An important message from Snapnames

[Fearless]

I wont do it check for yourself.

He cost me over $7,500 in rebate money.

[dvdrip]

(I think) fatjobbie is for real.

[Fearless]

Has anyone taken all this data and calculated which other user name(s) might also be Nelson?

[Gerry]

Has anyone taken all this data and calculated which other user name(s) might also be Nelson?

I think you would have to have several past bidding histories from several members to try and identify a pattern or trend. Usually this would produce some interesting results.

[Banned: theinvestor]

Just based on the names i was in auction in... a lot of names have different people. It is possible there were other bidders but only used for a short time span. So hard to tell if those were shill bidders or not?

[petrosc]

The "Halvarez was a high-volume customer and we never suspected scam" claim is insulting our intelligence.

First of all, they say that if he won a name, he was issuing a credit back(not clear if he was paying for the names at all). Furthermore, if kjel claimed he was seen by SN as a high-volume customer then Snapnames must have noticed that they are somehow not making enough profit from him, or no profit at all, considering the credit backs he was issuing.

Sure, he might have been able to manipulate the system and reports in a way that that the SN staff checking them could be tricked into thinking that he was making purchases and paying for them, but there must have been a discrepancy in the reported revenue vs. actual revenue, which was highly unlikely to go unnoticed for 4 years.

[Banned: dn-101]

SchmuckNames is addressing the issue head-on:

Your SnapNames Account has been SUSPENDED.
Please contact SnapNames Customer Support by e-mail or by phone at (800) 385-4075 to re-enable your account

[Fearless]

According to his voicemail message, Nelson will be back in the office November 9th.
503-459-5723

[randomo]

I've just been reading The Informant - amazing (nonfiction) book about the FBI investigating price-fixing and other financial fraud schemes in a huge corporation.

I hope the feds are all over this halvarez situation too. Would make good reading someday!

[CureCancer]

SchmuckNames is addressing the issue head-on:

Your SnapNames Account has been SUSPENDED.
Please contact SnapNames Customer Support by e-mail or by phone at (800) 385-4075 to re-enable your account

posted by a np member:

interesting info!

Theree are major TLD losses at Moniker 2 weeks ago

I looks like a big domainer was tipped off to the fraud earlier than everyone else, and moved out all the domains.

Could it be Rick Latona? Did he transfer all his domains out? Check the gain/loss report ...

ICANN Accredited Registrars**MONIKER

[Cartoonz]

...
What we have here is organised, systemic, fraud - emanating from the inner heart of the very systems that drove the Snapnames business model.

No ONE employee, acting alone - no matter how senior, no matter how embedded, no matter how integral to the design & maintenance of the tech operations - could have sustained and concealed a fraud involving thousands of separate auctions & transactions - and millions of dollars - over many years - without discovery, if the organisation, as a whole, was in any way committed to the concept of integrity.

...Rigorous system checks, dual & triple level verification procedures, random process audits, sensitive antennae tuned into market & customer feedback etc etc, would have combined to expose this kind of dishonest dealing within days of an attempt being made.

That didn't happen. For years. These were smart people. With top-class resources available to them. This organisation was apparently deaf and blind. This organisation willfully and arrogantly ignored any and all the signs and sounds of suspicious behaviour. This organisation apparently missed every red flag in the game....

There's only one explanation.

These people at Snapnames were running a scam - from top to bottom.
.

WELL SAID

The "Halvarez was a high-volume customer and we never suspected scam" claim is insulting our intelligence.

First of all, they say that if he won a name, he was issuing a credit back(not clear if he was paying for the names at all). Furthermore, if kjel claimed he was seen by SN as a high-volume customer then Snapnames must have noticed that they are somehow not making enough profit from him, or no profit at all, considering the credit backs he was issuing.

Sure, he might have been able to manipulate the system and reports in a way that that the SN staff checking them could be tricked into thinking that he was making purchases and paying for them, but there must have been a discrepancy in the reported revenue vs. actual revenue, which was highly unlikely to go unnoticed for 4 years.

EXACTLY. And, according to them now, nobody got "rebates" or "discounts" ever, so how could this one supposed "valued client" get away with exactly that for so long without knowledge of the rest of the execs?

Oh wait... he impacted the revenue in a very positive way in sum total - we're better off ignoring it...

[FormerDnForumer]

I won't say who obviously, but a friend is telling me he blew $20M-ish on the auctions, and feels incredibly betrayed.

I'm glad the community is waking up and seeing this for what it is.

[britishbulldog]

I don't know how american law works but i know here in the U.K if a complaint is made to the police it has to be acted on whether it's a professional sportsman assulting another on TV it has to be followed up if somebody makes a complaint.

How does it work in the U.S ?

[petrosc]

Could it be Rick Latona? Did he transfer all his domains out? Check the gain/loss report ...

ICANN Accredited Registrars**MONIKER

Why Rick Latona? Besides unless something changed during the last years, he was using fabulous for his portfolio

[ohkus]

Why Rick Latona? Besides unless something changed during the last years, he was using fabulous for his portfolio

There are a number of domainers switching to fab right now so it isn't Rick alone, but he did transfer baja.com. A number of domain houses are moving out right now though. A few of the more interesting TM ones to directnic and internet.bs

[EstateNIC]

How would he NOT benefit?????

Even in the first example I gave, the company makes more revenue, he works in the company so he makes more money. How does that not benefit him???



He was a shill bidder and also went after some domains to make money off selling and parking them. Understand?

I am not stupid, I am not going to talk again, i am pointing that, the snapnames might be the criminal not only that guy.. If the company makes moremoney, then how he can make more money ? You noly say this, and dont tell the reason! That is the point of my topic to exist! Thats why i opened that topic. Only the way he can make money with it is , he can have a share-holder in the company. which never mentioned as well!! Do you get it ?

[poing]

Question:
I have at least 3 domains, spanish names, where halvarez drove the price up.

Did anyone that has to receive an email receive it already?

As far as I know the emails all went out during the week. However Snapnames only considers you eligible if Halvarez placed the last bid before your winning bid.

[Adam Dicker]

There are still alot of unknowns, but one thing that was mentioned was refunds:

SnapNames wrote in their letter to customers: "SnapNames further discovered that, on certain recent and limited occasions, when the employee won an auction, the employee secretly arranged to refund from SnapNames to the fictitious account a portion of the winning bid amount."

Domain parking may have been another avenue. Also, someone has posted that he sold a bunch of names to iREIT, but I don't have that list.

I was working with iREIT at that time.

-=DCG=-

[Acro]

As far as I know the emails all went out during the week. However Snapnames only considers you eligible if Halvarez placed the last bid before your winning bid.

Correct. And there's thousands of auctions where "halvarez" pumped the prices up - ending up as a 3rd or 4th etc - thus leading the chase as he knew what each bidder's reserve was.

[mike031]

if you search dnforum for "halvarez" the oldest thread, is well... one of mine

i suspected this from day one...............

sucks it actually was true

http://www.dnforum.com/f31/whose-par...ad-101294.html