2017 has certainly been a very contentious year, there have been scandals, possible scandals where not enough info came to the surface, and there have been a number of accusations thrown around.
While we all want to see those who are cheating and scams brought to light, we do need to be careful on how the accusation is made and the underlying proof.
That’s the problem many times in this industry, one factor is that some do this anonymously and feel there will be no retribution even if they are guilty of slander or libel.
The most recent example on Namepros happened this week and it dealt with broker Sharjil Saleem.
The post title: “Sharjil Saleem shill bidding again on Flippa” turned out not to be true. The domain Fav.com is at auction on Flippa, and the bidding jumped from $15,000 to $160,000 with the reserve not met. Some members asked how the thread starter could be so sure that it was Sharjil shill bidding on his own auction? The thread starter thought it was obvious.
But…Bidder 1 was suspended and it turned out it was not Sharjil shill bidding. Flippa like GoDaddy refuses to have bidder id’s and greater transparency. Some speculated what happened? Well an hour ago Flippa actually replied to the thread today and explained that the bidder meant to bid $16,000 and they had their account reinstated.
FlippaDomains: We suspended the $160k bidder until they confirmed their intended bid price. They contacted us and said they meant to bid $16k rather than $160k. We removed the bid and unsuspended the user.
Now the thread uncovered some other deals that went awry on Namepros with regards to Sharjil, Eric Lyon did reply to questions asked and explained how Namepros handles bad deals and member suspensions.
It’s worth reading the thread, and it’s a perfect example why we all must be careful to have real proof before accusing someone of something that’s a very serious offense in the domain business.
right on, you can’t just smear someone. The broker could be harmed for future sales.
If would just be fair to add the bidder ID’s showing to avoid this kind of situation. It would be normal to show some transparency, especially from accredited registrars like GoDaddy. The industry should act more professionally to aspire categorize; ” serious”.
But now Sharjil’s Flippa account is closed… does that mean the accusation was accurate?
Looking at the Fav.com auction his account is open.