Is Adam Dicker a criminal? You decide.

[S-B]

This story starts with DNF; a barren wasteland that once was a leading forum within the domain industry. While the forum itself played a huge role in propagating the myth that is Adam Dicker, the story really begins with DNF College in the summer of 2011.

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Updates / Reports
These are in no particular order.

• Report by headsupp (Resolved)
  • Relevant Videos
  • Reply to Adam
  • Update: Resolved
  
  
• Report by LannyB (Unresolved)
  • Response
    • Follow-up Questions
  
  
• Report by domainesque (Unresolved)
  • Update: Unresolved
  • Report Details
  • Update: Waiting on Refund
  
  
• Report of Shane Cultra's friends (Unresolved)
  • Update: Unpaid
  
  
• Report by Jeff Markus (Dissatisfied)
  
  
• Report by simmplex (Resolved)
  • Refunded
  
  
• Report by Blenja_Man (Pending)
  • Voucher
  • Update: Work in Progress
  
  
• Report by RandysDomains (Resolved)
  • Resolved
  
  
• Report by swamismith (Unresolved)
  
  
• Report by Charlie (Unresolved)
  • Cover-up
  • Update: Unresolved
  
  
• Report by Jaqpot (Unresolved)
  
  
• Report by anon22339 (Unresolved)
  • Details
  
  
• Report by Joseph Peterson (Resolved)
  • Update: Unpaid after 8 days
  • Update: Paid
  
  
• Report by Frank Schilling (Resolved)
  • Update: Paid
  
  
• Report by Lonewolf5503 (Paypal Dispute)
  • Update: Website not delivered and no longer accessible
  • Update: Lonewolf5503 wins PayPal dispute
  
  
• Report by GermanRaven (Unresolved)
  • Update: Full story
  
  
• Report by ClaudeDauman (Unresolved)
  
  
• Report by bobsranch (Unresolved)
  • Details
  • Update: Legal Letter Received
  
  
• Report by Newby888 (Unresolved)
  
  
• Report by dougasd (Unresolved)

From what I understand, Adam still owes north of $33,000 to previous customers and business partners. As I receive more information, I will update this figure.

 

[bobsranch]

I find the above a bit confusing.

Are you saying that in order to receive your refund you have to agree to something which if you subsequently don't comply with leaves you open to liability?

So for example, he will refund you if you promise not to post a single other post on this thread or on blog comments, but if you do then post on the topic you have breached the agreement and can be sued.

Or are you saying that you need to commit to the removal of some posts in order to receive a refund?

The former is risky, because you'd only be a rush of blood to the head or a few beers away from breaching the agreement.

The latter may not even be technical possible, removal of posts would be subject to third party agreement.

There's too many loose ends for me to commit. I won't open myself up to retribution for something I have no control of. Others in my situation should heed these caveats.

 

[DU]

There's too many loose ends for me to commit. I won't open myself up to retribution for something I have no control of. Others in my situation should heed these caveats.

You can't amend a contract to add provisions after the fact. No one can force you to remove a Yelp / ebay / Amazon comment even if you've received a refund. You could amend your comment of your own volition or Adam could state that he resolved the issue (countering the comment) but it's not ever going to be a condition that someone can add .... to what should be an enforceable contract somewhere?

In most states, refund / cancellation policies have to be stated explicitly and are not be implied (have a look - most sites have them clearly outlined).

What most people seem to want is not actually a refund but actually to be compensated for a breach of contract (assuming there is one) and that's a different kettle of fish.

(imho and IANAL)

 

[Ms Domainer]

Never mind this; I didn't realize that I was at the beginning of the thread.

 

[franka46]

:D

I have not read all the posts and maybe missed this but what about the 2 "Dutchies" who worked with Adam?
Have they made a comment or are they are keeping quiet.
Rick Wedzinga
and
Marc van Waasbergen

 

[carob]

I have not read all the posts and maybe missed this but what about the 2 "Dutchies" who worked with Adam?
Have they made a comment or are they are keeping quiet.
Rick Wedzinga
and
Marc van Waasbergen

Good question. They haven't posted in this thread as far as I know, unless it was under another name. But both were VPs or some kind of partners in the webcorp.ca project - it has shut its website since this thread started but maybe it is in stealth mode. What was Webcorp set up to do and did people invest money in it? Did it send customers to nichewebsites.com and dcg.com to buy expensive Wordpress installs?

Rick Wedzinga says he wants to go live in the Carribean:
http://www.rickwedzinga.com/my-mission/

I live in the Netherlands, in the city of Gouda. The plan is to be able to move to one of the Caribbean Islands to enjoy the nice weather and even nicer people.
2015 is the year of the big changes.

According to the Webcorp.ca cached webpage Marc van Waasbergen is a VP there - notice how it says Webcorp LLC but checking company registrations in Canada has found no such company:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:QPOAclr6cWEJ:webcorp.ca/teamx/+&cd=8&hl=en

Marc van Waasbergen
Webcorp LLC.
Vice President
Rotterdam Area, Netherlands

At the beginning of Webcorp, Marc van Waasbergen (May 1970) had already build up a long and impressive international career. He worked for many years at ASM international as a Technical Project Manager and later as Product Manager. At ASM International, he was responsible for the development of a production facility in China and in Singapore. During those years he worked closely with partners in the USA, Singapore and China.
After this international career, he worked for a few years as a product manager with Imtech; however working internationally had never left his heart. This was the reason that he started in 2011 as a domain broker with his own company; Domain Broker International. During this time he came into contact with Adam Dicker. Meanwhile he also began his national company Effipreneur, consulting and training Dutch professionals in the finesse of Online Marketing and Social Media.
Being a strong analytical manager, with a high dedication to make projects work, Marc was involved in the startup of Webcorp. No matter how many hours are needed or how much data needs to be processed, Marc makes sure that the strategic roadmap is corresponding with the strategic data and absorbed with the team members. No matter what time zone the involved team members are working in, Marc is available to manage and guide them towards the forecasted results.

I'm not sure who would want to be publicly linked to Dicker now with all the allegations of scams, and the whole mugshots.com extortion racket that was linked to criminal elements and actual crime. But Dicker still has an empty page on DomainSherpa that turns up in Google.

Are these people going to publicly cut their ties to Adam Dicker?

 

[bobsranch]

Good question. They haven't posted in this thread as far as I know, unless it was under another name. But both were VPs or some kind of partners in the webcorp.ca project - it has shut its website since this thread started but maybe it is in stealth mode. What was Webcorp set up to do and did people invest money in it? Did it send customers to nichewebsites.com and dcg.com to buy expensive Wordpress installs?

Rick Wedzinga says he wants to go live in the Carribean:
http://www.rickwedzinga.com/my-mission/


According to the Webcorp.ca cached webpage Marc van Waasbergen is a VP there - notice how it says Webcorp LLC but checking company registrations in Canada has found no such company:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:QPOAclr6cWEJ:webcorp.ca/teamx/+&cd=8&hl=en


I'm not sure who would want to be publicly linked to Dicker now with all the allegations of scams, and the whole mugshots.com extortion racket that was linked to criminal elements and actual crime. But Dicker still has an empty page on DomainSherpa that turns up in Google.

Are these people going to publicly cut their ties to Adam Dicker?

All the people working on my websites had email address's like [email protected]
I still have all correspondence.

 

[carob]

I still have all correspondence.

Well hang onto it as there seems to be a game of hide-and-seek going on.

First nichewebsites.com site disappeared, then it put its products on dcg.com, but it is now back in business, or trying to be, which could be expensive.

https://nichewebsites.com/product/niche-website/

Niche Website

$499.00

This package includes:

Complete custom design and development of the website.

5 pages of content

Google Adsense

Google Analytics

See below for a complete description of the add-ons available

Well for starters that very likely violates the Adsense TOS, leading to instant Adsense ban and loss of any unpaid Adsense earnings:
https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/48182?hl=en

AdSense publishers may not display Google ads on web pages with content protected by copyright law unless they have the necessary legal rights to display that content.

Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programmes with little or no original content.

Nichewebsites.com's own TOS do not mention refunds or deposits or deadlines afaik https://nichewebsites.com/terms-of-service/

But if you want to risk enhancing your purchase, you can add Diamond SEO for £1499 and 100 pages of "content" for $1499. What if you add all the available extras? The price of your nichewebstes.com site goes from $499.00 to $5,841.00

 

[Ms Domainer]

I have something to add to this thread that I believe is important.

In 2012, when I was searching LLLL .com on Go Daddy auctions, filtering search results for only closeout and expiring domains, I noticed an anomaly on the search results:

Several LLLL .com's being offered as "expired" auctions with a starting price of $28.

I thought this was odd, given that these listings did not follow the typical cycle of $12 (expiring), 11, 10, 9, 8, and 5 (closeouts), so I did a Whois check on these domains:

All were owned by Adam Dicker. Some of these domains were close to expiration, some were actually expired, and some weren't even registered at Go Daddy (???).

I thought this must be a glitch, so I emailed support about it. After all, when one filters for certain parameters, one wants it to work properly and not get a bunch of unwanted results.

I received some wishy-washy answer about how these were expired domains (some were and some weren't).

So then I questioned why someone, another member, was enjoying this perk. I never did get a good answer.

At the time, I MAY have posted here about this, but I don't remember. I'll do a search and let you know.

This "anomaly" suggests two possibilities:

1. AD, although no longer a Go Daddy employee, still had some knowledge of and/or access to Go Daddy systems.

2. A friend at Go Daddy (insider) was manipulating the search results in his favor.​

I'm revealing this because it certainly adds to the growing evidence against AD.

 

[discobull]

I have something to add to this thread that I believe is important.

In 2012, when I was searching LLLL .com on Go Daddy auctions, filtering search results for only closeout and expiring domains, I noticed an anomaly on the search results:

Several LLLL .com's being offered as "expired" auctions with a starting price of $28.

I thought this was odd, given that these listings did not follow the typical cycle of $12 (expiring), 11, 10, 9, 8, and 5 (closeouts), so I did a Whois check on these domains:

All were owned by Adam Dicker. Some of these domains were close to expiration, some were actually expired, and some weren't even registered at Go Daddy (???).

I thought this must be a glitch, so I emailed support about it. After all, when one filters for certain parameters, one wants it to work properly and not get a bunch of unwanted results.

I received some wishy-washy answer about how these were expired domains (some were and some weren't).

So then I questioned why someone, another member, was enjoying this perk. I never did get a good answer.

At the time, I MAY have posted here about this, but I don't remember. I'll do a search and let you know.

This "anomaly" suggests two possibilities:

1. AD, although no longer a Go Daddy employee, still had some knowledge of and/or access to Go Daddy systems.

2. A friend at Go Daddy (insider) was manipulating the search results in his favor.​

I'm revealing this because it certainly adds to the growing evidence against AD.

There was a point when GD started listing expiring domains from other registrars for auction at the $28 start price. Right this minute, I can't remember which registrars were involved ( moniker? ), but I don't think this was a special privilege being granted to AD. I'd guess that he probably wasn't making any money on it at all.

 

[main]

There was a point when GD started listing expiring domains from other registrars for auction at the $28 start price. Right this minute, I can't remember which registrars were involved ( moniker? ), but I don't think this was a special privilege being granted to AD. I'd guess that he probably wasn't making any money on it at all.

Right, I think it was Moniker. It was related to Snapnames in some way.

 

[Ms Domainer]

I have something to add to this thread that I believe is important.

In 2012, when I was searching LLLL .com on Go Daddy auctions, filtering search results for only closeout and expiring domains, I noticed an anomaly on the search results:

Several LLLL .com's being offered as "expired" auctions with a starting price of $28.

I thought this was odd, given that these listings did not follow the typical cycle of $12 (expiring), 11, 10, 9, 8, and 5 (closeouts), so I did a Whois check on these domains:

All were owned by Adam Dicker. Some of these domains were close to expiration, some were actually expired, and some weren't even registered at Go Daddy (???).

I thought this must be a glitch, so I emailed support about it. After all, when one filters for certain parameters, one wants it to work properly and not get a bunch of unwanted results.

I received some wishy-washy answer about how these were expired domains (some were and some weren't).

So then I questioned why someone, another member, was enjoying this perk. I never did get a good answer.

At the time, I MAY have posted here about this, but I don't remember. I'll do a search and let you know.

This "anomaly" suggests two possibilities:

1. AD, although no longer a Go Daddy employee, still had some knowledge of and/or access to Go Daddy systems.

2. A friend at Go Daddy (insider) was manipulating the search results in his favor.​

I'm revealing this because it certainly adds to the growing evidence against AD.

I haven't found any posting yet about this particular instance (still looking), but people were already complaining about AD in 2012:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/godaddy-auctions-discussion-acquisitions-and-sales.756497/​

 

[Ms Domainer]

There was a point when GD started listing expiring domains from other registrars for auction at the $28 start price. Right this minute, I can't remember which registrars were involved ( moniker? ), but I don't think this was a special privilege being granted to AD. I'd guess that he probably wasn't making any money on it at all.

Except that some of the domains were not even expired yet.

Also, I thought (and still think) that including them in the expiring/closeout section is misleading and downright dishonest.

 

[HeyNow]

Right, I think it was Moniker. It was related to Snapnames in some way.

Dicker, Moniker, Snapnames. Sounds all kosher and on the up-and-up to me!

 

[Ms Domainer]

Dicker, Moniker, Snapnames. Sounds all kosher and on the up-and-up to me!

LOL.

Good point.

 

[Ms Domainer]

I haven't found any posting yet about this particular instance (still looking), but people were already complaining about AD in 2012:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/godaddy-auctions-discussion-acquisitions-and-sales.756497/​

Okay, here's a link that begins a discussion of the odd $28 expiring domain names:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/godaddy-auctions-discussion-acquisitions-and-sales.756497/page-28​

Evidently, the discussion did not name Adam Dicker specifically, but I do remember it well.

I didn't buy the explanation then, and I don't buy it now, ESPECIALLY now.

 

[carob]

Interesting one here about Dicker being sued in 2013:

http://www.obj.ca/Local/For-the-Record/2013-11-19/article-3486871/Whos-getting-sued?/1

The following listing contains information on lawsuits that appeared before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in recent weeks. It includes the date the case appeared in court and its status. The first party is the plaintiff and the second party is the defendant in the lawsuit.

Nov. 7
Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP vs. Domain Consulting Group Inc.
Requisition
Solicitors Act

Domain Consulting Group Inc (not to be confused with a Philadelphia USA company of that name) is one of several company names Dicker uses, which may not be actual registered companies. That is the same law firm that recently wrote a bluffing letter to some NP members on Dicker's behalf - looks like in 2013 they could have had to sue him to collect their fees.

 

[Ms Domainer]

Just to be clear:

I have no problem with anyone selling their own domains on Go Daddy or anywhere else.

I do have a problem with auction platforms placing "select" (translation: friends' public auctions) domains in the closeout and expiring section when a potential bidder does a search.

There is a good reason why I tick off the "closeout" and "Expiring" boxes.

I can tell you with 100% certainly that none of my domains get this privilege.

 

[carob]

Well hang onto it as there seems to be a game of hide-and-seek going on.First nichewebsites.com site disappeared, then it put its products on dcg.com, but it is now back in business, or trying to be, which could be expensive.
https://nichewebsites.com/product/niche-website/

Well once again a new page listing nichewebsites.com prices for niche websites disappeared once attention was drawn to it. That page is now gone, and once again the site just asks you to ask for a quote. Makes you wonder if this price info and offer will just quietly re-appear somewhere else again - worth checking.

There is still a link to it from this page:
https://nichewebsites.com/web-design-and-development/

But if you want to risk enhancing your purchase, you can add Diamond SEO for £1499 and 100 pages of "content" for $1499. What if you add all the available extras? The price of your nichewebstes.com site goes from $499.00 to $5,841.00

I had posted an informative screenshot here of that page showing all the items selected and the prices for information. Today that screenshot is gone from here - no idea why - but here are the prices that were there, for your information, to see just how a simple Wordpress install can jump in price from $500 to $5000 in a few clicks.

Niche Website

$499.00

This package includes:

Complete custom design and development of the website.

5 pages of content

Google Adsense

Google Analytics

See below for a complete description of the add-ons available

Add Social Media

Facebook Package $199.00 US
Twitter Package $199.00 US
Google + Package $199.00 US
Pinterest Package $199.00 US
Youtube Package $199.00 US

Monetization Methods

Amazon Products $99.00 US
Clickbank Products $99.00 US
Custom Ebook $149.00 US

Website Add On's

Custom Whiteboard Videos $199.00 US
Newsletter Sign Up $49.00 US
Search Engine Submission $99.00 US
Lead Generation Form $49.00 US
Wordpress Training $99.00 US
On Page SEO $79.00 US
Press Release Submission $299.00 US
Local Business Listing $129.00 US

adding 100 pages of content = $1499
Diamond Seo = $1499

$5,342.00

Final total
$5,841.00

 

[bobsranch]

It's interesting to see Adam Dicker listed as a broker on domainnamesales.com.

 

[Paul Nicks]

Just to be clear:

I have no problem with anyone selling their own domains on Go Daddy or anywhere else.

I do have a problem with auction platforms placing "select" (translation: friends' public auctions) domains in the closeout and expiring section when a potential bidder does a search.

There is a good reason why I tick off the "closeout" and "Expiring" boxes.

I can tell you with 100% certainly that none of my domains get this privilege.

Hi, Paul Nicks from GoDaddy here.

I'd like to be very clear that the $28 expiry domains had absolutely nothing to do with Adam. This was a business deal where SnapNames would send their unsold inventory to our system. We never got beyond a test phase, so we only got Moniker inventory for this test for a short while. I worked directly with Snap on this test, and am pretty sure Adam wasn't even employed with us at the time. The reason the price was higher than GD expiry is because we had to deal with the price of Moniker renewing the name and then GD xferring it. So, we put a price on those that was higher than standard in order to make sure that the financials made sense.

Sorry to ruin a good conspiracy but these names were not "friends' public auctions" they were just expiry from another registrar during a test period.

-Paul