I lost $5805usd through PayPal scam by Shane Bellone

[12no3]

Many of my friend suggested me to post this on namepros so others will less likely to be scamed by shane.

So on 2016-09-26 and 2016-09-27 he bought 374 cvcv.in names and 471 cvcv.in names all together 845 .in names together. (these are random cvcv.in)
together he paid me on paypal 5805 usd.

I pushed the domain to him, then everything is fine. the deal was made through whatsapp chat.
deal closed.
then I saw him selling them on .in markect group, flipped some for higher price.

until 27the decenmber when i log in to my paypal to make another purchase, i see paypal refunded 5805 back to him, then i look up my email, i saw paypal disput which i completed missed.
buyer claim reason: NOT AS DESCRIBED! (this is after he sold and transfer out some of those)

I did not know paypal had this 3 months rules where buyer can claim the money back, and becuase i do not log on paypal so often and get xxx amount of emails every days, so i missed the window that i could have argued with paypal. but well lesson learned.

Some infomation of shane so other can avoid being scamed by him
http://this_username_was_banned.com/
http://www.domainsherpa.com/shane-bellone-itmagazine-interview/
http://tldinvestors.com/2016/05/shane-bellone-saying-goodbye-to-domaining.html
http://omarandwill.com/interview-with-the-expert-volume-2-featuring-shane-bellone/
https://www.facebook.com/app_scoped_user_id/10154332611129273
https://www.linkedin.com/in/this_username_was_banned
https://twitter.com/this_username_was_banned


good news is after I provided all the evidence to the registrar, the registrar moved the remaining (ones he did not sold or transfer out) to my account, so at least i got something back.

Becuareful when using paypal,and becuareful when you trade any domain that was processed by shane.

During the process of getting the unsold domains by shane, I had great help from .in whatsapp group, so special thx who provide information and also special thx to shiva , kemji, alexa and indy who tried to contact shane for me, but he went dark, not picking his cell phone, does not respond back on whatsapp nor linkedin.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

lol I wonder if Shane has friends at Paypal? he has friends at Flippa. Friends at NP. why not Paypal. some people are just good at making friends.

 

[creataweb]

 

[kriss05]

I also think OP can't produce the necessary evidence to merit all this nonsense, and he is just trying to save face in his '.in' group..

Wrong.

 

[DomainVP]

Wrong.

Then where is it? I don't see it; let's see a report for the registrar on what happened.

In fact, some people who are doing the research are having problems pinning down the chain of custody of the 42 domain names.

Show that these domains went from OP -> Shane Bellone -> WW/GD/SOLD

I wouldn't have made these kinds of claims without such a report. So for gods sake hold the OP accountable to do the minimum due diligence instead of just telling a story with some PayPal screenshots.

Again, that's what this forum should require from people that make such accusations.


This isn't about if Shane is right or wrong, it's about people basing claims on very little merit but on one sided opinion.

 

[LucidDomains]

My speculation based on this thread and on twitter is...

Shane made a deal to buy ~850 domains.
The transaction went through without a hitch at the end of Sept.
He sold 42 domain successfully between September to December.
End of December, he was unable to access 1 or more domains in his account apparently.
He then decided to back out the deal and dispute the payment with the Seller.
Seller failed to check inbox during Christmas period and Shane won by default.
Seller + several others chase Shane for several weeks without reply.

So we need to know one thing, was the total number of domain names returned as Shane indicated in the transcript above. We need a full list of all domains in the transaction and we need to work out if the 42 domains were not returned. That's it. If all domains were returned as indicated above, case closed. If Shane did not return 42 domains as OP claims, then there is a big issue.

As for backing out of the deal several months later. Using a fake email address "throwaway" and racial and political insults, claiming he didn't have seller's contact information, claiming domains were "stuck" and whatever else I left out.....that's another story.

 

[D Haynes]

Shane refuses to come back to NP for some reason so I guess he doesn't care enough about this. If someone was accusing me of being a scammer I would be here in a heart beat.

Not sure why some folks are talking BS about OP's situation here.... As per the info the only thing wrong he did was not replying to the the dispute which he lost by default.

There are more questions to Shane rather than OP and if Shane is not wrong, he should have come to this thread and shared his view which he is not doing. This is only going to hurt him rather than OP.

Until you hear all the facts no one can be sure, I personally want to hear more from the other side of this..

Looking at the plain facts, the OP has been scammed and lost money. The only mistake OP did was not to check email during the time chargeback was made on Paypal.

If Shane is innocent as his minnows here claim to be why the freaking hell doesn't he respond to calls & WA messages ? Why????? Shane has time to update his twitter feed BUT no freaking time to respond to messages.

Attaching SCREENSHOTS of Shane's twitter feed

Why isn't Shane responding, anyone can answer this question ???????

I hate to post in threads like this but some people on this forum seem to think and act like Namepros is the centre of the domaining world. There are many many successful domainers who have nothing to do with this forum or the people that use it. You have to consider the possibility that the reason he does not reply here is because he doesn't give two sh it's about what anyone here thinks and thinks he doesn't need this forum or anyone in it to be successful. I enjoy reading the threads here but sometimes I can only cringe at how a lot of users on here conduct themselves.

 

[kriss05]

Then where is it? I don't see it; let's see a report for the registrar on what happened.

In fact, some people who are doing the research are having problems pinning down the chain of custody of the 42 domain names.

Show that these domains went from OP -> Shane Bellone -> WW/GD/SOLD

I wouldn't have made these kinds of claims without such a report. So for gods sake hold the OP accountable to do the minimum due diligence instead of just telling a story with some PayPal screenshots.

Again, that's what this forum should require from people that make such accusations.


This isn't about if Shane is right or wrong, it's about people basing claims on very little merit but on one sided opinion.

My point is about .in group, he doesn't need to save anything, we are aware of this mess.

 

[Optimal Names]

What? Where? Is this for India?

That is paypal anywhere as far as I understand.

 

[wwwweb]

How can a domain be defective?

 

[LucidDomains]

He was probably speaking in a way to try and validate his claim under PayPal's Buyer Protection..

"My product received was defective."

..if I had to hazard a guess.

It's probably not his first rodeo.

 

[Aaron.A]

He bought a bulk amount of domains to resell then found out he couldn't transfer them out, rendering them useless (defective)

Obviously the seller new Shane's intention was to sell them on, so if he knew they couldn't be transferred out, the seller is in the wrong.

 

[domainpundit]

Official statement from .IN WhatsApp MOD GROUP ".in group moderators tried to solve the issue smoothly since 28-Dec-2016, but buyer Shane Bellone has not responded yet..."

We are just presenting the factual details we have , we have not taken any sides here .. let the community decide.

 

[RicoShay]

@domainpundit thanks for posting the timelines and facts from .in WhatsApp group.

I've known and chatted to Shane many times over WhatsApp and sometimes here on NP too. I was very surprised to hear the accusations against him when it first surfaced. Like others in the group, I asked the OP to have patience and wait a few days for Shane to respond.

I also know the OP from the domaining scene and know him to be a reputable domainer. Whether you believe he is a millionaire or not is irrelevant. As someone has mentioned, not everyone who domains is a member here or shouts out about their dealings. But again, all that is irrelevant.

The fact is, the two of them made a deal for 900 domains. Shane was the buyer and as outlined in the attached PDF (post above), he was very happy with the deal and shared it with a group of over 200 people. He contacted several people over the next few weeks trying to sell some of the domains for a profit. Myself included. I have messages here on NP as well on WhatsApp along with the PDF or TXT file he sent across.

This file also contains the 42 domains which he later sold to other members (who I also know and if they wish they can come forward and verify this - although not really necessary). So this proves that he bought these domains as part of that deal and also shows that they were sold on.

I am also aware that about two months after buying the domains, Shane was having issues with transferring domains out of West.xyz - but it's not impossible... it's just a pain since the site has very poor flows, bad English and poor user experience. I can relate to this since I've also used the registrar. However, the support staff were extremely helpful and it took 2-3 days to begin a transfer-out process for my .in domains from there.

That said, what I find odd is that despite doing the deal via WhatsApp and being very active there, Shane didn't manage to raise the issue with the seller directly. Furthermore, we have several Chinese-speaking investors in the group as well as people who have used West.xyz in general and Shane could've asked openly for help.

Another point is that he bought the domains at that registrar and there is nothing to say that it's the sellers responsibility to inform anyone of the simplicity or complexity of transferring domains out. The transfer-out process being complex does not render the domains useless. He could use them (change setup, nameservers etc.), he could sell them and push them at that registrar etc. So using that excuse in the PayPal claim indicates negative intentions imo.

My assumptions (not facts) are that he bought the names to do a quick-flip. He started sharing the names out trying to sell the them within a day or two of buying them. His pricing was quite high to start with but eventually started reducing to try and get a sale. He sold only a few (42) and realised it'll take too long to shift the rest and renewals were fast approaching. Maybe he panicked, maybe he needed funds quickly... whatever the reason, he claimed a refund (wrongly imo based on the facts).

He was active several times a day, having general conversations in the WhatsApp group about all sorts of things - then just as this happens to goes completely silent. If he is innocent then he could've stuck around and discussed this or tried to resolve it. To me it appears as though he had no itentions of doing that so went off-the-radar.

Now, trying not to judge here - but it's hard not to. For the 200+ people involved in these groups, it likely points to the same thing for us after witness these events. It's really sad, because I thought Shane is one of the good guys (despite his abruptness sometimes). Especially after the Adam Dicker thing he exposed... it seems absolutely crazy that he would be the one involved in something like this.

 

[N-A]

You know how portfolio buys go, 90 percent crap, 10 percent cream of the crop.

GoDaddy made a horrible decision buying MostWantedDomains and Marchex then.

 

[mad409]

I hate to post in threads like this but some people on this forum seem to think and act like Namepros is the centre of the domaining world. There are many many successful domainers who have nothing to do with this forum or the people that use it. You have to consider the possibility that the reason he does not reply here is because he doesn't give two sh it's about what anyone here thinks and thinks he doesn't need this forum or anyone in it to be successful. I enjoy reading the threads here but sometimes I can only cringe at how a lot of users on here conduct themselves.

Not sure why you're quoting me, I've been very neutral and haven't sided with any one..

 

[aceeca]

@domainpundit thanks for posting the timelines and facts from .in WhatsApp group.

I've known and chatted to Shane many times over WhatsApp and sometimes here on NP too. I was very surprised to hear the accusations against him when it first surfaced. Like others in the group, I asked the OP to have patience and wait a few days for Shane to respond.

I also know the OP from the domaining scene and know him to be a reputable domainer. Whether you believe he is a millionaire or not is irrelevant. As someone has mentioned, not everyone who domains is a member here or shouts out about their dealings. But again, all that is irrelevant.

The fact is, the two of them made a deal for 900 domains. Shane was the buyer and as outlined in the attached PDF (post above), he was very happy with the deal and shared it with a group of over 200 people. He contacted several people over the next few weeks trying to sell some of the domains for a profit. Myself included. I have messages here on NP as well on WhatsApp along with the PDF or TXT file he sent across.

This file also contains the 42 domains which he later sold to other members (who I also know and if they wish they can come forward and verify this - although not really necessary). So this proves that he bought these domains as part of that deal and also shows that they were sold on.

I am also aware that about two months after buying the domains, Shane was having issues with transferring domains out of West.xyz - but it's not impossible... it's just a pain since the site has very poor flows, bad English and poor user experience. I can relate to this since I've also used the registrar. However, the support staff were extremely helpful and it took 2-3 days to begin a transfer-out process for my .in domains from there.

That said, what I find odd is that despite doing the deal via WhatsApp and being very active there, Shane didn't manage to raise the issue with the seller directly. Furthermore, we have several Chinese-speaking investors in the group as well as people who have used West.xyz in general and Shane could've asked openly for help.

Another point is that he bought the domains at that registrar and there is nothing to say that it's the sellers responsibility to inform anyone of the simplicity or complexity of transferring domains out. The transfer-out process being complex does not render the domains useless. He could use them (change setup, nameservers etc.), he could sell them and push them at that registrar etc. So using that excuse in the PayPal claim indicates negative intentions imo.

My assumptions (not facts) are that he bought the names to do a quick-flip. He started sharing the names out trying to sell the them within a day or two of buying them. His pricing was quite high to start with but eventually started reducing to try and get a sale. He sold only a few (42) and realised it'll take too long to shift the rest and renewals were fast approaching. Maybe he panicked, maybe he needed funds quickly... whatever the reason, he claimed a refund (wrongly imo based on the facts).

He was active several times a day, having general conversations in the WhatsApp group about all sorts of things - then just as this happens to goes completely silent. If he is innocent then he could've stuck around and discussed this or tried to resolve it. To me it appears as though he had no itentions of doing that so went off-the-radar.

Now, trying not to judge here - but it's hard not to. For the 200+ people involved in these groups, it likely points to the same thing for us after witness these events. It's really sad, because I thought Shane is one of the good guys (despite his abruptness sometimes). Especially after the Adam Dicker thing he exposed... it seems absolutely crazy that he would be the one involved in something like this.

This pretty much sums up my sentiments about the issue too. If there was an issue about names NOT being able to be transferred out, the buyer had several ways to remedy the issues, using chargeback on PayPal should have been the last resort, not the first.

 

[domainpundit]

SHANE YOU ARE AT FAULT. Be a good man and apologise..we all do mistakes, no one is perfect.

I have an extra piece of evidence to prove you are at fault , its the PDF document you have submitted to me for requesting my review on your purchase and the 42 names in question by the seller are clearly in your PDF list and the fact is they are transferred out from west.xyz. Its proven those names are not defective.

I am really shocked to realise this and still cant digest you are involved in this one. I still hope you made a genuine mistake (however you are not accepting your mistake ) come forward and apologise. As said earlier no one is perfect. Be a good man.

 

[slader23]

SHANE YOU ARE AT FAULT. Be a good man and apologise..we all do mistakes, no one is perfect.

I have an extra piece of evidence to prove you are at fault , its the PDF document you have submitted to me for requesting my review on your purchase and the 42 names in question by the seller are clearly in your PDF list and the fact is they are transferred out from west.xyz. Its proven those names are not defective.

I am really shocked to realise this and still cant digest you are involved in this one. I still hope you made a genuine mistake (however you are not accepting your mistake ) come forward and apologise. As said earlier no one is perfect. Be a good man.

Case Closed.

 

[Duomain]

@RicoShay My assumptions (not facts) are that he bought the names to do a quick-flip. He started sharing the names out trying to sell the them within a day or two of buying them. His pricing was quite high to start with but eventually started reducing to try and get a sale. He sold only a few (42) and realised it'll take too long to shift the rest and renewals were fast approaching. Maybe he panicked, maybe he needed funds quickly... whatever the reason, he claimed a refund (wrongly imo based on the facts).

IMHO, very close to the truth!

 

[gilescoley]

I hate to post in threads like this but some people on this forum seem to think and act like Namepros is the centre of the domaining world. There are many many successful domainers who have nothing to do with this forum or the people that use it. You have to consider the possibility that the reason he does not reply here is because he doesn't give two sh it's about what anyone here thinks and thinks he doesn't need this forum or anyone in it to be successful. I enjoy reading the threads here but sometimes I can only cringe at how a lot of users on here conduct themselves.

Well said, I still find it sad that this thread has even got to 12 pages without knowing the facts and only hearing 1 side of the story. People are turning on each other without knowing for certain who is in the wrong and without having all the facts. People are just siding with whoever they think is more likely to be at fault. I notice a lot of people are being influenced by old threads involving either party, twitter feeds, .in groups, etc

I am not on Shane's side here, I don't know him, don't communicate with him and have never had any dealings with him..