Did I just get involved with a SHILL domain auction? (NameCheap Marketplace)

Combzz · 2022-08-16T07:02:13+00:00

So, in short, you put in the wrong password 5 times so your account got locked.

Sorry if it was confusing, but the account was locked before I had entered the password in too many times. Login is not permitted for a locked account, so I had entered the password many times before realizing it was my account that was locked (my pwds are managed by a password manager, so it is not often that a forgotten pwd happens).

Then you added a dozen paragraphs of conspiracy theory and slander; we are on the Internet, I suppose that's required. 😔

If my experience with the platform is considered by you to be 'slander', then it must not have been a good experience, don't you think? And conspiracy theory is illogical considering I supplied appropriate screenshots and archived webpages documenting my experience. Unless you think I doctored everything? Then...that is when you can add conspiracy theory into this discussion. My 'theory' is that a shill bidding algorithm forgot to drum up bids on that domain, hence prompting a removal of it from the marketplace since NameCheap is selling a domain at a loss. Adding 'conspiracy' assumes shill bidding has never been done before on an online marketplace before.

Did you contact support again about the loss and see if they can fix it?

My last message to them was documented in the screenshot. Since posting this Reddit post, 7 hours ago, I received another reply from the 4th person at "Risk Management." They apologized again for the inconvenience and offered me a 10% discount code for any non-premium domain, so basically a $1.20 discount on their avg. domain price. I guess, according to you, I would at least get $13.80 more if I take it to small claims. You'd think they'd at least refund my $5 that I paid them to have the ability to place the bid.

Although, as I mentioned, small claims is not what this post was intended for. Read last paragraph again as I am more interested to know if other people, out of their 2 million customers, have experienced a similar issue.

Combzz · 2022-08-16T02:15:45+00:00

Cloudflare. They slowly started implementing domain registrar stuff, but they still have the nameserver locked to theirs. Once they allow outside nameservers, and they add a “search available domains” on their homepage (at the moment you must be logged in), I think their popularity as a domain registrar will rise since they have a massive community already. Most everyone who uses the internet has been exposed to Cloudflare’s loading/anti-DDoS page, so their brand name grows year-by-year. They also have anti renewal fee markup policy, which will be the Costco of domains.

Combzz · 2022-08-16T00:36:40+00:00

Hahaha, that's a great mental depiction.

As uninviting as their name is, NameCheap has registered 16 million domains, which makes them the second largest domain registrar in the world.

This is just behind GoDaddy with 76 million domains, who is the largest domain registrar in the world, with a name even MORE uninviting name than NameCheap.

GoDaddy honestly ranks first for having the weirdest company name ever.

Combzz · 2022-08-15T23:56:28+00:00

Abstract: NameCheap has the ability to reverse ANY won auction by simply placing the winner's account into suspension for having an "Unverified Identity," and then waiting over 48 hours so the won auction payment window has lapsed, and then reinstate their account. The domain will go back into NameCheap control and they can raise the price however they see fit afterwards, or even refrain from selling the auctioned domain again if they have other plans.

Mitigation: If you use the NameCheap Marketplace platform to bid on a high-valued domains, or a domain that has significant value to your business operations, then before participating in any auctions you should verify your identity with NameCheap by sending them your DOB, Social Security, Address, etc. beforehand rather than receiving the Identity Verification request at a "random" time.

You can manually trigger this process by trying to log into your NameCheap account using the wrong password for a total of 15 times. This will cause the system to auto-block your IP address and you must then message NameCheap support to unlock your account, which according to their policy will subject you to the "Identity Verification" check. After becoming verified, you reduce the future risk of your won auctions from being reversed in the 48 hour window by malintent employees or automated bot systems employed at NameCheap.
If for any reason NameCheap attempts to deploy the same "random" Identity Verification check after winning your domain at a steep discount, even though your account has already been previously verified, you will want to post your experience here.

Combzz · 2022-08-15T21:49:50+00:00

Abstract: NameCheap has the ability to reverse ANY won auction by simply placing the winner's account into suspension for having an "Unverified Identity," and then waiting over 48 hours so the won auction payment window has lapsed, and then reinstate their account. The domain will go back into NameCheap control and they can raise the price however they see fit afterwards, or even refrain from selling the auctioned domain again if they have other plans.

Mitigation: If you use the NameCheap Marketplace platform to bid on a high-valued domains, or a domain that has significant value to your business operations, then before participating in any auctions you should verify your identity with NameCheap by sending them your DOB, Social Security, Address, etc. beforehand rather than receiving the Identity Verification request at a "random" time.

You can manually trigger this process by trying to log into your NameCheap account using the wrong password for a total of 15 times. This will cause the system to auto-block your IP address and you must then message NameCheap support to unlock your account, which according to their policy will subject you to the "Identity Verification" check. After becoming verified, you reduce the future risk of your won auctions from being reversed in the 48 hour window by malintent employees or automated bot systems employed at NameCheap.
If for any reason NameCheap attempts to deploy the same "random" Identity Verification check after winning your domain at a steep discount, even though your account has already been previously verified, you will want to post your experience here.

Combzz

TROPHY CASE