oversee/SnapNames.
2. Multiple reports to SnapNames over the past four years by bidders have been constantly denied as without foundation and some of those who have bid have had their accounts closed.
3. SnapNames executives were aware of the claims of schill bidding and publicly denied it.
4. Compensation is only being offered where a winning bidder paid an inflated price due, and only due, to 'Halverez' being the second highest bidder.
5. Offering under 6% interest does not equate to the 200% extra damages that can be awarded in court in the form of punitive damages.
6. Many bidders report that 'possible TM implication' emails were received on names they were bidding on in an attempt, some successfully, to disuade further bidding, the name then was won by 'Halverez'.
7. No calculation of compensation is included in the RUST offer of settlement for loss of earnings from parking of those names 'won' by 'Halverez'. If the names were parked then it is easy to calculate the losses by looking at the amount paid out in parking to Nelson. If they were not parked then a comparrison should be sought to formulate parking losses. Neither is rocket science and can be easily done.
8. No compensation for loss of value is calsulated within the RUST calculations where Nelson later sold the domains to iRiet or others, profit that should have been made by the genuine bidder.
9. No proof is offered that the 'Halverez' account was the only schill bidding account being used in the system.
10. No information of other executives or employees being fired has been released indicating that no real investigation of this matter has been undertaken.
11. Oversee.com has included in its offer of settlement a waiver by which any claim against SnapNames or themselves is waived no matter what further evidence emerges.
12. Oversee.com/SnapNames/RUST have put up 'unknown' spokespeople on the forums to try and spin a story, one of whom - 'Oversee Rob' - has admmitted on this forum he does not know the answers to the questions put to him and yet he expects us to accept him as an honest broker of the truth!
13. When Oversee.com bought SnapName they would have carried out an audit of the system and all the figures, this was clearly inadequate or there was deliberate deception on the part of SnapNames towards Oversee.com.
14. Oversee.com/SnapNames/RUST have stated that the bulk occured in 2005-2007, implying that little if any occurred since. Evidence is clear that even up until September of this year the schill bidding of 'Halverez' was taking place.
15. If a firm of accountants and/or consultants were used in the negotiation process to examine the books and transactions of SnapNames before they were bought by Oversee.com then what action has been taken against these companies/persons?
16. Obviously a massive tax fraud is also implied within this fraud, have Oversee.com informed the IRS of its suspicions?
17. On what terms did Nelson 'leave' SnapNames? Was he ceremonially booted out the door with the contents of his desk thrown at him? Or was it a quiet word and a 'settlement' made for him to keep quiet? (As the police and federal authorities were not brought in I fear it may be the last that turns out to be true.)
18. How can RUST come up with an impartial settlement offer when they were instructed only by one side? What is more they are being paid by that one side and this is meant to be an impartial and fair settlement offering?
19. What experience does RUST have of the domain industry? Their spokepeople for a start are obviously out of their depth, so how can their 'auditing specialists' possibly understand the values and nuences of the domaing industry? Oversee.com may as well have got the local school crossing attendant to have worked out fair settlements.
20. As there now seems to be a paper trail forming that is leading away from SnapNames to other companies what investigation has been launched by Oversee.com to inquire about these possible unethical/non-legal activities?

The above are just a few points that need to be considered.

 

[accent]

I think anyone considering a class action suit had better look into the adsense click-fraud "settlement". The lawyers got many millions of dollars - cash. The ad buyers that were defrauded got coupons that they could use to bid for ads against other sellers who also had coupons. A joke, just like most class actions are. The only winners are the lawyers.

On the other hand there is no reason to hurry to sign on to the offer, unless you think Snap will go belly up. More information is surely coming, and some of the methods used to calculate the offer could be changed. Remember the Mobi / Sedo auction mess, a collective negotiation may be the best answer.

And everybody please understand the difference between proven facts and speculation. There are few facts out yet, and while attempting to extrapolate the rest is OK, remember that there are other possibilities than those that you can think of.

 

[mis_chiff]

1. Nelson has not been arrested and charged - no charges have been laid against him by Oversee/SnapNames.

Does anyone know the "real reason" why this is?

are they still considering charging him? If not - why?

Would have got the police involved right away if it was me!

 

[Jawed]

Does anyone know the "real reason" why this is?

are they still considering charging him? If not - why?

Would have got the police involved right away if it was me!

True but if you are an active player in the game yourself, you will stay million miles away from the police! LOL.

 

[TheBaldOne]

I have just read Rick schwartz's blog entry linked to from maxeaus's post above, I really recommend everyone takes a few minutes to read it.

Maxeaus hope you do not mind but I will post your link to Rick's blog again here:

The Rick Schwartz Domain and Traffic Blog RicksBlog.com...Home of the "Domain King": Domain Industry Derailed by Scandal. An Inexcusable CRIME spills on Everyone.

 

[deb]

Its a good article...its worth keeping an eye on his blog ricksblog.com

 

[TestCase]

That was an EXCELLENT post/summary above, TheBaldOne!

 

[gazzip]

The bidding history is back in our accounts, well it is for me - check yours !




.

 

[TheDomains]

Snapnames auction history restored

Auction history is back in everyone account from August 2004


Breaking News: SnapNames.com Puts Back Auction History To August 2004 | The Domains

 

[TheBaldOne]

Over on DNF a member has (JMJ) has just pointed out another possible bot account (I cannot verify this), the account highlighted is:

siner

also a possibility of 360corp

This is just a notification for others to check their records, please note that no accusations are made here just reporting what another experienced, well regarded and respected domainer suspects.

 

[Oversee Rob]

Folks,

SnapNames technical staff has adjusted the existing system so order and bid histories are available back to August 2004, when auctioning began on the SnapNames system. This is now available by logging in to your SnapNames account.

Rob
Oversee Support

 

[Acroplex]

Good job, Rob. A well-commended move by Oversee, towards transparency in the "halvarez" scandal. Now I can change my sig back to what it was :D

 

[MicroGuy]

Yep. The history is back and the only auction I lost, Halvarez was a bidder.

 

[TheBaldOne]

More suspicious accounts are being put forward on DNF.

Now that hopefully 'ALL' trading is back on record it would seem a wise move for domainers to start comparing notes fully (but privately via email or PM I would suggest) about suspicious possible schilling accounts, then if any more are found they can be published.

Nice of you to finally come back online 'OR', now can you answer the points and questions raised please.

 

[btrader]

Have we confirmed that the following "people" are real?

Vaxis
Smarty
SaggyNickels
SaggyDimes
HipHop
GoldCreek
DomainLink
Bum
BonkersTwo
Bonkers
Blogger
Biz
Bigmooli
BenFranklin
asdf

These are the ones to whom I lost the majority of my domains auction.

I think we need to all "Claim" our "anonymous" titles... and then see who is not real.

Anyone working on this???

by the way kudos to oversee for providing ALL auction info (now appears to be available).

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

Vaxis is Kevin Ham.

This is fairly common knowledge, I believe.


*

 

[JMJ]

Over on DNF a member has (JMJ) has just pointed out another possible bot account (I cannot verify this), the account highlighted is:

siner

also a possibility of 360corp

This is just a notification for others to check their records, please note that no accusations are made here just reporting what another experienced, well regarded and respected domainer suspects.

Actually I came here to post this one, thanks.

This one I'm 99.9% sure about. Follows the pattern of bidding up to near reserve on numerous occasions.

siner

360corp not so sure about.

 

[btrader]

*

Vaxis is Kevin Ham.

This is fairly common knowledge, I believe.


*

Is it? I know that was the rumor, but the problem is we have no idea who the counter-parties were on any transaction. I have to at this point, question EVERY auction that I was in at Snap. The burden of proof is now on them to show that their auctions were legitimate, not on us to prove they are not.

I have printed every auction that I won - which included an additional bidder (almost 200).

I would like to know who were these "bidders", at this point - it is time for us to pull off our masquerade masks and see who is "real".

 

[gazzip]

Have we confirmed that the following "people" are real?

Vaxis
Smarty
SaggyNickels
SaggyDimes
HipHop
GoldCreek
DomainLink
Bum
BonkersTwo
Bonkers
Blogger
Biz
Bigmooli
BenFranklin
asdf
.

Here's my take on them

Vaxis - 100% genuine

Smarty - no idea ?

SaggyNickels - Not sure but I'v seen the alot

SaggyDimes - 100% genuine

HipHop - 100% genuine

GoldCreek - no idea ?

DomainLink - no idea but I have seen them a few times I beleive

Bum - no idea ??

BonkersTwo - genuine

Bonkers - 100% genuine

Blogger - not sure ?

Biz - don't know who they are but they've won some nice ones

Bigmooli - genuine

BenFranklin - 100% genuine

asdf - won secutityescorts.com that I know of

Hope this helps you


.

---------- Post added at 06:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:43 PM ----------

ps - Halvarez goes under [email protected] and domaintools show the contact email on the whois records for 6,591 domains

Last one I saw Halvarez actually win at snapnames was sexmags.com for $1,189.00 on 28-Nov-2005



.

 

[bmugford]

Here is one on my list from earlier this year. It is a joke this was not caught sooner.

FootComfort.com - Auction End Time: 16-Jul-2009 12:40 PDT

halvarez - $801.00

Halvarez and another bidder took it from about $350 up.

Let's take a look at the whois...shocker.

Registrant [1848931]:
Domain Admin [email protected]
Domainqueue
2661 N Pearl St #255
Tacoma
WA
98407
US


Brad

[/COLOR]ps - Halvarez goes under [email protected] and domaintools show the contact email on the whois records for 6,591 domains

Last one I saw Halvarez actually win at snapnames was sexmags.com for $1,189.00 on 28-Nov-2005

 

[Domo Sapiens]

Found a few names not inlcuded on the rebate and worst yet...
Just found a name on which Halvarez beat me...it was just him andme 800 USD..
guess who owns the domain now? Organization: Portfolio Brains, LLC = Dsponsor
The plot thickens...

 

[MicroGuy]

http://www.uploadgator.com/image/direct/mV16Z2ItU_/image1.jpg

The Nelson Brady legend is growing.