An important message from Snapnames

[Onward]

Wow - Good to hear the person was discovered.

Was this Havarez?

 

[mike031]

thanks for the notice rob and we look forward for more updates.. keep us posted!

 

[britishbulldog]

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: [email protected]
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

 

[exxe]

http://www.dnforum.com/f205/important-message-snapnames-thread-394222.html

 

[irongloves]

It seems it is impossible for people to refrain from bid shilling.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

What I find funny is how they down play 5% SINCE 2005!

Affected a small pertenage my ass and the refund is a joke 5% to affected parties, really my 4 or 5 figure name was just affected by 5% because of this employees actions?

For damn sure they know ALL the auction he bid in and EXACTLY how much, 5%, who's the theif?

 

[cursal]

Just got the email. Glad the person was caught.
Please keep us posted!

 

[katherine]

I appreciate they are not trying to cover it up... transparency is a must if you want to foster trust.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

What I find funny is how they down play 5% SINCE 2005!

Affected a small pertenage my ass, do you realize what 5% makes up! The refund is a joke too 5% to affected parties, really my 4 or 5 figure name was just affected by 5% because of this employees actions?

For damn sure they know ALL the auction he bid in and EXACTLY by how much, 5%, who's the theif?

There is no way it could be halverez, that dudes in 105% of auctions lol

 

[mike031]

i am 95% sure it was not halvarez !

as for 5% of auctions... well, u guys do know that one of those years mentioned snapnames made close to $50,000,000 in revenue... yes in 1 year

 

[dnbknowledge]

and the refund is a joke 5% to affected parties, really my 4 or 5 figure name was just affected by 5% because of this employees actions?

For damn sure they know ALL the auction he bid in and EXACTLY how much, 5%, who's the theif?

What they mean is that they'll offer 5% interest aside from giving you back an amount which represents the difference between what you paid and what you would have paid if that guy wouldn't have placed any bids:

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.

 

[jasdon11]

They're refunding the difference, PLUS interest at 5.22%.

 

[dnbknowledge]

They're refunding the difference, PLUS interest at 5.22%.

Yep

 

[theinvestor]

Sounds fair to me.

My question is...where do they refund the difference? The entire auction is a sham if the bidder ran up an auction. Each case would be different.

 

[ydnaemsti]

I just received an email from SnapNames.com. If this is not the biggest news I have been waiting for years not, I don't know what is. We speculated this all along. I wrote to SnapNames.com about this and they always said "No".

I'm not going to post the email here, but if you got an email about the internal bidder we can discuss.

 

[FormerDnForumer]

What I find funny is how they down play 5% SINCE 2005!

Affected a small pertenage my ass, do you realize what 5% makes up! The refund is a joke too 5% to affected parties, really my 4 or 5 figure name was just affected by 5% because of this employees actions?

For damn sure they know ALL the auction he bid in and EXACTLY by how much, 5%, who's the theif?

There is no way it could be halverez, that dudes in 105% of auctions lol

lol and I agree with you. :lol:

 

[PRED]

they 'dismissed' the employee :uhoh:
they havent rung serious fraud office or police?

5% is a lot as its 5% since 2005. and most happened between 2005-2007.
so maybe upto 10% during 05-07 period?

good on them going public etc and being honest but this flags up big security issues imho

 

[Devil Dog]

Oh snap! Wonder what the bidders name was? I'd like to go back through my auctions in the last 3 1/2 years and see if I'm owed something!

 

[Devil Dog]

Two threads have already been created discussing this issue.

 

[ydnaemsti]

can't find them.