warning Namecheap.com's Marketplace Questionable Policy

[silentg]

I was part of a domain auction and ended up losing the auction to another bidder. That winning bidder tried to sell the domain before paying for it and didn't pay for the auction at the end since they couldn't find any offer within 2 day time period.

I was offered the domain for purchase but the problem was that the winning bidder had 17 bids in total and they only voided the winning bid. They wanted me to pay $2915 without removing the other bids. I went back and forth with their customer service team and they wouldn't see the issue. Worst of all their customer service team wasnt even reading the support ticket properly before sending the reply.

See the screenshot: Winning bidders bids are highlighted:

It took a twitter post and couple of days for them to notice the issue:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1505495549293871104

when they asked me to pay for it, they said there wouldn't be any penalty:

and then when they cancelled the auction the next day, they sent me the opposite e-mail:

This is their policy not to cancel bids.

This post is to warn others when you're offered to buy a domain that winning bidder didn't pay. Check the bidding history before paying.

 

[silentg]

Same bidder that didn't pay for it before is now bidding on the domain again:

Support and product manager responded to my tweets saying they took action. Looks like they did nothing.

 

[silentg]

They have finally banned the bidder and cancelled the new auctions.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Is there any

49448
Another auction without paying bidder. This domain got relisted for auction again.
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This bidder "b9d2acc80da8" is still an active at NameCheap. Even though the bidder should've been banned, he/she is allowed to bid up auctions. Reported it to them yesterday and no action has been taken.

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That is disturbing, if truly someone is bidding up the domains, then not paying, and being allowed to continue doing this on other auctions. Thanks for alerting us to this concern.

 

[william]

This happened to me on Dynadot as well.

I can see three logical reasons why they allow this to happen:

1) Higher profits
2) Two people may bid up a name from $2 to $2 million, preventing all the potential buyers bidding on it. And if your first bid before the fake bids was $2, you get the domain for that much. A lot of scamming potential.
3) Technically, your highest bid is what you were willing and agreed to pay (even though you were competing against a fake bidder).

So, there is no great solution to this. The best thing to do is to refuse to pay and have the auction re-run. The fake bidder should have their IP, payment, and address information banned. All bidders should have to submit valid ID to be confirmed. But none of this will prevent sites like DropCatch.com from using shill bidders to drive up their profits.

 

[GoKaizen]

Shill bidding.

They have finally banned the bidder and cancelled the new auctions.

 

[silentg]

This is still happening at NameCheap. I won 4 domains and a shill bidder was part of it. They're refusing to give me credit.

 

[AEProgram]

If any regulatory body would ever take a real look at the auction side of things in this industry, we would have probably 50 people going to jail for life.

All bids of a deadbeat need to be removed. Assume they were a shill bidder.

Dropcatch does it right, cancel and redo. The reason probably is because domainer scammers do their own bidding up and then don't pay with one account and get it from another.

After getting scammed out of a domain on this site, I learned there are a lot of frauds in this business. The whole way 5 minute auction extend bots operate is evil and could be stopped.

 

[silentg]

Customer service response after I sent proof.

 

[silentg]

NameCheap hasn't researched or learned from history:

SnapNames Employee Caught Bidding on Auctions
https://domaininvesting.com/snapnames-employee-caught-bidding-on-auctions/

Expired Domain Services Let Employees Bid Against Customers
https://domainnamewire.com/2008/06/20/expired-domain-services-let-employees-bid-against-customers/

Buying Bids at Flippa: A look at marketplace integrity
https://domainnamewire.com/2015/01/26/buying-bids-at-flippa/

 

[silentg]

They say they do not allow shill bidding. C'mon NameCheap, I sent you screenshot proofs from the domains I won.

 

[silentg]

More than $7,000 profit is why they keep ignoring the shill bidding. More bids and more money in their pocket.

 

[GoKaizen]

I've been monitoring NC auctions and I agree with @silentg.

Shill Bidding is going on at NC.

 

[silentg]

2023 and this is still happening

https://twitter.com/x/status/1613239087087104000

 

[silentg]

Shill bidding is still making place. One of the weirdest thing is NameCheap allows commenting on auctions. Shill bidder is so proud:

same bidder in another auction:

 

[silentg]

Bidder is still active and bidding on auctions:

 

[silentg]

same bidder is active in so many auctions right now

https://twitter.com/x/status/1652359452815654912

 

[mdent]

These bidders are doing god's work in my opinion. Perhaps their trolling efforts will force NameCheap to change their questionable auction policies.

All bids by non-paying bidders should be removed, not just the last one, this is common sense. Repeat non-payers should be blocked forever from the auctions platform.

 

[Soofi]

I’ve spent five figures on NameCheap expired auctions over a period of six months and now feel ripped off!!

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

@silentg You really are an auction sleuth!

To maintain integrity with any auction site, wouldn't it make sense to only offer the losing bidder the domain at the price minus any other bids from the alleged "highest bidder?" Mandatory payment by the previously losing bidder doesn't make sense, when the highest bidder backs out.

After all, if the highest bidder did change their mind, isn't it possible that something may be wrong with the domain that they figured out after they placed the winning bid?

Whether this is a shill bidder or overly-exhuberant auction participant is unclear. Either way doesn't it affect the credibility of this platform and the domains they are auctioning?

And, absolutely, it makes sense for this repetitive non-paying high bidder to be removed from their system.

Thanks for raising awareness to this recurrent issue on the Namecheap auction site.

 

[silentg]

Here's their response. No auction integrity. You might not get the domain so therefore buy it at inflated price.

 

[silentg]

@Soofi
The shill bidding problem at NameCheap is worse. Some buyers are willing to pay for the domains: Take a look
https://www.namecheap.com/market/healthreviewglobal.com/?ref=recent
https://www.namecheap.com/market/sale/nFzykGUQhtbXeDaTma2aiE/cheatgame4u.com/?ref=recent
https://www.namecheap.com/market/sale/7VQ2FanzeX6iZ2oHYKJmAP/littlesaplingtoys.com/?ref=recent

This is just from the first page of sold domains.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Thanks for the concrete examples.

So for two of the abandoned "top bid sales,", the ultimate auction price may have possibly been increased over 5x higher thanks to the that bidder who then declined to pay.

That is a very concerning pattern.

Does anyone doubt that Namecheap should allow the losing bidders to decline to buy the domains when the top bidder ultimatelhy declines to pay? At least their message to you states that you do have the right to ignore the invoice if you feel the bidding was unfair.

After all, Dynadot and GoDaddy gives the option in such circumstances for the lower bidder to elect to buy the domain. This is discretionary, not mandatory. That is important for the integrity of their platforms. Surely, Namecheap would likewise wish to demonstrate such prudence.