Has anyone investigated Dicker/DNF College and the GoDaddy sale?

[sgtppr]

I'm sure everyone knows about the DNF College scam. I was one of the initial group who joined. The very first pitch he had was an elaborate scheme for us all to reg hundreds of domains on GoDaddy. We were to sell them to local businesses. (I did, didn't sell a single domain using his system).

So here's the thing:

At the same time, GoDaddy was being sold to a private equity company. Dicker was an executive at GoDaddy and probably had stock -- certainly was close to those with huge amounts of stock. And the deal with the private equity company likely had performance incentives. Where they would get a higher buyout price, if they performed better.

My theory:

That whole thing was a scam to get a bunch of new registrations on GoDaddy and increase the buyout price. If so -- that's something that could land him in prison. And should probably be investigated...

 

[deez007]

Interesting angle...

I don't know much about DNF College or the GD sale...but In this industry anything is possible... smoke and mirrors everywhere.

 

[sgtppr]

I don't know much about DNF College.

Basically he made a post offering to accept the most promising students willing to work the hardest into a special program where he would teach us how to make all sorts of money in the domain industry.

What he actually did was accept anyone who applied and create a private forum on DNF where he first told us to buy hundreds of GoDaddy names like NewOrleansPlumber for every city and company type in our area, and try to sell those domains to local businesses.

Once it was clear that was a stupid idea and nobody was making money, he started pushing all sorts of other shit on us. Every new idea and pitch was using his affiliate links or one of his companies and he was just milking us for as much money as he could get.

That's not illegal on it's face, just really shady for a guy running a supposedly trusted forum to be abusing his users like that -- but if he used us to pump up the price of the GoDaddy sale, that would definitely be illegal.

 

[Kate]

How many domains are under their management ? 15 millions ? I doubt this was part of the plan - a few thousands would not make a difference really.

 

[dordomai]

the little 0.000000x% that he would gain from stock price increase vs. the gains selling his products to people.

makes no sense really.

 

[biggie]

this biz is wide open for opportunist

they see the hope in the wide-open eyes and minds of many.

and some of them, are ready to take advantage of your ignorance and gullibility.

they hope you don't ask questions or look for contradictions,

that you trust and believe, just because, without question.


imo...

 

[frank-germany]

there is a new conspiracy every day

I was buying GEOcity.com
too

yes even based on AD idea

but I see no reason to complain
if I can't sell them
( which I can't )

it's my fault
nobody elses


------------
talking about GeoCity:


PreSelecting.com for Sale
2k BIN, but will consider slightly lower offers
The site - A fully operating site with the capability
of accepting domain submissions that the site operator
can accept or reject with two clicks.

A membership of about 170 domain investors
with whom you can communicate.

 

[DaveX]

@wilfra

More likely he had you use his GD affiliate link.

 

[ksusha64]

It does not seem like a scam. I sold hundreds of hand reg names to local businesses. You guys must of registered some really bad ones or failed to do proper outbound. I am not a fan of Dicker and we know some bad stories, but this seems like normal business transaction.

 

[Tia Wood]

I think doing so through the domain industry would have been a waste of time for Dicker as this industry is very small. I think he started out wanting to do something but knowing the way Dicker works, it wasn't ironed out and he probably went with this by the seat of his pants and eventually used the opportunity for himself. Not saying I don't believe shady stuff was going on but I just don't believe it was a huge scam to benefit him at GoDaddy. Not enough numbers for that.

As far as investigations and as far as what I am aware of via public knowledge, nobody has actually went after him and you can't have an investigation without someone filing a claim.

 

[mr-x]

Dicker wasn't forcing you to use godaddy.com to register domains.

 

[MapleDots]

It's an interesting hypothesis but we have to be careful with jumping to conclusions.

Ok to discuss and ask questions (probably smart) but remember that we are not judge nor executioner so until some evidence presents itself we must assume he is innocent.

 

[shorterwinters]

How many domains are under their management ? 15 millions ? I doubt this was part of the plan - a few thousands would not make a difference really.

yes, what Kate said.
Ain't no way there could have been enough to make that much of a difference.

 

[sgtppr]

but I see no reason to complain
if I can't sell them
( which I can't )

it's my fault
nobody elses

I think you stopped reading very early in my post because the purpose was not to complain about that.

 

[urlurl]

i remember the introduction of DNF College - it had the feel of a 'time share' pitch - it smelled funny and it turns out i was right.

 

[sgtppr]

I didn't get that feeling until his 2nd or 3rd pitch. I bought the initial pitch hook, line and sinker. I felt like he had accepted me into Harvard or something. I was stoked.

I guess a lot depends on how you felt about him beforehand. I had looked up to him and respected him for years. Had no idea he was in any way shady or lacked integrity.

 

[shorterwinters]

How many domains are under their management ? 15 millions ? I doubt this was part of the plan - a few thousands would not make a difference really.

yes, what Kate said.
Ain't no way there could have been enough to make that much of a difference.

I was thinking exactly what you were as well. I was even going to comment but you already had.

I decided to look up dnfcollege.
http://www.DNF college/about-us/
If he had 3,000 people going for it and the average spending was just $3,000 per student that's 9 million buckaroos. Seems like enough dough to turn some heads but I haven't a clue.
Don't know anything about him other than seen his name here or there last day or so and what's on his site. Don't know anything about the sale either.

Saw something with a guy named Fink in it today as well. Know absolutely nothing other than saw the name flash on the screen but wasn't listening. Might have been a namescon video.
Dicker and Fink.
(probably available...hahaha)
Just a couple of the names I remember poking around domaining stuff the last couple days.
Any wonder why some people scratch their head when you try and tell them about this gig?

Interesting angle...
I don't know much about DNF College or the GD sale...but In this industry anything is possible... smoke and mirrors everywhere.

that kind of sums it up though I think.

edit.looks like the link to the college is dead in this post for some reason. dnfcollege, then go to the about us page. says he has 3,000 enrolled already (at whatever date it was running) and "must be willing to buy between 300-1,000 domains....." 300 names is $2400.

 

[carob]

Basically he made a post offering to accept the most promising students willing to work the hardest into a special program where he would teach us how to make all sorts of money in the domain industry.

Did he try to sell development services?

If you read the other Dicker thread (long but has some summaries) he was selling stock Wordpress installs for thousands to newbies, and then in many cases not even delivering the two or three hours work needed, just ignoring the buyer. Supposedly 100k+ went into that black hole. https://www.namepros.com/threads/is-adam-dicker-a-criminal-you-decide.883579/

What commission per name could he expect for Godaddy affiliate sales?

 

[sgtppr]

I didn't see him selling development services but I tuned out fairly early on, once I realized what he was doing. That might have come later.

As for affiliate commissions, it wouldn't have to be much. He was having each of us reg 500+ domains. So if it's even $1 each, that's $500+ per person.

 

[carob]

I didn't see him selling development services but I tuned out fairly early on, once I realized what he was doing. That might have come later.

OK thanks for the info. It is on the DNFcollege site http://www.dnfcollege.com/domain-development/ listing sites for sale. The images are missing now, many were templates he probably did not have rights to use. He certainly was caught using copyright content he did not have rights to - one Paypal refund was made on that basis and it is possible he has been banned from using Paypal and if not he should be.