This afternoon, SnapNames sent an email to their customers alerting them that a (assuming former) employee had registered an account at SnapNames and had been bidding on various auctions. The result of this activity is that many people who were bidding on the same auctions either lost a domain they would have won or paid much more for winning.
SnapNames has promised to repay anyone who won an auction that was bid up and pay them interest (5.22%). This sound like a pretty fair remedy to the situation. However, there was no mention of the domains that people would have won had this employee not won the auction.
A rather startling snippet from the email: “The incremental revenue from the bidding represented approximately one percent of SnapNames’ auction revenue since 2005.”
Here is a copy of the email that was sent earlier today:
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: support@snapnames.com
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
President and CEO
Craig Snyder
General Manager, SnapNames.com
SnapNames
1600 SW 4th Avenue, Suite 400
Portland, OR 97201
If you are using the default permalink settings for your Wordpress blog, you need to stop what you are doing (after you read this post) and FIX IT right now. Seriously, it will take you less than 5 minutes and you will do your blog a huge favor in terms of search engine optimization and overall user experience.
Doug Karr just blogged about a great, simple Wordpress plug-in that will maintain redirects to all your old permalinks after you make the change. Dealing with all those newly broken links is what stopped him (and me) from making the change. Honestly, I hadn’t put much thought into the permalink structure on this blog, but it’s such a simple and fast change, everybody should do it!
Check out Doug’s easy to follow post on Optimizing WordPress Permalinks and understand the three main reasons you should make this change today.
I have always had a mild addiction to registering domain names. Either because they were short, sounded “cool,” or I had some brilliant idea that I never had time for–I’m register-happy. Most of the renewal fees are spread out over the year, but around this time and again in January, I get hit with a bunch at once and it is a painful reminder that I need to thin the herd.
So, below is a list of domains I’d like I need to let go. If I could keep them forever or had the time to develop them, I would. I’ve decided to offer each of them for a flat $25 (free push from Go Daddy).
Contact me if you are interested.
| APPGIG.COM | domain only | |
| BETAJUNKIE.COM | domain & site | |
| BSLINKS.COM | domain & site | |
| BUDDYADS.NET | domain only | |
| BUYMYAPP.COM | domain only | |
| CAPTIONFOO.COM | domain only | |
| CHROMEHQ.COM | domain & site | |
| CODERUSH.WS | domain only | |
| CURBD.ORG | domain only | |
| DESIGNFLOP.COM | domain only | |
| INDYR.COM | domain only | |
| INDYTHING.COM | domain only | |
| INUPDATES.COM | domain only | |
| NASCARGANG.COM | domain only | |
| NASCARGANGS.COM | domain only | |
| OVSW.COM | domain only | |
| POSTEVERYDAY.COM | domain only | |
| SILVERLIGHTNOW.COM | domain only | |
| SQUARESHARE.ORG | domain only | |
| TWSSBUTTON.COM | domain only | |
| VOSSU.COM | domain only | |
| VOYAGERHQ.COM | domain & site | |
| WEBSTREAKING.COM | domain only | |
| WIFIINDY.COM | domain only | |
| WPLAB.COM | domain only | |
| WPSPONSOR.COM | domain only | |
| WPSTAR.COM | domain only |
Just a quick update for anyone who happens to read this blog and not follow me on Twitter. Monday morning at 5:10 AM, I became a father. My amazing wife delivered Alexandra Rose at 5 lbs, 15 oz, and 18 inches long. She was 5.5 weeks early and needs to stay in the NICU for a short while to rest up.
You can see way more pictures than you probably care to look at on my flickr page.
I recently came across (and started using) a new website called FeaturedUsers.com. They are a Twitter app ad network:
…If you’re a Twitter user, it’s a great way to get more followers and support your favorite Twitter apps. If you’re a Twitter app developer, it’s a simple way to start monetizing your application.
The basic idea is that Twitter users can gain exposure and followers by paying to have their Twitter details show up on various Twitter app websites. The idea is simple, cheap, and will not turn you into a Twitter superstar overnight. However, it’s a great way to help support 3rd party Twitter apps and gain some followers in the process.
As Twitter spam is on the rise, many are quick to denounce anything that even looks like spam on Twitter (and usually with good reason). This kind of Twitter ad network is a great alternative to spamming people directly on Twitter. Advertising yourself here still gets your name in front of a highly targeted audience (Twitter users) without cluttering up people’s tweet streams.
In a way, FeaturedUsers.com helps keep spam out of your twitter stream. And that should make any tweep happy.
Check ‘em out over at FeaturedUsers.com.
This past weekend marked the third successful close to an Indiana-based Startup Weekend. Startup Weekend Indianapolis was a long time in coming, but in the end managed to pull together over 40 local technology and startup enthusiasts and crank out 5 viable projects/companies in 54 hours.
Starting around 5:00 PM on Friday, everyone crowded into the first floor of the ET building at the Purdue School of Engineering & Technology (sponsor) at IUPUI for check-in, pizza, and shelter from the cold. After heading over to the auditorium, introductions, sponsor thank-yous, and the pitches began.
Five projects eventually emerged (originally 4– the children’s book team split Saturday morning after some spirited discussions). Having spent most of my time in Bloomington Startup Weekend in the developers group, I wanted to float around more at this weekend and take live video and photos. Below are the logos and links to the projects created at the weekend.
It is worth noting that ShoutNow had a rather unique and awesome final presentation that involved the presenter answering his phone, recording a brief message, pasting the phone numbers of about 20 members of the audience into their application, and seconds later phones everywhere started ringing throughout the auditorium. Several people flipped on their speakerphone and you could hear the message being played back to everyone. It was a very engaging and fun effect.
Here are the 5 projects:
ShoutNow
A rapid voice messaging service which allows users to instantly share voicemails with an unlimited network of contacts by placing just one phone call.
Pocket Story Book (I consulted on the logo design) 
A service to create custom children’s books which can be shared via download to the Web or iPhone, or by printing through a 3rd party book publisher.
Pocket Tales
Interactive children’s eBooks for the iPhone and the iPod touch. Sold through Apple’s AppStore, Pockettales’ applications convert ordinary mobile devices into fun, educational tools.
More Than A Meal
Bad things can happen to good people. When the unexpected happens, your friends need More Than A Meal.
ScatterGear
A market-specific online storefront that offers goods and services to and for military personnel and their families.
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