Eric, do you have something in mind to give a synopsis of such mega threads? It was very difficult to keep up with. I gave up many times, but succeeded somehow. This is my effort to accumulate the important posts and make it less difficult for others. Sorry, this too is pretty long!
Introduction
Title: James Booth-Andy Booth-Oliver Hoger bidding ring cartel
Platform: NameJet.com
Accused: 1. James Booth of https://www.bqdn.com/ – Directly accused.
Andy Booth, James Booth’s brother – Directly accused.
Andrew Rosener of Media Options – Passerby, tried to give an opinion and got arrested, no links with the scam.
Oliver Hoger, domain name investor especially short domains – Directly accused.
Jonathan Tenenbaum, GM of NameJet.com – Accused for knowingly or unknowingly allowing accused 1, 2, and 4 to execute their plan.
How it all started?
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/
User WebQuest accuses the Booth brothers of bidding on their own domain at Namejet:
More similar accusations with screenshots are added in the comments following this. Accused for shill bidding and improper whois changes.
Andrew Rosener’s unwanted entry
Fast forward page no. 3, Andrew Rosener appears from nowhere and makes a controversial suggestion. The domaining community by far rejected the proposal. Andrew got accused that he is part of the shilling ring. Andrew comes out clear much later in the thread. The comment is too big and not important, so skipping a screenshot. You can read it here in this direct link:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-3#post-6264385
NameJet GM clarifies the Booth’s were not the sellers of the domains in question
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-8#post-6264758
Oliver Hoger’s entry
Fast foward page no. 13, NameBio’s gentleman scriptor Michael Sumner finds the domains in question were sold using Oliver Hoger’s featured pages in NameJet, thus establishing a connection between him and the Booth brothers.
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-13#post-6265695
Michael finds Oliver to be operating multiple Namejet handles to shillbid
So it is suspected Oliver is listing Booths’ domains and the Booths are bidding on their own domains.
Another NameJet handle HKDN surfaces to be of Oliver’s
The HKDN handle is one among them which follows an interesting method of bidding up just short of reserve forcing the next bid to win the name, as in HKDN is well aware of the reserve price, hence is Oliver himself.
Michael reveals more
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-17#post-6266130
Fast forward page no. 22, there is a nice sum up of events by user Arca:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-22#post-6266489
DomainShane had written about HKDN’s suspicious activity in NameJet and had even talked to Jonathan Tenenbaum about it
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-24#post-6266660
Michael analyzes the potential damage
It is found that Oliver and HKDN are sharing the same parking account at Parking Crew by tracking the DRIDs
But this is a lame proof in my opinion because some people tend to not change the Nameservers and the domains bought keep residing in the seller’s parking account.
Finally Oliver’s comment arrives at Page 33. He says he is using Bots and that Bot is using a particular handle, but disagrees HKDN is him
Voodoo’s Donny is damn sure HKDN is Oliver Hoger
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-34#post-6268403
More questions are asked to Oliver but they were not answered
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-37#post-6268673
Andy Booth somewhat admits but tries to shield his brother and Oliver
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-40#post-6269220
Further questions to Andy Booth were not answered
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-41#post-6269403
Back to Oliver’s actions again
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-41#post-6269448
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-41#post-6269517
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-41#post-6269528
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-42#post-6269582
Hemant Tilotia says HKDN is Oliver only
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-44#post-6270017
Namejet issues refund to Tilotia
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bidding-on-your-own-names-at-namejet.1030874/page-44#post-6270054
This is a typical case where the people involved were reluctant to issue statement and come out clean, which in turn forced the domaining community to dig for it themselves and issue it in their much revered platform Namepros.com
