An important message from Snapnames

[denny007]

Denny, there is old Czech saying...

You used yours eyes and changed to ears.

More like there was not the connection in my brain to actually see it. Now connection created. If some intelligent person's answer will not make sense I will not think anymore "Hm maybe I am missing something" but rather I will think "He must be hiding something - what that might be..."

[raoul]

What position had the guy?

The guy had personal benefit if the domain was sold at a higher price? I not understand why someone would do that, whats his gain?

[DomainsInc]

Originally Posted by JuniperPark

Someone at DNF deleted that important thread TONIGHT.

This thread contained very incriminating posts by Kjel, and some direct accusations about Halvarez that turned out to be TRUE.

So, why is DNF deleting that thread and destroying evidence??

Kjel's post in that thread:
This comes up every once in a while where certain prodigious customers at SnapNames are accused of being actually SnapNames itself. This is not the case. SnapNames has not and will not ever participate in an auction it itself is running as an anonymous bidder. We have never done any shill bidding or granted any auction participant any sort of discount or rebate. The price displayed is the price paid, for everyone, Halvarez included. Please email me direct (kjel-at-snapnames.com) with any questions.

I wonder why mods would delete that? Surely they would know better... It would be nice to hear why it was deleted.

[TheLegendaryJP]

Originally Posted by raoul

What position had the guy?

The guy had personal benefit if the domain was sold at a higher price? I not understand why someone would do that, whats his gain?

Raoul someone already confirmed when I asked, it was tied to bonuses perhaps. His pay must have depended on sales numbers.

Also if he got the company to have a higher valuation based on sales numbers it lined his pocket as well I suppose?

[dvdrip]

Has Nelson been arrested?

[raoul]

Originally Posted by TheLegendaryJP

Raoul someone already confirmed when I asked, it was tied to bonuses perhaps. His pay must have depended on sales numbers.

Also if he got the company to have a higher valuation based on sales numbers it lined his pocket as well I suppose?

as being somekind of an outsider, for me the whole story sounds strange.

Why should an employer give his staff some kind of bonus, where the staf has no influence on the sales anyway?

where not talking about some car salesmen, who actually has to "lure" a customer in a sale...

maybe sdsinc is right, some bigger money laundry

[gingeman]

Its a shame this thread has been mergeed with old threads from 2007 etc... makes it impossible to read it in my lunch break...

The more and more I look into this, the more certain I am this is a monster case of fraud and can only have been at company level.

I do not buy it in any way that this was all the work of one man.

I would be very surprised if snapnames can stay in existence after this...

[FormerDnForumer]

Originally Posted by TheLegendaryJP

Raoul someone already confirmed when I asked, it was tied to bonuses perhaps. His pay must have depended on sales numbers.

Also if he got the company to have a higher valuation based on sales numbers it lined his pocket as well I suppose?

This is why you have to assume everyone is gaming the system, on all platforms, because whether "within" the company or "without", shill bidding is a win-win for companies that auction domains. As long as "trust" is maintained, relatively, there is no incentive for anyone to do anything about it. The relative value of domains made this the rule ten years ago, and it's true now.


I am still astounded at people's surprise at this outing. He operated in full view of a very skeptical group here and on other boards. Now if I were senior managament at SnapNames over the past four years, I would have been looking very closely at who this guy was, but shockingly, there seemed to be little interest. Hmm.

It appears that Oversee was tipped in some way, but take off your blinders. halvarez was great for SnapNames bottom line and that is the bottom line.

[Equalizer]

What does this says about the Traffic Auctions?
Same people...same system...same Engineer.
hello!

[ydnaemsti]

I want to point out that the bonus/salary/benefit is not confirmed.

But the following facts came up:

Halvarez owned SnapNames.com at the beginning.
He was the initial owner.
He was the shareholder.
They sold the company to Overseee. They had to "keep it going", otherwise the contract would be invalid with Oversee.

So the biggest benefits to him were:
1. Using same money to buy domains
2. Making money for the company (he is a shareholder) therefor making money for himself.

You guys separate HAlvarez from SnapNames. I treat them as the same thing. He was just the hidden owner. He is trying to kill himself in order to save the company, but that's a wrong picture that is being painted.

[wmloz]

To me it's inconceivable that this was not known to all at SnapNames and that others didn't participate. Perhaps this guys masterminded it, but you have to believe it was the business model for them that everyone embraced to make more money.

They are hanging this guy out to dry as a scapegoat to look good for regulators and Oversee who forked over $25M, not to mention us clients.

[Devil Dog]

So uhh yeah, where do we sign up to get on that class-action list again?

[Poker]

Agree, when you turn your back on a crime you are complicit in it.

How is it possible that the appearance of Halvarez in so many of the auctions didn't raise any flags at snap when it raised so many flags for domainers for years. This could be the very reason snap never closed the late entrance loop hole. It created a possible explanation for Halvarez's late entrance and massive multi auction behavior and painted him as a possible "regular" domainer.

[Acro]

Thus far, my ticket with Snapnames has gone unanswered. I suggest that EVERYONE with a Snapnames account email support@snapnames.com and DEMAND access to the historical auction data that was available and that has now been removed. It's important to indicate to Oversee that their reputation is at stake - including that of ALL companies they run - unless TRANSPARENCY is at 101%. There is no room for compromising "rebates" that will be paid as "blood money". The need for a thorough investigation should not stop with whatever results their paid forensics consulting company produces; there is a need for INDEPENDENT analysis of the data. Perhaps the thread of a class action lawsuit will provide enough stimulus to Oversee to open up the records and DISCLOSE the whereabouts of their former VP of Engineering at Snapnames. At this point, the bare MINIMUM they need to do is to provide the auction history for ALL ACCOUNTS and to drop the excuses that it was removed to conserve bandwidth. 95% of all domainers are on some sort of broadband connection. Additionally, they need to disclose every domain that was won by Halvarez and was then resold at a premium. All parties involved in Snapnames auction should DEMAND a FULL investigation. Do NOT surrender your rights by accepting outright a rebate which will most definitely arrive with an agreement to waive all rights to future litigation. It's a great thing that Washington Post picked that news right away; we need more exposure, even if they paint the domain industry as 'dirty'. This was a DIRTY MOMENT for the domain industry and all weeds need to be uprooted; cutting them off at the stem won't do us any good.

[Equalizer]

who decided to erase the history ?

[ydnaemsti]

One thing is for sure. They do not have smart lawyers on their team.
They are conspiring to cover up on multiple occasions.

[Equalizer]

agreed 1000 %

[zymic]

I think someone should create a separate forum/website dedicated to this situation. I don't think there has been enough exposure on the more major news outlets.

[Doc Com]

I just canceled three pending backorders with Snap. Shame, really. I have been having great success there.

My historical data back to 08 is still showing up.

Here is a curiosity. If two people enter the same amount, if there is no auction then he who entered first wins. In one particular case, Halverez was first and I was second with the same amount, yet I won. Clearly, the system was manipulated to reflect me as the winner after he apparently changed his mind.

[sdsinc]

Originally Posted by Equalizer

who decided to erase the history ?

AFAIK the data is not deleted, it's just filtered.

Posted at the other forum:

Originally Posted by Oversee Rob

SnapNames has truncated the available bid history for a couple of years now. This was done to make downloading of recent history easier as some clients were experiencing browser time-outs and to reduce the data storage demand. This change was not made recently or in connection with the issue announced today.

Anyone impacted by the unauthorized bidding will receive information from Rust Consulting that identifies the auctions and domain names involved.

Rob
Oversee Support