Makemoney.com auction closed and member banned

[Keith]

This thread was closed

https://www.namepros.com/threads/makemoney-com.1300134/page-3#posts

@Bravo Mod Team what was the reason for closing and banning the member? If it was because it changed from a charity auction to a personal auction, cool.

But then my question is, how would you know if proceeds were donated, assuming the initial auction carried out?

 

[Kingslayer]

"I can't channel the proceeds to the original purpose" just 2 hours after bumping the thread, who is he trying to kid? Why wasn't it arranged with the charity before starting the auction? But just for arguments sake, why can't he do that? You can donate to anyone and anything.

That guy was a scumbag, plain and simple, you could spot it from a mile off.

Never had any intention in honouring the auction from the get go, hence why he selected NamePros for doing it (as he thought there would be no consequence).

What this was about was 'attention' he wanted people to bid on his name, see it was valueable and that is all in my opinion and doing this in the name of 'charity' shows what a scumbag he is.

But It's backfired, that thread (along with this) is forever on Google and the domain is no doubt devalued as result.

 

[Bravo Mod Team]

what was the reason for closing and banning the member?

We did not close the auction; you can clearly see the seller closed it without awarding a winner:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/makemoney-com.1300134/post-8908360

As for why they’re banned, that’s because they have a long history of being unprofessional and disrupting the community, with this auction being the most recent example.

We hope that helps.

 

[rh2000]

Where does it say what they paid for the domain? It just said $250k start and I'm fairly sure they wouldn’t have paid anywhere near $250k for it either.

But even so, they started their last auction with no reserve (no one forced them to) and it was getting a bid every day and on the verge of hitting 6 figures, so i don’t buy that.

I’ve been involved in valuable domain names (I know Keith as too in this thread), sometimes things can get a bit quiet on these names and ‘some’ people need reassuring its valuable and I honestly think thats all this was with this ‘so called’ auction (attention) and when I look previous threads of this domain on NamePros and outside NamePros, I do feel they seek attention with it.

FTR it’s a great domain, but it’s domain that I don’t think is special, it’s a domain what I (as an investor) would have liked to have paid around $50k or under for, I saw its potential as a $250k domain (max) to the perfect buyer, but I think it’s a tough sell.

 

[NameInbox]

Epik forever registration ​

 

[aamyra]

This same member successfully sold XVR.com in the last week or so. That’s serious and btw, the mod’s confirmed ownership of makemoney.com

The mods post in the sales thread -

Update: The seller has verified that they are in control of the domain MakeMoney.com by redirecting it to this sales listing temporarily for us to confirm.

At this time we have not identified any duplicate/associated accounts participating in the auction.

The auction is now unpaused and may resume.

Unauthorized comments in the sales listing have been removed. Please do not comment further in the sales listing. Use the report feature to report any suspicious activity or rule violations.

The high bidder is currently: @Drwebb with a $95,000 bid

The auction for MakeMoney.com has been extended: it will end 10 Days after this post if there are no subsequent bids or it will end 10 Days after the last bid that comes after this post. As always, this auction may end earlier if a Buy-It-Now price is offered and accepted according to the rules.

I think it was X/R/V NOT XVR.

 

[Paul]

After discussing this internally, it seems a bit extreme to forbid charity auctions outright. I don't think it makes sense to let one bad person spoil it for everyone. We'll likely implement a rule requiring transparency for any charity auctions, including donating the money directly to the charity rather than having it pass through the seller.

 

[Paul]

The answer is still no, regardless of your opinions of me.

That doesn't mean we plan to sit around and let this become a common occurrence. We adapt to emerging threats, and we'll be discussing internally whether we have any options for combatting such scams in the future.

 

[Kingslayer]

Nice find. Now I see why he or she canceled the auction. The last bid was much less than what they paid for the domain.

Where does it say what they paid for the domain? It just said $250k start and I'm fairly sure they wouldn’t have paid anywhere near $250k for it either.

But even so, they started their last auction with no reserve (no one forced them to) and it was getting a bid every day and on the verge of hitting 6 figures, so i don’t buy that.

I’ve been involved in valuable domain names (I know Keith as too in this thread), sometimes things can get a bit quiet on these names and ‘some’ people need reassuring its valuable and I honestly think thats all this was with this ‘so called’ auction (attention) and when I look previous threads of this domain on NamePros and outside NamePros, I do feel they seek attention with it.

FTR it’s a great domain, but it’s domain that I don’t think is special, it’s a domain what I (as an investor) would have liked to have paid around $50k or under for, I saw its potential as a $250k domain (max) to the perfect buyer, but I think it’s a tough sell.

 

[Keith]

I think it was XRV.COM NOT XVR.

Absolutely correct. My mistake!

The buyer of the 3L is requesting that we edit the domain out of our posts. Please do so.

 

[JB Lions]

That auction always seemed a little sketchy. Usually, not the type of name you auction in a forum. Then the white bread stuff, he didn't come across as serious.

 

[forge]

Then we have new members with 0 feedback/trust rating placing near six-figure bids.

 

[NYJimbo]

"This is unfortunate,

The seller changed the guidelines after a $95k bid was placed and then closed the auction without awarding a winner in violation of the following rules:

6.2.3. An auction cannot be modified once a bid is placed with the exceptions of its Buy-It-Now ("BIN") price (e.g., a BIN price may be added), its bid increments, approving additional bidders, adding payment methods, and/or adding additional domains at no extra cost. "

 

[kor]

White bread is not healthy anyway.

Next time he should try to scam people with rye bread.

 

[Paul]

I was thinking we could require that the payment be made directly to the charity. That seems like it would be easier to enforce and offer more transparency. We’d also have to set some criteria about what can be called a charity auction.

 

[Paul]

My suggestion would be to reinstate that seller as a member in good standing.

No.

 

[Keith]

Interesting debate regarding charity auctions...

However... The seller cancelled the auction, like I mentioned earlier on, which is a huge no-no and against NP auction rules.

And, sellers don’t get to do that. Normally, the mods just use their superpowers to keep the momentum going.

Glad you pointed out another inconsistency.

 

[Kingslayer]

I've just done a search on NamePros and found this from 6 months ago:-

https://www.namepros.com/threads/makemoney-com-charity-auction-one-and-only-bid-with-heart.1285975/

Fair enough he did nothing wrong here (closed the auction with no bids), but said it was a charity auction but this time for "personal computers for children in Kharkiv/Kharkov".

Something obviously doesn't seem right with it all, if he was serious and wants to help Ukrainians affected by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, why not just donate proceeds to aid the people of Ukraine in general and a charity such as IRC/Unicef or Red Cross:-

https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-crisis-appeal
https://www.unicef.org.uk/donate/donate-now-to-protect-children-in-ukraine/
https://help.rescue.org/donate/ukraine-crisis

Rather than just 1 specific thing (computers or bread) with no info on how this is going to be done/which charity its being donated to?

 

[branding]

Probably because he cancelled the auction?

I have to cancel this auction since I can not channel the proceeds to the original purpose of supplying food bank with white bread. My appologies.

 

[Keith]

High-impact issues like the auction in question will always be their top priority, but the community management team is also tasked with keeping the peace in other ways. They are not mutually exclusive goals.

We’ll wait for the answer from the mods - if the auction completed, who or how would NamePros.com track the funds to a charity?

 

[branding]

Interesting debate regarding charity auctions...

However... The seller cancelled the auction, like I mentioned earlier on, which is a huge no-no and against NP auction rules.

This one is not on NP (they actually gave free additional exposure to the auction), but on the seller. Given his history, he was definitely aware.

Charity auction or not, shouldn't make a difference.

You fail to honour your offering (if not beyond your control), you must be held accountable.

 

[WillW]

Could be wrong but I got the feeling that the current auction price wasn't anywhere near what he was hoping to get and it wasn't going to get near that BIN, so he cancelled it.

Those new member bids were a little sus too

 

[Echo Mod Team]

Yup, don’t entertain them.

If you can’t monitor where the proceeds go then it’s a dead issue.

I was thinking we could require that the payment be made directly to the charity. That seems like it would be easier to enforce and offer more transparency. We’d also have to set some criteria about what can be called a charity auction.

It's really an unfortunate situation, when the name of charity is used in an unacceptable manor to try and increase sympathy bids from members that may not have bid as much as they did (Or at all) otherwise, if it had not been announced to be a Charity in the first place.

Prior to the funds transfer to a Charity, their is rarely any documentation to review, unless a seller has organized with a Charity and are Co-Auctioning the domain name.

That means that a representative from the actual Charity (With a verifiable 501c3) may need to join NamePros and verify their account, just like members with verified representative badges do from well known industry related companies on NamePros.

Other than the above, this moderator team does not see a way to authenticate a charity auction with much accuracy, other than after it ends and upon verification of donation receipts/documents.

The best way to prevent manipulation of charity auction claims would be to verify a charity representative that publicly vouches for the charity auction in question. The later, verifying by receipt after the auction, is a bit too late and the money is already gone, deceptively.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

I posted in chat about him, known before as @domainnamebroker
Finally mods did something right, i remember his posts, here is one from 2017 where he was promoting his produce
https://www.namepros.com/threads/domainnamebroker-com.1041412/
Hard to take this place seriously, last 2 times i tried to buy i got hosed, thats why people fly under the radar, have to worry about the @TjKiller s out there waiting to rip your head off. Then they participate only to get the shaft
https://www.namepros.com/threads/sweetmobile-com-75-current-bid.1095261/page-2#posts
I am still high bid, Cy would have bid me under the table but we all knew the deal wouldnt go down.

 

[Paul]

who or how would NamePros.com track the funds to a charity?

We wouldn't--we don't have that capability. That being said, if there's blatant evidence of misconduct in that regard, such as an outright admission from the individual running the auction, we're likely to step in.

The presence of an auction on NamePros is not an endorsement. Anyone can post an auction here without staff approval, and you should do your own due diligence.