discuss Scammed on GoDaddy auctions!!

[JudgeMind]

A month ag I won auctions for two LLLL .com domains on godaddy. These were both public auction. I paid for the auctions then I sent the sellers info for transfers. A week and a half went by and I did not hear from the sellers nor did I receive either domains into my godaddy acct. I sent messages to sellers two more times after that. At this point it had been 3 weeks and still no response. I sent an email to godaddy explaining what happened and that I needed their assistance getting my domains or getting a refund. Here is their response:

As we are a payment processing service rather than an escrow service, we hold the funds for a specified period of time, and must release the funds at the end of that period unless we as your agent receive a dispute. As a dispute had not been received during the 15 day period described in the agreement, your funds have already been released to the seller. Any request for return of the funds will need to be made directly to the seller. However, we cannot intervene further. Once the 15-day Transaction Assurance period is completed, the window of opportunity to dispute the transaction has closed and we are limited in ways to help.

 

[Name Trader]

So. Here are 2 more already. That's 5+2 (a 40% increase) in a matter of days. It feels like something wrong with your 5/yr figure @Joe Styler.

 

[ninjadomain]

@stub Mine is in day 9 (day 10 if you count the first day), but no response from the seller so I just want to be proactive. I'd rather have the domain than the money, but better safe than sorry.

 

[Name Trader]

@ninjadomain - So are you saying you should be counted as 1 of the 5 or not at all?

 

[ninjadomain]

@stub I'm not certain at this point, just a little worried since the seller hasn't responded with the transfer codes.

As a side note, this is the first time it has happened to me as usually it goes through.

 

[Name Trader]

@ninjadomain - Let's hope it's only a one-off occurence for you

 

[forge]

Any reason people are not naming the scammer sellers so others can be warned when seeing other listings by them?

Not a bad idea. Name and shame is applicable I believe.

 

[forge]

So. Here are 2 more already. That's 5+2 (a 40% increase) in a matter of days. It feels like something wrong with your 5/yr figure @Joe Styler.

In fairness to Joe, he did state that (my bold):

We have very few issues where people don't either get the domain they pay for or their money back when there is an issue, very few as in less than I can count on my hand in a year.

So that would denote those who never got their money back, or got their domain. It's hard to resolve situations that are never raised.

 

[Name Trader]

@forge - Agree. But many would be scared off just from reading the communications, was my point.

 

[Joe Styler]

Hi Joe Styler,

I had similar problems with Godaddy. I won 3 domain names by auction probably 3-4 months ago. I had paid about $463.74 in total and never get the 3 domain names. How can I contact you by email to resolve the on going problems and show you all my details?

All I want is to get my refunds. It's very upsetting for me when I paid $463.74 and never get my domain names and not even get my refund even I had complained several times to the dispute department.

Just pm me the info. The disputes dept may be the wrong one to reach out to. We have two dispute departments, one for auctions and one for domain ownership issues.

 

[Ms Domainer]

It seems to me that registrants have to be proactive in assuring that we get what we pay for or receive a refund for when a sale doesn't go as expected.

There seem to be three kinds of auctions at Go Daddy (apart from the individual choices, such as offer/counteroffer, offer/counteroffer with BIN, and BIN):

1. Expiring auctions conducted by Go Daddy. I have been told (and I have been able to verify this through searches) that these auction domains no longer have live EXACT trademarks on USPTO.gov (at one time, they could, but something must have happened over at Legal).

Having said this, I sometimes do find related TM's (such as singular/plural that are TM'd), so you still have to check. Also, they don't take natural TMs into consideration. Evidently, their algorithm is linked to USPTO and nothing else. If the word is a pure one-word generic, it seems that the domain can be sold on expiring auctions with or without USPTO trademarks.

Obvious drawback to expiring auctions: the domain can be renewed by the current registrant and a point at which point a refund is supposed to be issued to the buyer by Go Daddy.

This is also the point where potential buyers need to pay attention because glitches do occur in which the domain simply disappears from the buyer's "Watch" and "Won" lists and does NOT show on the "Didn't Win" list -- again, personal experience -- and no refund has been issued.
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2. Public auctions in which the domain is registered at Go Daddy, not sold by Go Daddy but sold by a third party. These may or may not have live TMs, although when Go Daddy finds them, they kick them off the auction site -- I know this from personal experience. These are fairly safe auctions because when the buyer has paid, the domain is automatically transferred to the buyer.

(NOTE: I find that this could be a potential problem for domain owners because the auction people do not verify the seller's intent to sell, even if the owner has two-tiered verification/authentication set up. Thus, there is a possibility for a thief to list an auction for a domain not belonging to him or her, and the owner would not even knowing it.)
​

3. Public auction in which the domain is registered elsewhere. In my opinion, these are the most dangerous and fraught-filled sales listings -- certainly the topic of this thread. Personally, as a buyer, I avoid these kinds of sales because Go Daddy really doesn't have much control over domains registered elsewhere.​

Buyers need to be more proactive on all three types of sales by keeping meticulous records of what has been acquired on the aftermarket (and when), from where it has been acquired, and estimated date of actual acquisition. Also pay attention to deadlines set forth by the auction platform, no matter what it is.

Also, before bidding on a domain and certainly after winning a domain, it's a good idea to make a pdf file or screenshot of the owner's Whois so that the buyer has a paper trail should the sale go south and the domain is transferred to one of those rogue Chinese registrars.

Also, keep all domain receipts in a separate (dedicated) email folder, perhaps even making a pdf file of potential troublesome deals.

While domain buyers should be proactive, the auction platforms need to be more protective in protecting both buyers and sellers, although these verifications can be annoying.

Particularly in auction type #3, Go Daddy needs to monitor activity very carefully.

 

[Innoverge]

A month ag I won auctions for two LLLL .com domains on godaddy. These were both public auction. I paid for the auctions then I sent the sellers info for transfers. A week and a half went by and I did not hear from the sellers nor did I receive either domains into my godaddy acct. I sent messages to sellers two more times after that. At this point it had been 3 weeks and still no response. I sent an email to godaddy explaining what happened and that I needed their assistance getting my domains or getting a refund. Here is their response:

As we are a payment processing service rather than an escrow service, we hold the funds for a specified period of time, and must release the funds at the end of that period unless we as your agent receive a dispute. As a dispute had not been received during the 15 day period described in the agreement, your funds have already been released to the seller. Any request for return of the funds will need to be made directly to the seller. However, we cannot intervene further. Once the 15-day Transaction Assurance period is completed, the window of opportunity to dispute the transaction has closed and we are limited in ways to help.

I sold a domain through the public auction feature on GoDaddy & the domain was automatically transferred by Godaddy to the Buyer's a/c,as soon the funds were verified & cleared.All i had to do was to wait for 5 days & the transaction was seen through till the end..!!
I believe its also mentioned in Godaddy's auction rules that,once a domain(registered at Godaddy) is sold through auctions,Godaddy will automatically transfer the domain to the buyer,but if for some reason they're unable to execute,they'll intimate the seller & he'll be expected to manually transfer the domain to the buyer..!!!

 

[GoWebnames.com]

I sold a domain through the public auction feature on GoDaddy & the domain was automatically transferred by Godaddy to the Buyer's a/c,as soon the funds were verified & cleared.All i had to do was to wait for 5 days & the transaction was seen through till the end..!!
I believe its also mentioned in Godaddy's auction rules that,once a domain(registered at Godaddy) is sold through auctions,Godaddy will automatically transfer the domain to the buyer,but if for some reason they're unable to execute,they'll intimate the seller & he'll be expected to manually transfer the domain to the buyer..!!!

That happens only if the domain registrar is GoDaddy, not if your domain is registered with XYZ elsewhere.

 

[Innoverge]

That happens only if the domain registrar is GoDaddy, not if your domain is registered with XYZ elsewhere.

Yes,that's right...

 

[enterscope]

It's interesting they say they can't intervene... and it's even in their TOS that Godaddy does not get involved in domain name disputes. What's ironic though, is I won a domain name off Flippa that ended up being stolen and Godaddy was quick to remove the domain name from my account and give it back to the original owner despite their negligence in getting their account compromised. I was real close to filing a lawsuit against Godaddy for breach of contract, but they are not worth my time. Scoundrels.

 

[enterscope]

And on top of that... PayPal gave my money to the scammer even with proof that they stole the domain name and sold it to me... lost both ways.

 

[GoWebnames.com]

@Joe Styler This Godaddy fake listings scam seems to be much bigger than what you quoted as a HANDFUL cases in an year that can be counted on your fingertips.

Almost every other day, I come across names that are active websites, seem to have no reason to sell but I find them listed with GoDaddy auctions at fixed BIN:

Everyone, please check this GoDaddy Auction for MadeInUSA.com listed at $3000 BIN.
The domain name MadeInUSA.com seems to be owned by MadeInTheUSA.com and redirects there, if you check the WHOIS, Network Solutions is the registrar and the domain's expiry is in the year 2024. They seem to have no reason to sell. Why would they simply throw it away for $3000? I would have mailed them but it seems to be under privacy.

Please check, it's likely 99.99% fake, I count myself lucky not to have hit the BIN button.

Domain Name: MADEINUSA.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 2
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS.RACKSPACE.COM
Name Server: NS2.RACKSPACE.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Status: serverDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#serverDeleteProhibited
Status: serverTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited
Status: serverUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#serverUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 25-feb-2014
Creation Date: 13-jan-1997
Expiration Date: 12-jan-2024​

 

[Joe Styler]

I think you should go back and reread what I said. I said it is less than I can count on my hands per year that there is a name listed for sale by someone who does not own it and the buyer pays money and does not receive the domain or their money back. In this case if the name is being listed incorrectly, the buyer would have to not inform us of either being told by the seller they wont move it to him or ignore his emails etc, we would have to not catch it in our fraud checks, etc, etc. And then we would have to pay out the seller. I am not going to go into our various checks and systems in detail as it is not to my benefit to state them all here for others to exploit. I will say again, there are various checks in place prior to listing the domain, at the time of sale, before payment is made, etc. I will also say again, that names can be listed for sale that people do not own in some cases, but that does not mean that we do not check the ownership carefully. In some cases for example, the actual owner does verify they listed the name for sale when they did not do so, a lot of variables come into play here. However, I stick by my original assertion that for someone to pay us money for a domain and not receive the domain name or their money is EXTREMELY rare.
One of the processes in place for verification on a domain like this which is using whois privacy and registered at a company outside our control for verification is to email the whois email asking them if they indeed listed the name for sale and if so to confirm this to us. This took place in this case, so while it may be that the domain owner does not have this name listed for sale, it may also be that they do since presumably you do not know who they are either as their info is private. If you wanted to find out if they did list the name how would you go about it? You emailed them just as we did. When we email people we ask them to click a link verifying that they 1. own the name 2. want to list it for sale.
Of course there is the chance the person who got the email did not read it and just clicked this link, this can happen, so I cannot say with 100% accuracy that they did indeed want the name listed for sale. If you want to see how this works try listing a name for sale in your account that you don't own. Also you can try listing a name for sale at GoDaddy that you do own but it has privacy and is registered elsewhere so there is no way for us to know you own it, that way you can also see the email that is sent to continue the verification process.
I stand by my original statement that to have a domain listed for sale on our platform that is not owned by you is not easy to do, and to have payment made for a domain you by listed falsely and not caught by our own fraud checks, verification process, you as the customer contacting us about not receiving the domain, etc, etc, etc is rare to the point of being almost non existent and later next year we are making improvements to make this even tighter.
Also one of the others on the thread who said they had not received the domain they paid for which @stubb commented on reached out to me via PM and we had already stopped payment and banned the seller and were investigating two days before he posted here and PM'd me. The internal fraud checks had already flagged the person as suspicious and we were manually following up to try and get the domain name moved before releasing any funds so they were already safe.
I am not going to keep repeating myself on this thread. I have been forthright and shared honestly about our processes and at this point you can believe it or not I simply don't have the time to continue saying the same things.
Of course if anyone ever runs into any issues with anything we offer please feel free to reach out to me so I can assist you. I am always here to help.

 

[Name Trader]

However, I stick by my original assertion that for someone to pay us money for a domain and not receive the domain name or their money is EXTREMELY rare.

I got what you are saying about the buyer not getting the domain or money back. I also got what you are saying is EXTREMELY rare. A handful of cases at most where the buyer is cheated. If it's so rare, then I think you should be guaranteeing that the buyer will either get the domain they paid for or their money back, in your ToS. I wouldn't be telling my customers, there is nothing you can do and wipe your hands of the transaction, WHICH WAS TRANSACTED ON GODADDY. Like you are currently doing. There has been at least one case in this thread where the customer didn't follow up any further, exactly as I predicted, because, they received that final notice from you, and left it at that. Which added one more problem of this kind to your shortlist of 5/yr. How many more transactions like that go unnoticed by you each year? I'd go further to say that you probably have no real idea how many transactions like that go unnoticed by you, because of the email you send them, literally washing your hands of the transaction.

I see also by the way you are signing off on in your last message, that your are returning to putting your head in the sand over this issue. I personally would prefer to hear from you what you intend to do about communication with your customers in such a shocking way which puts them out of pocket. So that you could uncover the real extent of this problem.