First, we don’t know if they really are killing arbitrage, their cash cow, or not. They may let some big players, quietly, still get away with it. With that said, let’s assume they really decided to kill arbitrage. The next step is to first recognize that killing arbitrage means losing tens of millions of dollars a year. During the tough times they are currently facing, does it make any sense to you? It doesn’t make sense to me either, not at all.Let’s explore further then. During tough times, have they decided to finally focus on advertisers’ quality? why now? Is that what they believe will save them? And were they really losing advertisers because of arbitrage, or gaining added dollars? While quality is an issue, money is a bigger one. Arbitrage survived for a long time because it made money for Yahoo. Lack of quality? maybe, but not to a tipping point they had to stop it. While few advertisers didn’t like it, it wasn’t much in the news or anywhere lately to justify the sort of action Yahoo took, killing arbitrage completely. Any way you look at it, Yahoo move is based on information they have that you and me most likely don’t. Based on that, my next question is, how can we figure out what they know? Are there any clues in the marketplace? BINGO!
If they agreed to lose tens of millions of dollars, where can they pick up that sort of money elsewhere? And if they can, is it new money or possibly existing money another company decided to let go of, for whatever reasons?
In addition to Julie’s excellent coverage lately, my sources are indicating the same: ASK.com sub syndication deal is DEAD. What does it mean? Where are those parking companies and domainers who used that sub feed will go now? Since there are only two main companies in the marketplace, the answer to that of course is.. Yahoo. But wait! Can it be that this is the BEGINNING, and ASK is the first in a long list of upcoming contract terminations? If that is the case, now we can see where the tens of millions are coming back to Yahoo. It is coming back from all those who have no other option but Yahoo. Not bad for a runner-up now is it? Now, as any smart business, Yahoo likely ran the scenario that Google may retreat, change their minds about the whole thing. What happens if Google retreats? No big deal. Yahoo never welcomed arbitrage publicly and they can just as easily let arbitrage players get back in the mix. This I believe is Yahoo’s exit strategy.
How did I come up with all this nonsense? God knows. I got a call from Australia, another from California, both sources are asking to stay anonymous, telling me the same thing. In addition, before the domain business, for few years I used to play Chess online, and it just happens that I tend to analyze positions. What you see here is pure Chess, just instead of 64 squares, the board is the domain industry, king is Google, queen is Yahoo, Rooks are Ask.com and Oversee.net, bishops and knights are Skenzo and other various smaller players, and the pawns? You guessed it.. that’s domainers and arbitrage players.
Have a great day!
Sahar
Related ASSISTA Searches:
Reason #10389 for people to fully develop their names and generate their revenue via direct to client advertising.
Mr.Sahar, Please read this or whoever does read this Digg this and contact the proper vessels to make our voice heard. Domainers have to unite, we are being taken advantage of. Please read this, myself and countless others would appreciate this.
Everyone please Digg this, here is the link: [url]http://digg.com/tech_news/Paypal_and_GoDaddy_Support_and_Protect_SCAMMERS_I_D_THEFT[/url] . If there is public awareness about what is going on maybe something will happen.
Recent events have made it very evident that both PayPal and GoDaddy support and protect internet scamming, identity theft, and fraudulent account activities. PayPal and GoDaddy are giants in their respective market segments and domainers have been using both for years. Domainers trusted their domain sales and transfers in the hands of these two corporations, but I do not think that trend will continue much longer.
Recently there have been a lot of scammers going on to forums and initiating sales and purchases of LLLL.com (4 letter .com domain names.) What happens is the scammer either creates a new username at a forum or he somehow hacks into a preexisting username and emulates another user. The scammer then sends out private messages (PM) to users that have posted their domains for sale and offers to buy them. Once negotiations have ended and a price has been established by both the seller and scammer, the scammer sends payment. Currently these scammers only pay via PayPal and only buy names that are registered at GoDaddy; of course, there is a reason for that.
The scammer sends payment via a STOLEN or HACKED PayPal account, assuming the identity of that person. Once the seller receives/confirms payment via PayPal he or she transfers the domains registered at GoDaddy to the Scammer. In order to complete the transfer of the domain the buyer (scammer) must provide the following information: Name, Complete Address, Country, Phone, and Email corresponding to the GoDaddy account where the domains will be transferred to. Usually, the account information is manipulated to match the identical information as the stolen PayPal account, preventing suspicion. Now the seller transfers the domains to the scammers GoDaddy account. Once the domains have been transferred a confirmation PM is sent and the scammer of course says everything is perfect. The seller goes to sleep happy and the scammer is grinning ear to ear because within minutes the scammer initiates a Chargeback on the stolen PayPal account. A chargeback occurs when fraudulent activity or unauthorized purchases have occurred and PayPal immediately reclaims the funds, without question. After the chargeback is completed the funds in the sellers PayPal account are $0.00. At this point the Scammer has the seller’s domains and the seller has neither the money for the domains nor the domains themselves.
This is where both PayPal and GoDaddy facilitate and condone the scammer’s getaway. The seller calls PayPal and asks,”? What happened to my money?”?
PayPal responds with, “We are sorry sir but the funds you received for the following transaction were fraudulently acquired and the TRUE owner of the account denies initiating the transaction.”?
The seller then asks, “Well, do I get my money back? What about my domains can I get those back?”?
PayPal responds with, “Actually sir because domains are an INTANGIBLE item they do not comply with the Seller Protection Agreement and are not covered by PayPal, only TANGIBLE items are covered against charge backs. We recommend contacting your registrar to see if they can help you.”?
Seller says, “Ok, so the TRUE owner of the account gets his money back, the scammer gets my domains and I am left with neither! I don’t understand how this is possible. Can you provide me with information that you uncover about the scammer so I can contact him or her?”?
PayPal representative, “Unfortunately there is nothing we can do for you on our end. Any information that we find can only be obtained by SUBPEONA. The only thing you can do is take legal action against the perpetrator.”?
Seller says something along the line of, “This is unethical and you will hear from my lawyers, I will never use your services again,”? and then hangs up.
So that’s step one in the Scammer’s getaway. PayPal is concealing the identity of the scammer; they can easily track him or her down via a reverse IP lookup to see who initiated the transaction. They protect the TRUE owner of the account and the thief but they do not protect the seller? The seller is the one that has to pay the 3.2% fees, for what, what are those fees going towards if they cannot even protect you. If a transaction is for intangible goods then you should not be FORCED to pay their fees, there is no point.
Here comes step 2 in this disappearing act. By now the seller is feeling agitated but still feels that their is light at the end of the GoDaddy tunnel. The seller checks the WhoIs.sc information for the stolen domains and sees that they are still registered to the THIEF and remain in the GoDaddy system. Surely it would be easy to reverse the transfer; it should not be that hard, you have the GoDaddy email along with all the other contact info to which the domains were transferred to”¦WRONG! You decide to contact GoDaddy and see what they can do. After explaining your situation to the representative they respond with this, “Unfortunately, GoDaddy does not get involved in third party disputes. This is why we have TDNAM, so you can sell your domains safely.”?
TDNAM is an online auction site OWNED by GoDaddy wherein the seller must pay a yearly fee of $6.95 and Escrow fees.
Seller says, “WHAT! These domains were stolen from me and they are in your system. They were just transferred hours ago and I can’t get them back?”?
GoDaddy, “I’m sorry sir, but since these domains were not transferred via TDNAM we have no responsibility to the buyer or the seller. Once the account change is initiated and accepted we are not involved.”?
You go back and forth with the GoDaddy representative but get nowhere, there is nothing you can do, and you just got SCAMMED.
The only way to get your domains back is by legal action or reporting the problem to ICAAN.org. Or by the grace of God you find out who the scammer is and harass them to the point of forfeiture. Other than that you are shit out of luck and there is nothing to be done.
That is how I and countless other sellers got scammed and all we can do is sit here holding the bag. The scammers know every angle, they choose GoDaddy and PayPal because they know that they do not pursue or amend fraudulent transfers and charge backs. The next step is to file a class action lawsuit against PayPal and GoDaddy . All I ask is that anyone that has had this occurrence please email me at [email]benvardag@aol.com[/email], I will compile a list of victims and their situations.
Thanks to anyone in advance who decides to help out, I know I’m not alone.
Great stuff. It takes someone with experience and contacts to give us the insider’s take on what’s going on. And as a chess player, I like the chess analogy.