Yesterday was a dark day for the major domain industry player Oversee.net as one of their companies, SnapNames, exposed a massive fraud. SnapNames VP of Engineering, Nelson Brady, was caught “shill” bidding on many tens-of-thousands of domain auctions, since early 2005, under the alias “halvarez”. This should be big news in itself, but the real kicker is that the domain community asked for his head many, many times over the last 4 years.
Personally, I feel that fraud represents a substantial blow to the entire credibility of Oversee. Could this be the end of SnapNames? That is definitely possible. Rather than rehash the story, I would like to provide you with links to my favourite coverage of the issue. Stay tuned, as this is going to be something to watch over the next year.
DNJournal’s “Lowdown” complete with photos of the fraudster | Link
DotWeekly’s take on the Halvarez/Brady situation | Link
Bruce Marler’s post on the bigger picture of what could happen to the industry | Link
There are many more articles to be found and a wealth of information to be shared from the forums, so be sure to dig deep if you are as interested in this scandal as I.
You can count on SnapNames going out of business, I know alot of the big domain buyers will no longer trust them. There are too many unknowns and too many shadows in that company, they are done for good.
Now the question is, which company will take their market share? Based on credibility, I think Dan Rubin’s new drop catching service will get a massive boost.
Great post Cole!
Dan
Thanks for the comment, Dan! SnapNames really seems to be doing all they can at the moment, employing a forensic accounting and mitigation firm, but they are going to be hit hard. Luckily for Oversee.net, a lot of this fraud took place before their acquisition of SnapNames and by a substantial share-holder no less. Still, the brand has been tarnished and it is indeed time for legitimate drop catchers to step in and take Snap’s market share.
Our law firm is investigating a claim against SnapNames relating to allegations of bid rigging. We would be very interested in learning more about your experience, and those of other SnapNames bidders whom you might know. Anything you share would be confidential, unless you tell us otherwise.
At some point, we may be interested in filing a class action lawsuit. If we do, no one in the class would have to pay anything unless there was a recovery. Even then, our fees would have to be approved by a court.
We would love to hear from you. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Austin Tighe
512.372.8100
austin@feazell-tighe.com