An important message from Snapnames

[randomo]

I never could figure out why in the world this guy halvarez was bidding against me for Randomo.com last January. What possible use would anyone but me have for Randomo.com??

[CureCancer]

i had this issue 2 years ago, when all my bids were outbid by someone that made no sense, i got screwed at the end of the day and paid way to much... the problem was i could not reverse the damage, since i had proxy bid placed, and the problem is, the bidding stopped when my proxy bid hit its maximum, im very much disturbed by this news that snapnames is involved in the bidding process! Thanks for cheating me for $XXXX

[Credit]

Major restructuring coming to the domain industry in 2010. The lawsuit will sink snapnames and maybe even oversee.

They won't have the $ to cover the damage.

[Dorkside]

Just went through my records at snapnames.com and I've had a couple auctions over the years where it's been just me and halvarez bidding that I won at an inflated price.

There's one auction where it was just me and halvarez bidding and he won with the minimum bid of $59. I guess that means he placed his bid for the domain before I did, correct?

[Gerry]

Hell, for $300, I WANT that domain NOW. That's a great deal for $300. Not when it was 4k, and poor infoman still bidding at 4k. Geez. Imagine all those where the bidder actually won against halvarez.

That is precisely the point. If you were out at $275 then you were legitimately beat by another bidder.

I wonder if this guy was also advising bidders and investors as well, all the while continue to bid against them.

This all sounds and reminds me of the .asia auctioning of primary terms. It does not matter what the extension was...the fact that the auctioneer won most of the best and proclaims that it was all legitimate (with the CEO of the registry agreeing with the auctioneer) just make this industry ripe with fraud.

[CureCancer]

I am sure there is going to be a lawsuit. Look at this guys & girls:

Count me in!

[Meridian66]

HALVEREZ aka:
what i want to know is if snapnames go down, does moniker?

they are owned by oversee and i was never happy about the takeover when it happened by that little t$rd that owns oversee but exactly HOW separate is moniker from the other 'operations'

im concerned

I agree. It would be terrible if Moniker also got caught up in this.

[bwhhisc]

Imagine all the information this guy had access from his position at Snap, including pre-orders, reserve bids for every auction, members bidding histories, etc. This is going to be a mess to sort out.

[CureCancer]

I'm a DomainSponsor and/or Moniker customer too. Have my accounts there been subject to inappropriate conduct?
No. The activity was limited to SnapNames.

How can I go about getting my rebate?
If you were a bidder in an impacted auction, you will be contacted by Rust Consulting with details regarding the rebate offer.

When did you discover this conduct?
In October 2009.

How long had this been going on?
Since March 2005.

How many people at SnapNames were involved?
The account was managed by one employee, whose employment has been terminated.

What methodology did you use to determine the rebate being offered?
SnapNames retained an experienced, independent accounting forensics firm to calculate the amount on a customer-by-customer basis, the precise amounts due to each. In the communication we'll send through Rust Consulting, we can provide more detail about how figures were calculated.

What financial controls are currently in place at other Oversee companies to prevent future inappropriate activity?
SnapNames experienced a breach of internal policy and the company has taken corrective measures to deal with the situation, including the offer of a rebate. We will continue to review internal systems with the assistance of outside experts to ensure compliance and effective internal controls.

Will SnapNames auctions be impacted?
No. We continue to conduct daily online auctions and will host a live auction at DOMAINfest Global in January 2010. These auctions will continue, though with enhanced supervision and compliance measures.

I agree. It would be terrible if Moniker also got caught up in this.

Its to late!

[Meridian66]

Imagine all the information this guy had access from his position at Snap, including pre-orders, reserve bids for every auction, members bidding histories, etc. This is going to be a mess to sort out.

If this was done with SnapNames knowledge -- which seems likely -- then it raises the possibility that they were also involved in other unethical revenue generation schemes such as onselling all personal information of registered account holders to marketers and other interested parties.

[whitebark]

I wonder if there was a pay scale involved based on performance?

The only other reason I can see him ( others as I am sure there ahad to be others in the know ) was to boost profits for the sake of it?

Funny, myself and literally dozens if not several hundred people complained about him ( Halvarez ) and they didnt know it was all internal? BS

Agreed! What took them so long? The guy was probably sitting on his laptop during work hours doing this - and nobody noticed!?

Glad I didn't spend much time nor money there... now this throws the questions about some of the other auction houses back into question - or at least it should as there is some rather funny business going on elsewhere too!

[pergamon]

I wonder if any are pulling out domains there?

[GeoOwners]

This guy was stupid and got caught...

it's the smart guys that work for these companies I'm worried about...think about it.

[tetrapak]

Wait a second.

I just realized, I was in like 15 auctions he was in where me and him were the only ones, and he didn't bid.

But if he wouldn't be in those auctions, and I wouldn't get accustomed to the fact that he is in like every auction, then I wouldn't backorder and just register for $7. They owe me like ($69*15)-($7*15) = a bit under $1k. Not to mention all the time and hassle.

I'm getting this money back one way or another.

Good for you, I have couple of auctions where we had a romantic time with Halvey:

"ME 10-Dec-2007 13:43 PST $210.00 Completed

ME 10-Dec-2007 11:21 PST $210.00 Bid Placed

halvarez 10-Dec-2007 11:21 PST $200.00 Bid Placed

ME 07-Dec-2007 14:15 PST $65.00 Bid Placed"

[TheLegendaryJP]

What I wonder is does Oversee get to go after the sellers of snapnames, clearly the books were cooked. If sure they can make a great case the company knew, how couldnt they there are 100's-1000's of complaints..
They paid what $25M?

I am further shocked yet again like with the Jay Westeraldalwallfall that no one looks closely at operations, I mean this has to be a multi million dollar scaandal! Who buys a compaany like this, domain pioneers sure but clearly inapt. Wheres the audtors, lawyers?

[Bill Roy]

One thing is for sure, to get as near an even deal as possible ALL offers of settlement should be made public on the forums when made by RustBucket PR Firm - this way everyone will be able to see how shoddy a deal is being offered!

Remember they will try and bully you with threats of you losing out more than likely, but remember THEY (Snapnames) is in the wrong and not you! If domainers are open with one another then and only then will those affected get anything like the compensation that is really due to you all.

[Credit]

As many as 50,000 auctions under question?

There is no way this was done manually or by a single person.

[Bodis.com]

Ok, let's review the facts:

1. The guy halvarez has been bidding on Snapnames since 2005.

2. Other bidders informed Snapnames that there was something specifically wrong with this bidder halvarez, they denied that there is anything wrong, and denied any inside bidders.

3. The guy halvarez was indeed an inside bidder for 5 years, was originally founder, then partial share holder, then VP of engineering. In other words, he knew and probably even hired his entire team.

4. The guy halvarez bought up thousands UPON THOUSANDS of domains every year, and SnapNames claims they didn't notice anything unusual.


Now here is my BIG key points where I can that it is not only halvarez, but probably most of the Snapnames team.

1. All halvarez purchased domains still resolve to Snapnames feed to THIS day. Wouldn't Snapnames realize that this 1 key customer that purchases millions of dollars in domains is not changing DNS on a SINGLE domain?

2. If Snapnames truly investigated his account with all these complaints, wouldn't they see someone bidding from the same IP as their offices? I KNOW for a fact they have these tools to tell where bidder is located since they banned me when I had 2 accounts on same computer.

3. They say he processed refunds. How does a VP of engineering process a few hundred refunds EVERY DAY? You tell me please how that happens without the entire team knowing or being suspicious of something?

4. When did he start processing refunds? When Oversee took over?

This is my conclusion what has happened:

Snapnames started as a company ran by halvarez. In order to get his customers bidding more, he bidded up the auctions but didn't refund his payments at the time. Then he presented the company to Oversee, and Oversee acquired a company that had inflated auction sales.

Oversee took over, and now he was refunding money as it is no longer even his company, but he had access and made even more money from this type of "refund fraud".

As I see it: the majority of the Snapnames team MUST have been in on the scam. Not just him.

[Focus]

What methodology did you use to determine the rebate being offered?

SnapNames retained an experienced, independent accounting forensics firm to calculate the amount on a customer-by-customer basis, the precise amounts due to each. In the communication we'll send through Rust Consulting, we can provide more detail about how figures were calculated.

I for one did not agree to let some "forensics" firm go looking through my damn account and all the names I own/won and questionable names, possible tm's, etc..I think this in itself is a huge problem and breach of privacy. Anyone else have concerns about this matter?

My business partner and I have easily spent $xxx,xxx with these crooks, sometimes you know it's a shill bidder and stop bidding but in the Halvarez case they always substantiated who he was despite so much concern. The impact this will have on so many people and past auctions makes me dizzy.

I hope this Halvarez character does'nt go poof and skip the country.

[Acro]

Anyone is free to put order(s) in at any time before an auction starts. I'm not sure why we would ban or even be concerned about a known, high-volume buyer who likes to place last minute bids. Halvarez gets no special access or assistance from SnapNames in placing his orders, and does nothing that any other SnapNames customer can't also do.

It's time for full disclosure, Kjel.