I received this email earlier today from SnapNames explaining that one of their employees setup an account on their system under a false name and, under this name, bid in SnapNames auctions.
DomainNameNews.com dug a little deeper and found the username created was “Halverez” which belonged to Nelson Brady, VP of Engineering Bidding on Domain Names. This username was also in question as early as December 2006 which you can view the discussions on DNForum.com.
UPDATE – Ron Jackson has just posted pictures of Nelson Brady a.k.a. Halverez, visit DNJournal.com.
I personally applaud Oversee.net for uncovering this issue and not only making it public but providing a solution.
Below is the email in it’s entirety, full details of misconduct and their solution.
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.
Remedy to affected customers
Though on some occasions the employee won the auction, in many instances the bidding caused the ultimate auction winner to pay more for a name than had the employee not participated in the auction.
SnapNames neither condones this conduct nor wants to be perceived as benefiting from the conduct. Accordingly, we have decided that regardless of the circumstance, in every auction where the employee’s fictitious account submitted a bid which resulted in a higher price being paid by the winning bidder, SnapNames will offer a rebate, with 5.22% interest (the highest applicable federal rate during the affected time period), to affected customers for the difference between the prices they actually paid and the prices they would have paid, had the employee not bid in the auctions. The rebate will be available in cash or in credit on the SnapNames platform, at your discretion.
SnapNames has moved quickly to address this situation. The company has retained Rust Consulting, an independent third party, who will administer the rebate offer. Within the next week, Rust Consulting will contact affected customers to provide details regarding the offer.
Your business and ongoing relationship are important to us and we can assure you that we have taken all necessary steps to ensure the integrity of the platform and reinforced controls and procedures to avoid any possibility of further breach. These include:
- Enhanced monitoring of bidding activity for suspect behavior
- Additional controls over financial transactions
- Specific domain name registration policies for employees
In the meantime, if you have any questions, you may consult the FAQs here, or contact the SnapNames support team:
By e-mail: support@snapnames.com
Phone: +1 (866) 690-6279 (toll-free in the U.S.)
+1 (503) 241-8547 (outside the U.S.)
SnapNames, and all in the Oversee family of companies, are deeply disappointed with this incident. Since its founding in 2000, SnapNames has been committed to the principles of fairness and trust; the company wants to assure customers—through both words and actions—that it remains committed to those principles.
Thank you again for your business, and for your ongoing trust in SnapNames.
Sincerely,
Jeff Kupietzky Craig Snyder
President and CEO General Manager, SnapNames.com
SnapNames
1600 SW 4th Avenue, Suite 400
Portland, OR 97201
They moved swiftly… Efficiently… Professionally…
I want to see a picture of the sneak that is no longer with the company … where did he end up ??
Is he still in our Domainers-Circle ??
~Patricia Kaehler – DomainBELL
I find this whole situation absolutely fascinating. I was too late to the industry to be affected, but I have spent the afternoon researching old forum threads regarding “halvarez”. It looks like the domaining communities were calling for his head ages ago, but no action was taken.
I agree with Patricia that SnapNames and Oversee have acted professionally in exposing the situation today, but I think this is going to cause huge damage to SnapNames. Luckily, a lot of this shill bidding took place before Oversee’s acquisition of SnapNames, so legal action will most likely occur as the shill bidding most definitely inflated SnapNames value as a company.
I look forward to following the developments of this story throughout the coming months.
Is this him ??
http://www.facebook.com/people/Nelson-Brady/1227691651
~Patricia – DomainBELL
Yeah, he definately bidded on 5% of auctions alone, no doubt about it.
Nobody helped him with getting refund for accidently won domains.
Company had no idea for all period of fraud until overcry reached it peak.
Snapnames never changed ToS and skimmed customers out of hundreds thousands of $$$ several years ago.
There is no more fraud at Snapnames.
Earth is flat…
That DNForum.com link is priceless or should I say timeless.
@Patricia: That’s not him.
It seemed that Halvarez is in just about every auction I was involved in. He did not always win the auctions. I think he bid on so many at a time, he was unable to keep up.
As per the previous email, I won hundreds of names on Snap Names. The registration info is all there, but they seemed to have deleted most of my bidding history and only have a couple left with Halvarez involved.
This is a real mess. I’m pretty confident that SnapNames will make everything right. They would not have come out if they weren’t willing to spend the money to reimburse everyone.
yeah me too I applaud them for coming forward, why I am so supportive I even filed a consumer complaint with the State AG!
http://www.doj.state.or.us/finfraud/
Financial Fraud /Consumer Protection
The Financial Fraud/Consumer Protection Section protects consumers in the marketplace, primarily by enforcing Oregon’s Unlawful Trade Practices Act. The section’s duties also include educating consumers and businesses about their rights and obligations under the law, representing the interests of the State in multi-state, consumer-related enforcement actions, operating a hotline for consumers with questions or complaints about business practices, and assisting local and state law enforcement agencies with consumer-related matters.
We do not receive consumer complaints in order to act as an attorney for a person. Oregon law prohibits the Attorney General from representing any private party. Most consumers are helped through our efforts to informally resolve matters between consumers and businesses. Our main purpose is to identify and eliminate the most serious threats to Oregon consumers. It is not practical for us to take legal action on every complaint and we must focus our efforts on making the market safer for all.
Consumers who want information about consumer-related matters can read the information provided on this website and/or contact the Attorney General’s Consumer Hotline from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Under the law, we are allowed to educate consumers and businesses, but we cannot give legal advice. You may wish to contact a private attorney to discuss a specific complaint against a business or, on your own, file suit with your local small claims court. If you need help finding a lawyer, you can get information about the Lawyer Referral Service from the Oregon State Bar.
keep moving, keep moving, nothing to see here folks, thats right, keep moving-
> Our File Number: FF++++-09
> Complaint About: Snapnames.com Inc.
>
>
> Thank you for the information that you sent us. Although there does not now appear to be a need for an investigation or legal action, we will keep your information on file as part of the public record.
>
> Our primary goal is to identify and eliminate the most serious marketplace violations, and many factors are considered in determining what cases we should pursue.
>
> We appreciate the time that you took to alert us to a possible problem in the marketplace. Your information may prove to be valuable in a future enforcement action.
>
> If you need to contact us about your complaint, please write to me and note your file number: FF++++-09, or contact me by phone at 503-934-4400 or e-mail at mailto:heather.j.mcfarlanemartinez@state.or.us
>
> Heather McFarlane-Martinez
> Enforcement Officer
> Financial Fraud/Consumer Protection Section
> Oregon Department of Justice
read the snapnames-oversee.net classaction complaint here:
http://domainnamewire.com/wp-content/snap-classaction.pdf