Investigation or Cover up?? Take our Poll

Morning Folks!

As I explained my opinion on yesterday’s post, we are either witnessing an investigation or a cover up.  I am not sure which one but since not a single word has been spoken, I have to assume cover up but I am PRAYING that it is an investigation by the FBI.  Short of that, imo, we are getting hosed and lied to and bullshitted by this wall of silence. Maybe MOST domainers are okay with that….I AM NOT!

People are moving traffic away. People are moving domains away. People are just moving their business away. People are just moving on. If we don’t start to get ANSWERS pretty soon, I think boycott by domainers may be the only way to force their hand. It seems the ONLY leverage we may have as this goes on with NOBODY speaking. Other suggestions? I feel like the entire Industry is being held captive until we have some answers to all the questions that are out there. 

We are on the eve of 2 WEEKS of this STONEWALL. When do we get ANSWERS????? When does the bleeding stop? When do we here the TRUTH about what is happened and how deep that TRUTH goes?? I can figure out only 2 explanations. The first is involvement by the FBI. The second is they are more scared to go to prison then they are to lose their business. There is a cloud over the industry until we get some clear answers and I think that cloud will be something we deal with for a long time regardless of the outcome imo.

Rick Schwartz

Comments

[Rick]

PS. The sky is also falling!

[Rick Schwartz]

Minimize it all you want. No balls to even sign your real name. That is real brave of you and the others that do the same thing.

[justt]

I must admit that I'm not a big fan of yours but I sincerely applaud your efforts.

[Andre]

Rick,

Move on. Big mistakes were made at the highest levels. But you have also made mistakes and so have I. We are imperfect humans in an imperfect society. Nothing can change what has happened. We need to look forward. Move on and let this obsession of yours go.

[Rick Schwartz]

Sorry, but how do you "Move on" until you get answers? This is not a "Mistake", This is an act of fraud. An abuse of trust. A crime imo that involved the FUTURES of an entire industry. Move on?? Is that like sweeping it under the rug? Ignoring the biggest scandal in the history of our small and young Industry?

NO WAY PAL!

[Rick Schwartz]

As far as an "Obsession" ......the entire industry should be having an obsession right now. How do you move on with a stinking fish in the middle of things?

[Paul Kapschock]

"Move On"...that sounds like looser mentality! Must be a pacifist!

Hey, millions of dollars were scammed and thousands of individual harmed and Rick and a few others are taking the lead on this, because of their high profile and must be applauded!

Thank God folks are keeping the fire to the keep of these criminals!

Rick, Go Get Them.

And thanks for everyone's efforts to see justice prevail!

Paul Kapschock

[Rob Sequin]

Rick,

You are right to ask. I'm not assuming an investigation or cover up but I do want to hear something.

Snapnames owes that to Oversee and to the domain industry.

[anonymous on your side]

Rick, i love to hear you. But, you cant solve this and you know it. Call out all you want. Unless the ad partner who shall remain nameless redoes its revenue share with Oversee, that will be the only reason people move domain names away. And is that likely? No. You would need a substantial decrease in revenue from O to othe parking cos. That will get people to move. But they have thier rev share. Get G to penalize them, then you have your boycott. As for snapnames, for people not to use them, the catalog of name quality has to be zero. So regisrars need to pull deal, etc. Until then this is all wishful thinking. Youre blowing smoke against the wind. Nothing will come of this. Very very sad. And yes, I am anon.

[Bruce Gittleman]

Cover-up AND investigation.

They are not mutually exclusive.

I haven't read about a particular class of people who were harmed by the alleged shill bidding-those who used the artificially high winning bids as a benchmark to price their domains accordingly and were unable to sell them in an unrigged auction.

[JoanB]

Rick: I am glad to see that you are not lying down on this one. Anyone that has ever bought a domain at auction from Snapnames or anywhere else in the past or plans to in the future deserves to feel that all that can be done to protect the integrity of the process is being done. I personally think they may try to sweep this one under the rug due to the lack of further comment. Perhaps it's instinctual survival. Unfortunately, it seems to me that many in the industry see this as being something that they expected which doesn't say alot for their integrity. Everyone should feel angry, hurt and decieved. I'm glad you have the kahunas to speak your mind and hopefully you don't get discouraged easily. I look forward to your continued commentary on everything domain related.

[Roderick Pagnossin, Goodkarmaco]

It seems some of those in this business who are engaged in profit making are perfectly happy to keep rolling the dice if they are not the ones who get nicked.

They are the same lazy types who take everything for themselves when shown the dice have been weighted. Its not a worry to them they declare, just move on. Thats the easy way, just get up and move to another crap table.

People like that make me sick.

Don't warn others or do something about it. No wonder those posting you cannot do anything about it and other spineless comments are not backed with their signatures.

Those types of domain people are leeches. All of us should get behind this and put the effort out like Rick is doing. We have to give back to this business and that does not always entail just grabbing the money.

Americans are divided like never before. On one side you have those who care about free markets and on the other side you have those who want to take from free markets and spead the wealth around.

The terrible actions of this man and maybe Snap is another attempt to thwart free markets,( ours) and even though it is isolated in Snapnames business, if we are not outraged or if we do not get behind finding the truth and bringing all parties to justice about it I guarantee we will pay for it bigtime down the road.

Much time and effort is needed to bring to light this black mark on domainers and I can see no reason to belittle what Rick says. What the hell do you think he is doing this for? Its not for lining his pockets or some other agenda. Carry on Rick, this is one of the few places about the fraud we can really learn the truth.

[I've been scammed]

Well, wht doesn't someone who lives in the US that has been ripped off complain to the police.

Its simple really.

If snapnames is colluding and profiting from an illegal act then the directors go down.

Simple really.

[Anthony]

"Move on. Big mistakes were made at the highest levels. But you have also made mistakes and so have I. We are imperfect humans in an imperfect society. Nothing can change what has happened. We need to look forward. Move on and let this obsession of yours go."

WOW andre.... really? Were you involved? Did you work for Enron as well?

UNBELIVEABLE!!!!!!!

A damn shame.. seems like the only ones that may cry loud enough are the ones that were involved in a tainted auction. Everyone else wants this to go away so it does not effect the value of current domains.

Your a dying breed Rick! Mention God more and you would would be the definition of a true american. Our promisary notes say it(us$) "In God We Trust"

"Everything done in the dark will eventually come to light"

[Gazzip]

I voted cover up as I have yet to hear anyone say Nelson Brady has ALREADY been charged.

I think that there is more to the story and I still have doubts that Brady would have just used one bidding alias for 4 years considering all the "Halvarez" posts on various forums over the years.

1% ?

..what if it was 2/3/4% using more than one name ?

[Kevin]

It's just the usual clusterfuck that inevitably happens in every industry where there are great profits to be had by greedy people manipulating and gaming the system.

Look at all the devious market manipulation that goes on on Wall Street every single day and I'm sure what we know about is only a tiny fraction of all that really goes on.

[Steve O'Brien]

Yes Rick - this is crazy. Having participated in thousands of auctions over the years at Snap Names, we always thought there was something going on. I do recall a very large auction we won for one of our clients several years ago and the only other bidder was this "halveraz". We closed hundreds and hundreds of auctions there and Nelson was always very helpful. If people think that he was the only one involved here, I think they should follow the money as he did not pocket all the extra income derived from this fraud - Snap Names did. I am sure he had a bonus program setup, but Snap Names and now Oversee are the real criminals, in my opinion. They sent us an email offering us several hundred dollars in damages from their auditing company, as a refund - that does not even cover one of auctions we were involved in. What a scam - sours the whole domain industry, once again.

[Rick Schwartz]

Glad to see the revised agreement.

Big step forward. When domainers unite, things can get done. NOW folks can decide if they want the money and I believe most folks will sign as it seems quick and reasonable.

It’s a better day today than yesterday. But there are still many questions that need answers and until that happens, we can't just let this go and believe it is over. It is not. But we are on a better path. But certainly not good until we get real details.

[Rick Schwartz]

Final Poll Results

63.4 "Cover Up"
36.6. "FBI Investigation"

[C]

When you google fraud + auction + "shill bidding", it seems that the FBI is indeed apt to looking into this sort of thing- http://www.originalprop.com/blog/2009/03/16/mastro-auctions-closes-in-midst-of-fbi-investigation-into-shill-bidding-fraud-allegations/

Wouldn't mind an FBI investigation into the entire registrar-drop industry for fraud, either... There is unquestionably fraud going on. The question is- plenty of FBI agents understand autographed baseballs and fake autographs, but how many understand domain names?

[I've been scammed]

The FBI need to look into POOL as well. I think they scammed me with shill bids to my reserve auction bid price. Perhaps they could under oath release a press statement that they have never engaged in such practice.

While the FBI are at it, perhaps they might want to see whether any large portfolio holders actually scraped the USPTO trademark register and registered all the available matching .com's. I have my suspicion that one well known reseller that has in excess of a million domains did in that. At $100k a domain under the US anti cybersquatting regs it could amount to a not so small fine.

The domain industry is just a big scam... you see it all the time.

[I've been scammed]

The US anti cybersquatting regs might also apply to the winning shill bids as they cybersquatted on another legitimate buyers rights and purposefully tried to extort greater value from said buyer.

100k a time fine.

[Bill]

The FBI ...looking into Shill bidding on domain name drops... are you guys for real or did you all ride the short bus to school growing up?

[C]

The FBI is usually willing to look any case of interstate fraud where there are numerous victims. Domain names, or, as referenced above, autographed pictures and baseballs.

They aren't all machine-gun wielding jack-booters kicking in doors and chasing the next 9.11 hijacker. They have agents who handle precisely this sort of thing.

So, no, Bill. If has nothing to do with the 'short bus'. What this will take is someone with some kind of inside access to put bugs in the right ears and get gears turning. Fraud has unquestionably occurred... Someone out there has to know SOMEONE in an office, somewhere.

[Steven emory]

America is built on a foundation of corruption, greed, racism, discrimination and murder. The shill participants probably had degrees in US history from some prestigious college.

[CurtisNeeley]

http://www.NameMedias.com

private expirationd dates instead of private whois?
This is all they are trying to do with http://www.microsoftrewards.com right now.

THE SKY IS FALLING

[CurtisNeeley]

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois-search/microsoftrewards.com
Is registered to Network Solutions and has always been a parked page?
It expired Oct 17 and is still not available?
Another cover-up?

[flash speicher]

I think it will be a normal procedure to proclaim your safety.
I hope everything becomes normal for you.