Is Halverez Back In Action??

[JuniperPark]

Years ago, I was the first person to notice suspicious bidding at Snapnames by an account called "halverez".

He seemed to always enter auctions at the last possible millisecond. When Google Street View posted the first working images in the Seattle test area, it showed that the address "halverez" was using was a KFC chicken store. Emails to Snapnames execs assured me that the account was verified and "totally legit"... but eventually we learned that I had stumbled upon a $20 million scam.

A few weeks ago I saw a domain name I like, so I registered my interest at the usual "big 3" dropcatchers, starting with Namejet, and I was the only bidder at the 2 who show such info.... Or so I thought.

I saw that Namejet caught the domain, but my "you won" email never came. The next day the domain was registered to BuyDomains. HUH??? I contacted Namejet, and they told me they had no record of me registering to bid for the domain at all, and BuyDomains was the only ID that did. I re-checked the other sites, and sure enough, I was the only bidder at Snapnames, and I was registered at Pool but they don't show other bidders. OK, so perhaps I made an error of some sort at Namejet... but kind of odd that I would remember it well enough that there were no other bidders, and if BuyDomains was interested why did they not put in a bid at Snapnames? That doesn't make sense, but it's possible. I decide to pay better attention next time.

Next time comes, I find a domain I want, and I'm the 2nd bidder at Namejet and 2nd bidder at Snapnames. Namejet catches the domain, but bidding goes through the roof immediately.... but I notice there are 4 bidders, not 2. HMMMMMM. After some clicking, I find the bid details, and I see that 2 bidders entered at the last moment, 8:59am, "halverez" style.

Has anyone else seen anything like this, or any other suspicious bidding at the dropcatchers?

 

[Theo]

Hank Alvarez aka "halvarez". Those were the days!

 

[NameYourself]

It's not uncommon for bidders to backorder at the very last possible second. I've even had some of my own listings show "0" bids but either it must not have updated at the last second or there was some kind of delay in presenting the info, and it ends up in auction even though the last thing I saw was "0". So just because someone enters at the last second I think would mean nothing on its own as it's very common practice. Unless, you are saying a bidding alias appears in the last seconds of the auctions which were not present from the start of the auction (cut-off time).. if that's what you are saying then certainly that would be peculiar. If it is, please clarify.

The only thing I can think of on the Snapnames one from a couple weeks ago is that your bid didn't process in time.. did you wait until the last second to submit.. or even if it wasn't, is it possible that somehow there was an error either server-side on snapnames' end or client-side within your browser. Was there any kind of confirmation that your bid was placed in "pending orders"? It would seem most likely that BuyDomains was the only other bidder and if an error caused yours to not go through all the way for whatever reason, then this would also explain why you received no winning confirmation, and also why BuyDomains was immediately awarded the name. Also, it would be more suspicious if it were awarded to someone using fake info as happened years ago with the case you mentioned rather than it going to a well-known, very large company. Not that it would make it impossible, just less likely.

Most likely random happenings, but if it continues or a pattern emerges, then certainly update with more info.

 

[JuniperPark]

Yes, I'm talking about new bidders coming in during the final seconds of the cut-off time, which is exactly what halvarez's account appeared to do years ago because "he" was an automated script running on the host server, and didn't have to be concerned with internet lag time or small variances in clocks on servers.

While I can understand that "big" buyers don't want to put in initial bids too soon, it doesn't seem worth the high risk of an internet connection that slows for a few seconds or computer clocks not exactly in sync to hold off entering auctions until the last second -- and that makes me suspicious. We're NOT talking about the super valuable auctions, because people bid those up early. We're only talking about the ones where nobody's really sure if it's worth $60, so there is no early bid-up. That's exactly why the halverez activity made me suspicious years ago.

It's possible that my 1st case described above just never fully entered, or I was too late -- but I've not made a mistake like that in years. But also remember that there were definitely no other bidders at the other dropcatcher -- very suspicious.

 

[Theo]

I would blame this on all the listings that these days promote available domains, hence leading to late minute bidding. BTW I received a nice check back in the day from Rust Consulting that managed the Hank Alvarez scandal.

 

[Biggie]

BTW I received a nice check back in the day from Rust Consulting that managed the Hank Alvarez scandal.

I got one two, Theo


now..... if I could only snipe "saggydimes" a few times.