Halvarez is BUSTED!

[jacksonm]

Dear SnapNames customer:

I’m contacting you today to inform you of an unfortunate incident at SnapNames, and to let you know what the company is doing to address it.

Recently, SnapNames discovered that an employee had set up an account on the SnapNames system under a false name and, under this name, bid in SnapNames auctions. This is a clear violation of our internal policy and was not approved by the company. We deeply regret that this conduct has impacted our customers.

Extent of impact

This conduct affected a small percentage of SnapNames auctions:

* Bidding affected approximately five percent of total SnapNames auctions since 2005, most of which occurred between 2005 and 2007.
* The incremental revenue from the bidding represented approximately one percent of SnapNames’ auction revenue since 2005.

No matter the level of impact, SnapNames takes this matter extremely seriously. When the matter was discovered, the company immediately closed the account in question and began a thorough investigation. The employee has also been dismissed from the company.

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.

YES!!!

[jinshi]

we need a human flesh search of the real identity of halvarez

please let's out this mother fugga

[jacksonm]

Frank Michlick

November 4, 2009 @ 1:46 pm EDT

@JoshP We have an email from Mason Cole confirming it was Halvarez: “I can confirm the user name as halvarez.”

http://www.domainnamenews.com/news/s...ain-names/6479

[jinshi]

Any lawyers in the room care to analyze the potential liability against snapnames.

If snapnames stole $1, are they liable for $1 or more damages?

This could be a class action lawsuit.

[sprewellpj]

Snapnames is paying a nice rebate to those who had to pay more due to Halvarez and Snapnames should be applauded.

But how about those who lost a domain altogether due to Halvarez? What is the potential liability there? Potentially enormous. If I could prove that I lost two years of owning, developing and monetizing a superpremium domain, and could show potential revenue lost....$xxx,xxx judgments could start rolling in.

This is pure speculation above, but we'll see when we get more detailed info regarding the applicable facts/law.

[cdehoo]

Originally Posted by sprewellpj

Snapnames is paying a nice rebate to those who had to pay more due to Halvarez and Snapnames should be applauded.

But how about those who lost a domain altogether due to Halvarez? What is the potential liability there? Potentially enormous. If I could prove that I lost two years of owning, developing and monetizing a superpremium domain, and could show potential revenue lost....$xxx,xxx judgments could start rolling in.

This is pure speculation above, but we'll see when we get more detailed info regarding the applicable facts/law.

Halvarez...
I was one of the victims.

[owen]

I worked at SnapNames for about a year in 2001/2002 and this guy was my boss. He wasn't my favorite guy in the world but I could not imagine him doing something like this. Absolutely amazing.

[jinshi]

Snapnames is a small company - employee wise. There is no way he was the only one in on this scam. It could not have gone on without the CEOs approval.

[Drewbert]

Well, bugger me sideways.

So what was the actual employee's name?

[jacksonm]

Originally Posted by Drewbert

Well, bugger me sideways.

So what was the actual employee's name?

According to the article below, it was Nelson Brady, VP of Engineering




You can call Nelson with your complaint.

cell 360-254-5211

_____________________________________
Nelson Brady, VP of Operations
SnapNames.com, Inc.
1600 SW 4th Ave
Suite 400
Portland, OR 97201
tel: 503-219-9990 x223
direct: 503-459-5723
cell: 360-903-8844
fax: 503-274-9749
nelsonb@SnapNames.com
http://www.SnapNames.com




http://www.domainnamenews.com/news/s...ain-names/6479

[phio]

been going on for a while... http://www.dnforum.com/f205/importan...ad-197282.html

[jacksonm]

Hell, it's even in the Washington Post now:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/sec..._bid_up_d.html

[jose]

Is Snap goes down, so goes Moniker?!

[phio]

I wonder how many buyers are busy at their calculators right now.

[Drewbert]

Say it ain't so, Nelson!

Man, he had access to reserve bid info etc etc.

[jacksonm]

Originally Posted by phio

I wonder how many buyers are busy at their calculators right now.

Not many - SnapNames erased all auction history from 2003-2007 during the past few hours, e.g. covering up their asses.

[bwhhisc]

Originally Posted by phio

been going on for a while... http://www.dnforum.com/f205/importan...ad-197282.html

That post started December 18, 2006....someone smelled a turd in the punchbowl.

Amazing the guy was not more clever and use multiple aliases, emails and payment methods.

And I seriously doubt any other management/ownership at Snapnames was in on any largescale fraud.

[phio]

It would be interesting to see if he bid in any of these auctions:

Porn.net 400K

Photograph.com 195K

TopModel.com 117K

FreeHoroscope.com 185K

DreamLife.com 171K

Jasmin.com 310K

UncleSam.com 185K

HotelDeals.com 171K

Date.org 150K


there is a flat 20% commission fee that is taken from the domain sale proceeds http://www.domainappraisal.org/artic...market-review/

and a few more:

* Bookmarks.com - $300,000
* AR.com - $225,000
* A1.com - $260,250
* MovieRentals.com - $100,249

[phio]

Wow, from a month ago: http://domaingang.com/domain-news/do...r-of-the-year/

[bwhhisc]

I am sure Snapnames will eventually be taken to court and made to givefull disclosure, if they don't voluntarily do so and give full transparency.