More Fraudulent Bidding Activity at DropCatch.com

[Arca]

DropCatch.com just can't get rid of fraudulent bidding activity on their platform. Fraudulent bidders bid up prices, don’t pay when they win, and then the names are re-auctioned again and again until a legit bidder wins.

It is a win-win system for DropCatch. If the fraudulent bidders bid up a legit bidder, DC cash out even more thanks to the fraudulent bidder driving up the price beyond where it would have gone with only legit bidders. If the fraudulent bidder wins, they simply hold and re-auction the name over and over until they get a legit bidder that pays. It's a problematic system for regular bidders, because before these fraudulent bid handles get suspended, they bid up legit bidders in various auctions.

DropCatch's system enables them to get paid for names even with so many fraudulent non-paying bidders on their platform. But even with this auction restarting system in place, there are simply so many fraudulent bidders that they sometimes struggle to find a legit winner, despite multipe re-auctions. Take CannaMarket.com. The domain has already been won by THREE DIFFERENT fraudulent bidders. The first winner, in the original auction, was fraudulent. The name was re-auctioned. The second winner was fraudulent. The name was re-auctioned. The third winner was fraudulent (he bid the name up to $4K). When a name can score a triple fraudulent bidder combo streak on their platform, with no legit winner in sight, it’s clear that there is something wrong with how their system works. They are currently holding cannamarket.com in a dropcatch.com holding account, and I wonder whether they will try to re-auction the name a fourth time, or just let it drop since this is obviously a bad look for them when three out of three attempts of auctioning off the name ended up with fraudulent bidding activity (and who is going to be brave enough to bid against all the fraudulent bidders in a fourth auction? This name is apparently a fraud magnet).

Then there was this auction for lumeo.com recently (it was bid up to $14K by a bidder that most likely is fraudulent, and the winner has not yet paid, and the payment deadline passed a few days ago). How long until this name gets re-auctioned due to fraudulent bidding activity?

I often get emails from dropcatch saying "due to complications involving potentially fraudulent activity, the following auctions you had participated in are being restarted". A quick search shows an inbox full of emails notifying me of fraudulent bidding activity and auctions being restarted:

I just received another one today. It contained another SEVEN auction names that closed recently with fraudulent bidding activity:

cybercorp.com - Sold for $1251
sefin.com - Sold for $665
devlog.com - Sold for $343
thermair.com - Sold for $457
simplypretty.com - Sold for $515
finte.com - Sold for $350
kinovo.com - Sold for $330

All these auctions involved fraudulent bidding, and have now been restarted (you can go to dropcatch.com and bid on them right now). A quick visit to the dropcatch.com website shows a other restarted auctions as well, such as for evinite.com (sold for $142) and acercloud.com (sold for $370). Will legit bidders win these restarted auctions this time around?

DropCatch.com is very much like a game of hot potato, where fraudulent bidders bid up auctions and don't pay when they come out winning. There is a significant amount of auctions being restarted due to winners not paying up, when compared with other expired domains auctions platforms. The result is that legit bidders have to pay, literally, for the presence of so many fraudulent bidders on this platform that bid up the prices for legit bidders. Just an advice for everyone to be aware of this issue when participating in auctions at dropcatch.com.

 

[wwwweb]

Original auction data is still missing in most cases where a domain auction has been restarted. Any idea when this update will be fully implemented?

Namebio is still reporting CannaMarket.com sold for 4,383 USD after all this time, and their knowledge that it didn't close.

As Jason eluded to frustration in getting outbid, could be some of those people were sourcing namebio, and seeing higher recent fraudulently bid sale prices thinking they are getting value on their bids, when they never even actually closed.

 

[wwwweb]

Original auction data is still missing in most cases where a domain auction has been restarted. Any idea when this update will be fully implemented?

Not much has really been done, just moreso talked about, given a month in cyberspace is like an eternity.

As yet another week has come, and gone.

 

[main]

Massive difference in prices. Thanks @Arca

 

[wwwweb]

Thanks, for that informative list Arca

WittyNut's above bids above total $23,991

The reauction bids without WittyNut's fake bids total $8,883

Just for the names listed above, which is not the entire 69 of them that equals a difference of $15,131

Now what about all those bids where WittyNut came in second, got a phone call, got distracted with picking his nose etc... that he baited honest bidders with his fake bids, and took up proxy bids, that damage has to be huge.

 

[Arca]

I mentioned earlier that we only occasionally clean up DropCatch auctions, and we have to wait for the re-auction to finish before removing the previous one. Give me a day at least I was traveling.

Hopefully anyone who was aware of the previous close was smart enough to realize that if there were two auctions at DropCatch in less than a year it must have meant the first one didn't complete, and to disregard the closing price.

Here's what I removed this past run of the script, not sure they're all related to the same bidder:

orderorganic.com 1101 5/14/2017
smokewatchers.com 2550 7/8/2017
biomaps.com 370 7/11/2017
ghorganics.com 1800 7/12/2017
freshshots.com 264 7/16/2017
bluepharm.com 464 7/16/2017
bunnyland.com 145 7/17/2017
cannabishq.com 3500 7/21/2017
7thpower.com 329 7/28/2017
alternativeliving.com 1251 7/29/2017
livingmindfully.com 1113 7/30/2017
ecopot.com 1000 8/2/2017
cannamarket.com 4383 8/6/2017
mymedicine.org 446 8/10/2017
customplastic.com 1551 8/14/2017
bnsc.org 115 8/14/2017
dogtraining.org 1390 8/16/2017
ppaf.org 340 8/16/2017
nqan.com 395 8/17/2017
generaldoctor.com 2228 8/18/2017
matureblondes.com 230 8/19/2017
herbremedies.com 905 8/20/2017
foodguide.org 652 8/20/2017
pawh.com 381 8/20/2017
ehio.com 1150 8/20/2017
kgarden.com 244 8/21/2017
botoxcenter.com 349 8/24/2017
tastev.com 620 8/26/2017
jiiq.com 375 8/27/2017
tesetturgiyim.net 700 10/29/2017
elizabethrichardson.com 244 11/5/2017
iside.com 518 11/5/2017
unilogistics.com 2950 11/5/2017
bitcoinkurs.com 1700 11/7/2017
jvn.net 450 11/8/2017
metromasti.com 494 11/17/2017

corebody.com was won in an auction on November 11. I don't know the price and winner since this info is still not available in the dropcatch system once an auction gets restarted. The winner turned out to be fraudulent and didn't pay, the auction was restarted, and the domain sold for $1,707 in the restarted auction. Did your system manage to catch the Nov 11 winning price for this domain?

Regarding some of the older auctions previously won by WittyNut, like TZFX.com or VVYA.comndid you manage to grab the initial prices WittyNut won these for on separate days in August?

 

[Arca]

Tintin if you notice has cost a lot of us a lot of money, if he is another non paying bidder, who continues to bid. Bid me up many times, without fail.

I assume he has been banned as a result of not paying for his performancetraining.com win (as the auction has now been restarted, which "confirms" that he is now deemed a fraudulent/non-paying winner by DropCatch).

 

[wwwweb]

Both domains have some unusual whois, as if somebody trying to impersonate tucows/hover - powered privacy service. I'd say that this whois is incorrect for any namebright/dropcatch domain:

Registrant Name: Contact Privacy Customer
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: 96 Mowat Ave
Registrant City: Toronto
Registrant State/Province: Ontario
Registrant Postal Code: M6K 3M1
Registrant Country: CA
Registrant Phone: +1.3044056263
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: [email protected]

So, somebody with incorrect account details can be allowed to participate in dropcatch auctions, have their winnings be extended in non-paid status, and reauctions to be canceled?

Good catch, wow scanning that you would overlook it right away, maybe report it to icann. These people are not your average bear for sure, probably play with a lot of trademark names.

 

[wwwweb]

69 auctions were restarted as a result of WittyNut's months long streak of fraudulent bidding activity. Those auctions have now closed, and there is a clear price difference after the presence of that particular fraudulent bidder was eliminated. I've included some of the results from these newly closed auctions. Shows you the impact that these fraudulent bidders at dropcatch can have on auction prices. This issue seems to still be ongoing (I have not had time to post updates about auctions being restarted subsequent to fraudulent bidding, but there have been several non-wittynut related auctions restarted due to other non-paying bidders since my last post about it).

WittyNut in red and no WittyNut (restarted auction result) in green:

cannamarket.com
WittyNut: $4,383
New: $2,005

cannabishq.com
WittyNut: $3,500
New: $308

generaldoctor.com
WittyNut: $2,228
New: $488

smokewatchers.com
WittyNut: $2,550
New: $112

herbremedies.com
WittyNut: $905
New: $320

ecopot.com
WittyNut: $1,000
New: $439

orderorganic .com
WittyNut: $1,101
New: $210

ghorganics.com
WittyNut: $1,800
New: $810

customplastic.com
WittyNut: $1,551
New: $348

alternativeliving.com
WittyNut: $1,251
New: $755

bluepharm.com
WittyNut: $464
New: $701

ehio.com
WittyNut: $1,150
New: $905

kgarden.com
WittyNut: $244
New: $225

livingmindfully.com
WittyNut: $1,113
New: $827

biomaps.com
WittyNut: $370
New: $145

pawh.com
WittyNut: 381
New: $285

We all saw the extent of wittynut's damage here, and this is just a small sample, anyone get any of the promised refunds yet?

 

[Jasonn]

Will be interesting to see if filmmaking gets paid for..

 

[wwwweb]

https://dropcatch.wordpress.com/2017/12/07/dropcatch-re-auctions-and-winning-bidder-credits/

Great find, thank you for taking the time to post that.

The only concern I would have for people bidding on dropcatch is that everyone has the same timeline to make payment, no special considerations, all clients should be valued equally.

 

[Jasonn]

Wow filmmaking.com $35K, anyone catch the username that should be the key?

filmmaking.com 55,000 USD 2008-07-23 T.R.A.F.F.I.C.

I have sen a few of these 2008 sales that are still sitting with domainers, and selling for much less, who bit on that one 10 years ago.

Well if they get paid they better start refunding wittynuts scam bids, it's been over a month, they have already reauctioned those domains, and been paid for it, otherwise they are profiting from allowing fraud to happen, and continue on their platform.

infoXX and namesatz (not sure the exact spelling on that) were going at it for hours. Not sure who won though.

 

[wwwweb]

infoXX and namesatz (not sure the exact spelling on that) were going at it for hours. Not sure who won though.

After using dropcatch for several years, and bidding on a daily basis in the past, I try focus very hard on usernames to know what I am up against, and those two are not familiar at all. Chinese bidders love to sit there, and pushing the min bid, and waiting for the reset clock to go back to zero, and then bid a minimum bid again from my experience.

I even scanned some more popular past auctions, and I can't find any action on those usernames.

Those usernames are not striking a bell for me, either of them. Maybe others can weigh in also?

 

[offthehandle]

Excellent to take time necessary to investigate and put in all the effort to review past auctions and actually give refunds. The internal cost and manhours must have been quite high too, nor a simple process. Hope that clears the air now with those of you who don’t believe in the platform.

Thank you @Jeff Reberry @Rebies, but wish I would have read about it here on Namepros before on an unrelated blog! I didn’t receive any email alert about dropcatches blog post, which you might want to send out to all customers in the future. I would like to be on it.

What do you expect when companies compete with their customers? Shady operation that cherry picks domains for itself or its partners; shill bidding; no transparency, etc.

They obviously wouldn't have paid anything unless they were publicly outed here.

Where does your thinking originate? They don’t compete. You bid $59. And if you are the only bidder you get the name. If you and 12 others want the same name, then it is in auction and they don’t bid against their customers.

They’ve invested megabucks in their platform, and in sharing the resources with the rest of us, we ride their coattails, if you bid minimum and lose it to a “partner”, which happens to me frequently, I take personal responsibility for my decision and don’t blame someone else. You or I want a name bad enough, pay $59. Why should they give it to you at little or no profit? They have to pay for their overhead.

Please give some examples of shill bidding, as I have not seen any data anywhere posted by anyone.

 

[momentum]

Offthehandle, of course they compete. Are you saying that they don't register domains for themselves or their partners?

 

[anantj]

Offthehandle, of course they compete. Are you saying that they don't register domains for themselves or their partners?

Not if there is a private backorder for the domain on their platform

 

[Jasonn]

Wow filmmaking.com $35K, anyone catch the username that should be the key?

Never paid for.

 

[robert widener]

What do you expect when companies compete with their customers? Shady operation that cherry picks domains for itself or its partners; shill bidding; no transparency, etc.

They obviously wouldn't have paid anything unless they were publicly outed here.

thier all dirty

 

[ak4586]

I had a very bad experience on dropcatch !!

 

[wwwulff]

I had a very bad experience on dropcatch !!

Can you elaborate otherwise your remark is not worth much

 

[xynames]

Do you happen to have bidder handles for the deadbeats of such auctions, I guess we need to police Dropcatch just to make sure they are blocking these bidders from bidding again. Or to see if they are creating similar usernames.

Publicly out the deadbeats!

 

[Muhaysen]

Run away from dropcatch.com anyone has brain will understand they are needing money only, they will not allows to you be happy to get your domain without auction even no bidder with you.

https://www.complaintsboard.com/com...ted-800-and-didnt-get-the-domain-c788289.html

 

[Billidn]

Just my 2c on their registration policy and attempt to properly qualify legit customers. I opened an account at DropCatch.com last week and I thought their vetting policy was as good (maybe even a tad better) than Escrow.com. They required a Credit Card, also a Govt. Issued ID/ ie. Drivers License, and then a close up "selfie" of you holding your Drivers License (so they could compare photo on Drivers License to person holding), and of course email confirmation etc.

I am sure the bidding process can be "gamed" but i give them credit for trying to make sure they have done their best to confirm the identity of new customers. They might consider adding a phone call to new registrants as well so they can confirm phone and additional way to contact bidders, as well as to reconfirm the registration.

 

[Perveneficus]

All,
a.) What Jeff said above is absolutely correct. Especially with our making this issue right and figuring out a workable solution to where people were bid up by fraudsters.

Perhaps stop pissing of half the internet might help ?

If you want to claim fraud, please know I have stated on here in the past, and continue to state, NOT ME, NOT OUR COMPANY, NOT OUR EMPLOYEES. Not in the slightest chance. And if fraud is happening as you are claiming, I SHOULD BE IN JAIL, just like Halvarez should be. (In my opinion.) That is absolutely not the case. Much of what is here is speculation but far from a conspiracy as some are suggesting!!

Now this pissed me off, had to reply it will be deleted before i can blink but oh well.
No you are not a fraud you just operate in the grey area, Fair business capturing domains to extort them in the hope people pay up, It's brilliant but not nice. So don't be a freaking hypocrite and yell Bloody murder.

You are despicable truly, but yes not a fraud.

 

[ir7]

DropCatch.com just can't get rid of fraudulent bidding activity on their platform. Fraudulent bidders bid up prices, don’t pay when they win, and then the names are re-auctioned again and again until a legit bidder wins.

It is a win-win system for DropCatch. If the fraudulent bidders bid up a legit bidder, DC cash out even more thanks to the fraudulent bidder driving up the price beyond where it would have gone with only legit bidders. If the fraudulent bidder wins, they simply hold and re-auction the name over and over until they get a legit bidder that pays. It's a problematic system for regular bidders, because before these fraudulent bid handles get suspended, they bid up legit bidders in various auctions.

DropCatch's system enables them to get paid for names even with so many fraudulent non-paying bidders on their platform. But even with this auction restarting system in place, there are simply so many fraudulent bidders that they sometimes struggle to find a legit winner, despite multipe re-auctions. Take CannaMarket.com. The domain has already been won by THREE DIFFERENT fraudulent bidders. The first winner, in the original auction, was fraudulent. The name was re-auctioned. The second winner was fraudulent. The name was re-auctioned. The third winner was fraudulent (he bid the name up to $4K). When a name can score a triple fraudulent bidder combo streak on their platform, with no legit winner in sight, it’s clear that there is something wrong with how their system works. They are currently holding cannamarket.com in a dropcatch.com holding account, and I wonder whether they will try to re-auction the name a fourth time, or just let it drop since this is obviously a bad look for them when three out of three attempts of auctioning off the name ended up with fraudulent bidding activity (and who is going to be brave enough to bid against all the fraudulent bidders in a fourth auction? This name is apparently a fraud magnet).

Then there was this auction for lumeo.com recently (it was bid up to $14K by a bidder that most likely is fraudulent, and the winner has not yet paid, and the payment deadline passed a few days ago). How long until this name gets re-auctioned due to fraudulent bidding activity?

I often get emails from dropcatch saying "due to complications involving potentially fraudulent activity, the following auctions you had participated in are being restarted". A quick search shows an inbox full of emails notifying me of fraudulent bidding activity and auctions being restarted:
Show attachment 71846

I just received another one today. It contained another SEVEN auction names that closed recently with fraudulent bidding activity:

cybercorp.com - Sold for $1251
sefin.com - Sold for $665
devlog.com - Sold for $343
thermair.com - Sold for $457
simplypretty.com - Sold for $515
finte.com - Sold for $350
kinovo.com - Sold for $330

All these auctions involved fraudulent bidding, and have now been restarted (you can go to dropcatch.com and bid on them right now). A quick visit to the dropcatch.com website shows a other restarted auctions as well, such as for evinite.com (sold for $142) and acercloud.com (sold for $370). Will legit bidders win these restarted auctions this time around?

DropCatch.com is very much like a game of hot potato, where fraudulent bidders bid up auctions and don't pay when they come out winning. There is a significant amount of auctions being restarted due to winners not paying up, when compared with other expired domains auctions platforms. The result is that legit bidders have to pay, literally, for the presence of so many fraudulent bidders on this platform that bid up the prices for legit bidders. Just an advice for everyone to be aware of this issue when participating in auctions at dropcatch.com.

Thanks for sharing!