Namecoin Scam!!

[Broker]

This company has been posting one of my domains for sale as auction on their website without my consent. They switched their name from dotbidz to namecoin recently and were even offering to pay domainers $10.00 to post domains on their website.

I sent them an email telling them they were posting my domains illegaly on their site and to remove them asap. This was 2 weeks ago and this morning I got an email back saying I owe them $50.06 for "Clearing" my account in which I never signed up for.

Needless to say I wrote them back with a few choice words.


What they did is offer domainers $100.00 in credit and they themselves, would continue to post your domain name day after day until you reach your credit limit without your being aware your being charged every single time.

This is a total scam and I will report it to the BBB and ICANN.

 

[verbster]

I woke up this morning to the same thing...an invoice from NameCoin.com for a domain I put up for auction one time when they were dotbidz. It appears they took it upon themselves to list it in their new site and place it in auto-renew...a feature I could not find an easy way to turn off.

I've requested proof (from my original listing with dotbidz) of my permission to auo-relist the domain for auction. Maybe there was fine print or something, we'll see. In any case, as they barely have any domains to auction as it is, this is a pretty poor way to attract new business.

 

[Sabre]

They're one the "site sponsors" here at NamePros - meaning they possibly have a representative here you can contact.

Perhaps RJ, or whoever took the order for the ad could enlighten us?

 

[Broker]

Yes well, a domainer here is one of the owners of the website. He practically begged me to post a domain for sale on their site when it was dotbidz and offered to give me $10.00 to use if the site took off. I'm a nice guy so I put a name up. And what do I get?



Oct. 03, 2006 14:21:41 View Invoice
# 445
8.36 USD 50.16 USD debit
Oct. 02, 2006 14:21:22 View Invoice
# 426
8.36 USD 41.80 USD debit
Oct. 01, 2006 14:17:50 View Invoice
# 407
8.36 USD 33.44 USD debit
Sep. 30, 2006 13:50:37 View Invoice
# 388
8.36 USD 25.08 USD debit
Sep. 29, 2006 12:25:43 View Invoice
# 368
8.36 USD 16.72 USD debit
Sep. 28, 2006 08:47:14 View Invoice
# 339
8.36 USD 8.36 USD debit
Sep. 28, 2006 03:03:46 Admin Credit Adjustment 50.16 USD 0.00 USD credit
Sep. 27, 2006 08:46:19 View Invoice
# 202
8.36 USD 50.16 USD debit
Sep. 26, 2006 08:41:30 View Invoice
# 170
8.36 USD 41.80 USD debit
Sep. 25, 2006 08:39:32 View Invoice
# 134
8.36 USD 33.44 USD debit
Sep. 24, 2006 08:38:15 View Invoice
# 109
8.36 USD 25.08 USD debit
Sep. 23, 2006 08:06:01 View Invoice
# 85
8.36 USD 16.72 USD debit


None of the above was o.k'd by me period. They took it upon themselves to list my domain name and transfer all my information to this namecoin site. Charging (or atleast trying) to charge me $8.36 a day for a listing.

?????????????????????????????????



Here is a post from "DOTBIDZ" a little while back.


We have just completed upgrading our site, http://www.dotbidz.com
which now offers a cleaner, nicer look, as well as many new features.

We offer you to go and list your domains for sale.

As our new release gets underway, we are offering free premium features to everyone in the NamePros.com community. Simply Send us an email after you've listed your domains, and we'll reset your account balance back to ZERO.

We are doing this in hopes that some of you will list your quality domains for sale, and we can get the site pretty filled up.

Dot bidz is listed in all the major search engines, as well as through adsense.

Thank you, and we hope to see you around soon!

And the email I woke up to this morning.

Header Dear rob,

This is an invoice for clearing your account balance with our site,
NameCoin.com

Your balance is: USD 50.16

Please click here to proceed to the payment gateway (or press the DETAILS button in your Member Area).

Thank you in advance,
The NameCoin.com Staff


NICE A?

 

[dotbidz]

HasRob,

I would hardly consider this a scam. If you had read the member newsletter we put out dated 10/24/06 you would have read that our invoices are system generated emails.

I told you when you signed up that you would still get invoices every month, but that I would edit your balance back to zero every month.

The auto renew feature is set on by default. You can turn this off in the "My Account" section of the website.

Had you taken the time to read, you could have avoided your headache. No payment is due at this time, and your account has been reset back to zero.

 

[Broker]

Thats fine dotbidz, please just close my account as I asked two weeks ago then. My thread is also dated before the newsletter your refering to which I never received anyway?

FTR, your the one who sent me the email with the invoices. I dont know about you, but when somebody or some company sends me an email with a bill and there is are invoices with $8.36 a day to back those invoices up, I think I have a right to be concerned and cautious for other domainers who are probably up for a similar surprise.

You might want to change the way your excepting domains and loose the invoices all together until you get a large data base of domains then charge real money if thats what your out to do. Right now it just has scam and fear written all over it and is probably a large reason as to why you have a very limited supply of domains listed.

Just one mans opinion and no hard feelings on my end. Thanks for reply!

 

[-db-]

dotbidz, thank you for coming forward, explaining, and resolving the situation.

HasRob, you bring up some valid points, and I'm sure the NameCoin folks understand and appreciate that fact.

Thank you both, for keeping things civil and friendly. Have a great weekend.