auctions Namecheap institutes deposit requirement to improve auction integrity

[News]

Namecheap has started requiring some users to make a deposit before bidding in auctions, with the goal of improving auction integrity.
New users must deposit $100 in their Namecheap account before bidding on auctions. Some existing users with only a few auction purchases will also be asked to deposit $100 before bidding on their next domain.
This is in addition to the $5 annual subscription fee for auctions.

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[draco]

Do you have to maintain the $100 deposit or do they apply it to auction(s) you win?

 

[deleted_20231022]

Good move!

 

[Yanosh]

Do you have to maintain the $100 deposit or do they apply it to auction(s) you win?

When you deposit 100$ you can bid on multiple auctions.
Once you win a domain you can choose to pay it with your deposit funds or not.
If you use your deposit to pay for the domain , the next time you want to bid on auctions you need to have at least 100$ again.

You have to maintain the 100$ deposit.

Ah , if you deposit 100$ using crypto…you can’t withdraw them anymore.

 

[tonyk2000]

A good change. Other auction houses should do the same. Moreover, in current environment it should be better to allow bids from prepaid balance _only_. Bid placed? Balance decreased. Outbid? $$$ instantly returned to the balance, etc...

 

[enterscope]

I'm sure this will eliminate a lot of fake bids, bots, non-payments and other issues.

Should be a normal part of auction verification on any platform.