Halvarez Registrant Of Parked Domains – Who’s Getting The Ad Revenue?
November 10, 8 CommentsGiven Snapnames opened up their auction history, I decided to login and take a look at some auctions where I’d encountered Halverez – there were quite a few. It was like a trip down memory lane…. I remember back in 2005 when I bid on …. 
While plowing through the results, a few things came to mind when I reviewed this auction below:
Question #1
Should people be compensated by Snapnames when they lose the auction to Halverez? In other words, Halverez ends up with the domain name they were bidding on?
Snapnames has stated they ” will offer a rebate, with 5.22% interest” but that’s only to those whose bids were inflated by the fake auction bids.
Question #2
What is Snapnames going to do about domain names that are currently registered to Halverez? The current whois record for this name that I lost at auction, has known contact details for Halverez. The creation date matches up perfectly to the auction date.
Question #3
Who is receiving the revenue from domain names that Halverez “won” at auction? For example, the domain name I lost to Halverez above is currently parked:
Who has been making money from this domain? How many other domains are there like this? In terms of compensation, how do you put a price on lost opportunity cost, revenue from parking/development and revenue from domain sales?
This is starting to take shape now that there appears to be a Class Action Lawsuit filed.
Tell us what you think! Have you have lost to Halverez? What happened?
Halvarez Stimulus Check From Snapnames
November 5, 1 CommentMany of us including Acro and myself have been discussing Halvarez for years – look at this thread on DNF. This isn’t anything new. Having experienced this first hand, you can see the date and time stamps I posted in the thread!
Unfortunately we may never REALLY know what went on. What is good, is that Snapnames had the guts (some could call it a moral obligation or duty of care) to admit they had a problem and are in the process of addressing it.
Can I suggest a few questions to be added to their FAQ:
Q1. Given all the noise (some could call it evidence) in the industry, why has it taken us 4 years and 8 months to identify this?
Q2. Given due diligence, accounting standards, segregation of duties etc.. how come we failed to identify this in the first place?
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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.
- 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.
- Enhanced monitoring of bidding activity for suspect behavior
- Additional controls over financial transactions
- Specific domain name registration policies for employees
+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.
Horse Race Stops Expired Domains In Australia
November 3, 1 Comment
It appears that AusRegistry didn’t release .au expired domains today. This would normally happen on National Public Holidays, but its not a National Public holiday….
It just so happens that in Melbourne, Victoria (where AusRegistry is based) its the running of the Melbourne Cup.
In February, 2009 auDA announced that it had extended its .au Registry Licence Agreement with AusRegistry until 2014. They have a few more Melbourne Cups to get it right.
