An important message from Snapnames

[Gerry]

Just wanted to repost this info for all to consider:

Legal Addresses:

Here are some steps to take if you were involved (a victim) of any auction involving this person. These are the steps that I will be taking to leave a paper trail easy for all agencies involved.

Be precise and succinct in your report. Make it factual and eliminate any personal opinions and statements. Make it good because you are going to get a lot of mileage out of this one report.

Start with filing a local police report - yes, they will file a report and data is collected.
Contact you credit card company used in paying for these auctions. Send along a copy of the email from the company.
They may not act on your behalf but will perhaps act on their own behalf. Enough complaints will prompt them to conduct their own investigation.

US AGENCIES:

* FBI local office
* U.S. Secret Service (Financial Crimes Division)
* Federal Trade Commission (online complaint)
* if securities fraud or investment-related SPAM e-mails, Securities and Exchange Commission (online complaint)
* The Internet Crime Complaint Center

You will also want to file a statement with YOUR State Attorney General's Office

AND

with the State of California (Home of Oversee.net)
with the State of Oregon (Home of SnapNames)

[Acro]

Filtered or not, the data is crucial evidence to the activity of halvarez. Each auction history determines whether it's a rebate candidate and to which amount.

[Mike Cruz]

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

Posted at the other forum:

I don't know that just seems way too skeptical and convenient to me. Considering most have been able to view this information just a few months ago and now its gone, I am going to have to say that is complete bs and they were just prepping to cover up the obvious.

I thought it was cute that they waited til after the Moniker TRAFFIC to announce this, almost right after.

[ydnaemsti]

Here is the biggest problem with this incident:

Everyone talks about the shill inflating prices and we will be refunded the differences between the legit and the fake price. NO ONE talks about the other scams SnapNames pulled upon us and they were as big as or maybe even bigger than the price inflation scenario.

Here is the list of things SnapNames did to me:

1. They forced me into auctions.
2. SnapNames would reverse the bidding order in order for halvarez not to pay. I had to pay for lost auctions when there were 2 bidders. (BTW, same thing has happened to me at Name Jet).
3. They would jump in after deadline in order to catch domains that would end up in Pool.com otherwise. Instead winning domains in Pool by default you would have to go against HAlvarez and possibly others. Pool.com should sue SN for damages. This was pointed by others, but looking at my account I realized they affected me big time.
4. They would not give you a domain even though you won it.
5. They were preventing us from winning domains by creating bidding hype and winning the domains (accidently or not, we'll never know.)
6. They closed accounts if you told them about this fraud.
7. They exposed domain privacy.

I'm sure there is more tactics we do not know about. My friends are telling me right now that their own backordering system suffered, because he would force auctions at SnapNames that otherwise would go somewhere else.


For them to refund only the difference in the overbidding scenario is a slap in our face. SnapNames did much more than that.

If you know of any other tricks they used please post. BTW, I have a way of proving all of the above allegations.

[Gerry]

Exceptionally good synopsis from a non-domaining source:

http://econsultancy.com/blog/4916-th...-bernie-madoff
The domain name industry gets its Bernie Madoff

[PRED]

saw at another forum in some of the original email messages they accidentally sent this lol:

Below the double line is the customer communication for use in proactive disclosure on industry message boards. A statement needs to be published on each of the boards copied in the attached e-mail from this morning. Disclosure time is 9:30 a.m. PT, concurrent with all other disclosures.

Please monitor the boards going forward and let me know what the feedback is like. If you need help on this, Corinne is available.

My understanding is you will primarily speak for the company in these forums. To that end, let’s coordinate closely on what’s being said and how to reply.

Let me know if you have questions from here. Thanks.

[Mike Cruz]

saw at another forum in some of the original email messages they accidentally sent this lol:

Lol, link?

[tomsa]

Good catch PRED

I understand why they weren't able to unmask halvarez until now

[Acro]

Who is watching the watchmen?
http://acro.net/blog/2009/11/05/quis...erves-to-know/

[Bodis.com]

Wow, they are so screwed lol.

[ilovedomains]

Think its only Snapnames? Heres what Michael Arrington, who once ran Pool and consulted for Snapnames has to say about it. (Notice his attitude is that you are all just a bunch of domain squatters)...

"Anyone who doesn’t know how dirty the domain name business is just doesn’t know the domain name business"
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/04...ing-admission/

[Fearless]

I haven't read all these posts. I'm traveling and getting the Internet on a 9" screen. My questions may have already been asked and answered. Did this leak out and was that why Oversea made this announcement? Will Oversea give us a list of names won by Halvarez/Nelson?

I lost a lot of money thanks to this. Nelson knew everyone's proxy bid and whether they were logged in at auction closing time. He was in almost everyone of my auctions and really stood out when it was just he and I.

About a year ago I asked Monte if he was Halvarez. I can't remember the details but a response from Nelson made me believe Nelson was Havarez. He clicked out of turn some kind of way. I wasn't 100% sure though or I could have saved people a lot of money.

[demaxxus]

I wasn't 100% sure though or I could have saved people a lot of money.

I wouldn't beat yourself about this. There were many people on the forums that outed halvarez years ago, but Snapnames just wasn't listening.

[NameFetish]

With 20 minutes left in the RickLatona auction today somebody bids $14,250.00 with the name of Halverez

And wins

[Bill Roy]

Has anybody actually filed a report of suspect financial misdealing with any federal authorities? I understand that any American citizen has a right, if not a duty, to inform the federal authorities of such crimes as tax evasion, money laundering, organised crime, inter-state crime, etc., etc..

Get the Feds involved, let them take this apart and any company not playing within the law. By the way would not under such federal crimes the personal assets of those involved also be considered as assets in any legal claim? Just imagine how some rich company directors are feeling now, hoping beyond hope that they can get people to settle quickly and leave their personal assets intact.

[FormerDnForumer]

Think its only Snapnames? Heres what Michael Arrington, who once ran Pool and consulted for Snapnames has to say about it. (Notice his attitude is that you are all just a bunch of domain squatters)...

"Anyone who doesn’t know how dirty the domain name business is just doesn’t know the domain name business"
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/04...ing-admission/

I think Frank's comment in the comment section says it all:

"Try finding an auction on this planet that doesn’t have insider bidding, primping, competitive-bid-ups etc. My wife and I collect antiques and have had executives at sterling plated auction houses concede that it’s impossible to stamp out the shill bidding which they know goes on."

In fact, some of us remember that Sotheby's Alfred Taubman went to jail for the price-fixing scam of 2000 between Sotheby's and Christie's. It's just a more genteel version of scammery.

This piece from ValleyWag is nice as well

http://valleywag.gawker.com/263645/a...n-trading-past

"His recent tirade against the "extremely dirty domain name business" was classic Michael Arrington: forceful, well-informed — and breathtakingly hypocritical."

[Carter]

I want my money back.

[Fearless]

Halvarez likes to gamble. Usually he loses. But he also "bluffs". Had a $xxx bid go north to $x,xxx because of his contributions to the auction. Finally got the name but at a much higher price. Some have speculated Halvarez is Snapnames, which I don't believe. I think it's the Devil.

This whole thread is comical now.

[katherine]

Who is watching the watchmen?

Dunno but an angry DNF mob seems to be gathering as we speak

[PRED]

Lol, link?

cant post a link
but go to np
and find main thread on this in general discussion and you will see on first page