SnapNames plagued by scammers affect legitimate buyers.
Moniker is under fire once again, after a domain that changed ownership several times in recent months, was deemed as “stolen” and was reclaimed.
In a sticky – and stinky, for Moniker – situation unfolding over at top domain forum, DNForum.com, the domain HKE.net was sold to domain investor James Booth, brother of popular domainer Andy Booth.
James lost “almost $1,000” according to his statement, after the domain was taken away by Moniker.
After we provided James with some information of past ownership using the historical WHOIS feature of DomainTools, it appears that the seller, Alex, and its original owner, Chris, are both established and well-respected DNForum members.
So where did this seemingly straightforward chain of events go bad?
The culprit appears to be a person who bought it from Chris on SnapNames roughly three months ago; that transaction took several weeks to be determined as fraudulent and the funds were reversed, but not before the domain changed hands once again, being sold to Alex by the thief.
In essence, Moniker is now returning the domain back to Chris, who is very concerned about the “tarnishing” of his name and of his domain asset, HKE.net, in the process.
According to recent reporting we have performed, this type of reversal of funds after weeks and months have passed is plaguing SnapNames, and its sister company, Moniker.
Despite recent improvements in customer service satisfaction, SnapNames will need to implement stricter security measures for domains that are sold by private parties on its marketplace.
Read the full thread here.
This post is 100% true!
*
This is precisely why I stick with expiring and pending delete auctions (as a buyer) and Sedo and Godaddy as a seller.
*
Ms Domainer – I could not agree more. There is plenty of liability when a sale isn’t in fact final, until weeks and months later!
Where did you see the “recent improvements in customer service satisfaction”?
It took them 10 days to provide me with a simple invoice. 10 whole days…
Imbeciles…
I know one needs to ‘raise Cain’ in forums or email Marti directly, but it seems that pattern counts as an improvement, compared to past days. 😉
Moniker is a complete joke. Its one problem after another with them.
I lost 7 highly valuable domains due to this same scenario of Moniker not securing funds. The sad thing is Moniker treats the victim like the bad guy and still hasn’t taken responsibility! Keep domaining, James! 🙂
Moniker and snapnames are both terrible. I avoid doing business with them when possible. I really hope they get what’s coming to them and shut their doors.