Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Oversee's SnapNames Hit By Domain Bid Scandal

Los Angeles-based Oversee.net is in the midst of a major scandal today, as the firm revealed to customers that its SnapNames unit was the victim of a shill bidding scheme by a former employee. According to SnapNames, it discovered the shill bidding by that employee in October, finding that the bids had gone on since March of 2005--well before Oversee.net bought SnapNames, in June of 2007. The firm said it is will provide refunds on domain auctions to its customers, on a customer-by-customer basis, and has terminated the employee in question. SnapNames operates an online service which allows users to bid on an auction of expiring and deleting names at domain name registrars. A spokesperson at Oversee.net said, when asked if it would pursue any action against the sellers of SnapNames that "While SnapNames or Oversee don't discuss legal issues, we will consider all available legal remedies." (Update: DomainNameNews is reporting that the shill bidder was VP of Engineering at SnapNames.)

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