|
Photos
of Alleged SnapNames Shill Bidder Nelson Brady and Our
Thoughts on a Scandal That is Rocking the Domain
Industry
|
At
the 2007
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West conference in Las
Vegas
I was
scheduled to speak about the domain aftermarket
at a closing day luncheon sponsored by SnapNames.com.
Two of the |
|
company's
Vice Presidents, Mason Cole and Nelson
Brady, spoke to the crowd just before I went
to podium and I took the opportunity to
snap some photos of them for our files. At the
time SnapNames was riding high and less than six
months later the company would be scooped up
by Oversee.net
in a deal reportedly worth $25 million.
On
that Wednesday in March 2007 I met Brady for the
first time and he came across as a very
personable and intelligent guy. No one could
have guessed that, if company
allegations released today are true,
Brady, under the user name Halvarez, had
already been been involved in rigging
SnapNames auctions for two years, behavior
they say continued for two more years before
SnapNames finally discovered the fraud and made
it public in a letter
to their customers today.
Brady
was fired a week ago Monday, but |
Nelson
Brady
Former SnapNames VP of Engineering
who is accused of shill bidding in thousands
of domain auctions dating back to 2005.
(Photo copyright - DNJournal.com)
|
|
the
fallout from the scandal will be felt for a long
time to come and, like a dirty bomb going
off in a metropolitan area, the radiation will
contaminate innocent people as well as the
guilty. Bidders are now asking if they can trust
anyone. While SnapNames obviously faces
the biggest hurdle, other companies will also
have to reassure skeptical customers that they
provide a level playing field. That
started just hours after the SnapNames news
broke when one of their chief competitors, NameJet,
sent
a letter to their customers saying
they had systems in place to prevent the same
thing from happening there.
A
quick read of commentary on blogs
and in domain forums
shows that the distrust is spreading
beyond auction houses to all kinds of industry
service providers, including PPC companies and
affiliate programs. The incident has also given
the industry's critics fresh ammunition that
they
are using to try to taint everyone
involved in the domain business. For one man,
Brady is causing an incredible amount of collateral
damage beyond the millions he could cost his
former employer in legal fees and settlements
with customers who were shortchanged.
|
 Nelson
Brady speaking at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West in Las Vegas
in March 2007
(Photo copyright - DNJournal.com)
Brady
reportedly drove prices up with fraudulent bids in as
many as 50,000 auctions. SnapNames announced a
plan to compensate their customers, saying "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.
"
It
was wise for SnapNames to lay their cards on the table
and declare their intention to make things right, but
this remains a nightmare situation for everyone.
In addition to SnapNames' financial liability to
customers, anticipated legal fees and the hit to their
reputation, bidders have lost untold thousands of
dollars as well as domains they should have won. As for
Brady his career is obviously in tatters. One can only
imagine why someone with his background would go down
this path. A brief bio on Brady's at ICANNWiki
says "Nelson
is the VP of Engineering at SnapNames.com and also
manages TelID's
technical operation. He has 20 years experience in the
design and implementation of complex software systems.
Nelson's experience includes key technical positions at Dynamics
Research Corporation, Mentor Graphics, OrCAD
and Tektronix. Nelson has been a member of
the Portland Venture Group, advising early stage
companies on software application development." If
the charges against him are true - and no one has heard
his side of the story yet - where will he be welcome
now?
 \
(All
photos on this site copyrighted by DNJournal.com
and may not be copied or reproduced without written
permission)
The primary
question being thrown at SnapNames now is how did Brady
get away with this for four years, especially
when many domainers say they spotted the fraudulent
bidding patterns in the Halvarez account and repeatedly
alerted the company. I spoke with Oversee VP of
Communications Mason
Cole this evening and he said Brady held a position
of trust, covered his tracks well and was the last
person anyone expected this from. "We all feel
wounded here," Cole said. |
