An important message from Snapnames

**bmugford** · 11-04-2009, 07:38 PM

Yes, these actions are criminal. If these actions have been covered up that is criminal as well.

Simply firing an employee is not an acceptable response to fraud of this scale.

Brad

Originally Posted by Acro

Exactly. That's money laundering the IRS and the FBI would love to take a look into. The more we collaborate on this, the dirtier it looks. Whoever called him "Bernie Madoff of domaining" was probably right.

**Beachie** · 11-04-2009, 07:42 PM

Just another thought - if he actually wanted a specific domain, surely it was within his power to just grab it quietly and not send it to auction? Why take the risk of putting it "through the system" and being discovered by SnapNames management?

**Crown** · 11-04-2009, 07:49 PM

Originally Posted by Beachie

Just another thought - if he actually wanted a specific domain, surely it was within his power to just grab it quietly and not send it to auction? Why take the risk of putting it "through the system" and being discovered by SnapNames management?

Excellent question....

There is a name I backordered but for some reason snapnames didnt pick up on auction but it did go to a moniker account. Its still there now. The admin of the account is Delray Beach and has thousands upon thousands of other random names searchable under its belt. What you are asking may have very well happened on a massive scale as well.
(can pm person name on the domains if someone pms me, dont want to include some random person in this thread mess)

**thevirtual** · 11-04-2009, 07:50 PM

I do not see what Snapnames are doing about Suspended accounts. I won a domain and two days later before I could make payment Snapnames deleted the domain and Suspended my account. Now I cannot view my history and I have not received any email from them. I believe many have suspended accounts and cannot even view their history, but must be given refunds for past auctions.

**Credit** · 11-04-2009, 07:53 PM

Kjel, since you are watching the thread, do you care to say anything on the matter?

**Bill Roy** · 11-04-2009, 07:55 PM

Virtual, DocCom has a post further back detailing the steps that members should take. In your case start making a paper trail immediately so that you are not 'obscured' from being seen as a possible victim.

**Acro** · 11-04-2009, 07:55 PM

The true aspect of fraud at such a scale is huge. It involves several departments: finance, programming, middle management. Nelson Brady was a VP - full control of operations. At this point, Snapnames does not belong to those that cheated domainers out of millions of dollars, however they have a reputation to uphold as Oversee.

**Beachie** · 11-04-2009, 07:57 PM

Also, while I'm whinging, I won Spares.org in 2006 and they gave it to someone else :(

**Acro** · 11-04-2009, 08:02 PM

A link to a VERY interesting blog post.

It seems that iReit bought a portfolio of domains from "halvarez" in 2006 - the article quotes:

Tracking some of the halvarez domains indicates that he may have sold a significant portfolio to iREIT in November 2006, although a call and e-mail to iREIT were not returned as of this writing. If Brady was focusing on traffic domains, purchasing with insider parking information and then flipping them to iREIT would make for a rock-solid business model.

**Misak** · 11-04-2009, 08:04 PM

1. What if halvarez was the wining bidder just before me. Shouldnt I be entitled to the name as a second highest bidder?

2. If they cant get it back from him, shouldnt I get loss compensation as I could use the name to make money if I won?

**CureCancer** · 11-04-2009, 08:05 PM

Originally Posted by bmugford

I am not sure how Snap recovers from this. Their credibility will always be in question from now on, and their reputation forever tarnished.

Brad

Agree, I will never deal with them again. Case Closed GUILTY

**Acro** · 11-04-2009, 08:07 PM

Nelson Brady / Halvarez was acting on multiple fronts:

A shill bidder, driving up the price of auctions by hundreds and thousands of dollars.
A carrot-stick holder, kick-starting auctions that had 1 bid.
A money launderer, for getting refunds for domains he had won, and thus:
A thief, for stealing money from his own employer.

**JuniperPark** · 11-04-2009, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by Acro

A link to a VERY interesting blog post.

It seems that iReit bought a portfolio of domains from "halvarez" in 2006 - the article quotes:

UUmmmm.... didn't Adam Dicker work for iReit at that time??

**Focus** · 11-04-2009, 08:11 PM

We had our concerns about this Halvarez waaaaaay back in 2005..you can see where I said in the first page of the thread it was a bidder driving up auction prices.

we gotta stop this person, he is running up all the snap auctions

http://www.dnforum.com/f31/do-you-kn...ad-123089.html

I would like to also add, DONT YOU DARE take any settlement from Snap/Oversee yet..the damage is actually alot more than just the difference in domain bid price plus 5% interest lol

I want the DOMAINS motherf*ckers.

And if they sold the shoulda been mine domains to Ireit then I want my equal share of that sales price / profit because I was defrauded out of the domain name to begin with.

I also want to see parking revenue b*tches!

I knew we smelled a damn rat nearly 5 years back...but hey what do I know

**stewie** · 11-04-2009, 08:13 PM

Let's not rush to judgement too fast...

we need a tree and a rope first...

hang em

**dvdrip** · 11-04-2009, 08:15 PM

I was about to post the same thing.

I lost a domain from halvarez. Me and him.
He must have known the traffic the domain was getting and bidded more than 2k.
I then noticed the nameservers changed to ireit's.

I actually send him an email asking if he had sold the domain and he actually replied saying he had. He told me he sold a portfolio to them.

Originally Posted by Acro

A link to a VERY interesting blog post.

It seems that iReit bought a portfolio of domains from "halvarez" in 2006 - the article quotes:

**ydnaemsti** · 11-04-2009, 08:16 PM

If you have any emails from snapnames with information please PM me. I'm building a case. I was a victim in a big way.
I do not believe a word they are saying. I speculate Oversee blew them up, because Overseen was a big time victim and they had no other way since they would not return the 25 mil.
This is deeper than you guys think.

Right now a "special" team is reviewing domains that are under privacy. That alone break few laws since they did not ask me to view my domains.

Please PM me with their emails if you have any.
Also, we should compile a database of domains with "loss" and have it ready. This thing ran into millions, FBI and other vulture will be all over this.
We should be ready for them for Friday.

**TheLegendaryJP** · 11-04-2009, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by Beachie

Just another thought - if he actually wanted a specific domain, surely it was within his power to just grab it quietly and not send it to auction? Why take the risk of putting it "through the system" and being discovered by SnapNames management?

Chris, myself and Maroulis over a few years watched a small handful of VERY nice genric one word .com's go to VERY well known domainers without dropping into auction and complained with no results.

We even went so far as to call snap and owner of the name and ask to always get a huge BS story " oh it was won at auction " yet no one could ever show the auction.

I am 110% this guy Nelson and maybe others sometimes do back door deals with the people who love to attend shows and drive fancy cars for fun. A bunch of crooks!

**Acro** · 11-04-2009, 08:19 PM

Here's what's going to happen:

1. Oversee hired a third party to investigate - they have already outed the former employee.
2. Oversee will truly process the logical method of compensation, as explained in that email and announcement.
3. Charges will be filed against Nelson Brady by Oversee.

However, by issuing compensation Oversee will make its recipients agree to terms waiving any further rights to claims or lawsuit against Oversee. It's unfortunate that Oversee bought and controls a corporation that engaged in fraudulent activity via its employee(s). Right now, there is a need to assess the damages sustained; some people were probably defrauded by tens of thousands of dollars. It's important to not rush to any agreement with Oversee over "rebates" - for as long as Oversee does not release the private information they hold per account: auction history. I can only recall ONE incident bidding against "halvarez" and it cost me $2,300 - this doesn't mean there aren't many more. As long as I don't have access via my account to auction history, Oversee knows that I cannot prove much. However, their reputation is at stake right now.

**JuniperPark** · 11-04-2009, 08:21 PM

Originally Posted by Focus

We had our concerns about this Halvarez waaaaaay back in 2005..you can see where I said in the first page of the thread it was a bidder driving up auction prices.

http://www.dnforum.com/f31/do-you-kn...ad-123089.html

I would like to also add, DONT YOU DARE take any settlement from Snap/Oversee yet..the damage is actually alot more than just the difference in domain bid price plus 5% interest lol

I want the DOMAINS motherf*ckers.

And if they sold the shoulda been mine domains to Ireit then I want my equal share of that sales price / profit because I was defrauded out of the domain name to begin with.

I also want to see parking revenue b*tches!

I knew we smelled a damn rat nearly 5 years back...but hey what do I know

That entire thread is extremely interesting in light of today's events. Everyone involved should take the time to read it. Anyone at Snap who was NOT involved in the scandal should have been clued in in 2005 by that thread and our emails.

I believe the proper phase, in legal terms, "knew or should have known".

That means you, Kjel. Ad we can see you watching this thread.