Progress is being made settling issues brought to light earlier this week.
Earlier this week I wrote about accusations made against domain name investor Adam Dicker. Since that time, a few things have happened that I think warrant posting an update.
First, a number of people have come forward with stories about how they believe Adam deceived them or broke promises. Second, Adam is now responding to some of these claims. Third, it appears Adam has paid money to many of those that believe they were owed.
The allegations that have been divulged fall into a couple categories:
1. Paid Adam Dicker (or one of his companies) for a service and they say it didn’t work as promised or the service wasn’t delivered as promised. These are fairly simple, and range from Niche Websites services to advertising on DNForum.
2. Entered into a partnership/contractor/employee relationship with Adam (or one of his companies) and Adam either didn’t or couldn’t deliver on his alleged promises.
This latter category gets tricky given the number of verbal promises involved.
One of these complaints is from forum member LannyB, who said she was excited to be invited by Adam to be a VP of one of his companies. She said she started working 60-70 hours a week, thinking “the opportunity to work with Adam was going to be a once in a lifetime, and from the way he talked….a goldmine.” But, she says, “the promises of wealth and success never came”.
Lanny elaborated:
One project in particular, he told us it already cleared 100k a month easy and that we would be making a large percentage of that. We worked out a profit share percentage for everyone in the company that we felt was fair based on the numbers Adam was giving us. But Adam was very shifty about giving us REAL numbers and real financials, he was very vague and often avoided answering questions about those things or contradicted himself. After awhile he gave us more access and responsibilities it became evident that it was barely clearing a fraction of that, and not even that sometimes.
Another project he told us profited 2-3 million per year and that we would be making a percentage of that, however months and months later it was very evident that it was also only making a tiny fraction of that.
She went on to describe the hardship working with Adam was bringing on her family, including paying for daycare for her children in order get the work done.
Adam responded to Lanny, which you can read in full here. Part of his response:
When we were in Spain, Lanelle, Rick and I spoke. They mentioned they needed some $ to continue and I offered them both $2500 a month hoping that things would pick up.
As time went on we realized that some projects were not right and some people were not right for certain projects. Like with any business we tried shifting around and reduced some people. Things never picked up and we scaled down much further.
It took me way too long to pay Lanelle, Chelsey and Simon. Yes, I kept saying I would pay them and I kept putting them off. At the time I didn’t have the $ because I spent too much on Webcorp and was too embarrassed to tell them. I always planned on paying them it just took way too long. I make no excuse for that.
WebCorp is Adam’s company for developing domain names into websites.
Here’s another complaint. Adam just refunded this person. And another, which I don’t believe Adam has responded to publicly.
Adam says that all employees have now been paid in full. He’s dealing with other requests for refunds on a one-off basis.
I reached Adam this afternoon and he stated “My response is straightforward. If anyone has an issue they should email me at adam (at) dcg.com so that I can try and get it resolved with them.”
He also reiterated that “all employees at Webcorp have been paid in full, they were before this came out.”
Yesterday, Shane Bellone, who brought the allegations to light, said he doesn’t plan to publish part 2 of his story. It was originally scheduled to be published on Friday.
The depths of this story continue to develop. Here are some facts:
1.Adam tried to threaten victims coming forward by stating he may pursue legal recourse through a NDA….. Even though a NDA would not be relevant in this case for many reasons.
2. We don’t know all the victims at this time. Many have given up on domaining and took their money, skills and professional character to pursue other fields of interest.
3. The victims who have come forward have had profound stories with a major impact on their life from the fraudulent activity.
4. At no time has Adam Dicker seemed to understand the implications of his chronic fraudulent activity.
Aaron, Could you please contact me ? I am a business owner who is dealing with Adam Dicker and feel I have been a victim of fraudulent activity. I entered into a work contract with Adam, paid him up front and have not 1 shred of work to show for the money paid. It has been a two week dog and pay show as to why he has not been able to pay me back (He removed himself from the project via email and stated he would give me a full refund, also via email). I want to get in touch with all of those who have been defrauded buy Adam and make this man understand this is not how the world works. He is a crook.
email me at [email protected]
“Gossip is bad. Having said that, allow me to gossip.”
I’m not gossiping.
At this point in time, after all the posts where Adam has come clean about the problems, the fact that you’re on the other side of the fence makes you look quite foolish.
Gossip? Get a dictionary.
Complacency
I always wondered why such a busy multi millionaire would spend time “helping newbie domainers” but its coming to light now, but on the positive side of things at least he is making some rights to the wrongs because it could have been worse, he could have declared bankruptcy and no one would get anything.
One thing he hasnt replied to after several attempts by his former employee Raymond Hackey(Equity78), is if Adam Dicker is going to sue anyone about this like he has done many times before especially anyone talking about his scandulous auction bidding at Godaddy when he was an employee there.
Take from Peter to Pay Paul
I’m not aware of Adam Dicker ever suing someone. Can you point to a case?
There was this case:
http://www.domaininvesting.com/report-adam-dicker-files-lawsuit-against-owner-of-dnf-ca/
As for the other lawsuit threats it looks like he has had them removed from Namepros and other blogs but vividly remember his threats for anyone mentioning his dirty dealings while at Godaddy
And it looks Adam Dicker was using some dirty fraudulent tactics in that DNF.ca lawsuit as well
Just to clear things up I was never an employee of Adam Dicker, no NDA, no contract, nothing. I wrote blog posts for TheArtofTheName.com and was paid for those posts as an independent contractor, same way I write for MorganLinton.com, Namepros.com, DomainCrunch.com.
I do think it is important for Adam to get the legal threat out of the way so everyone can speak up get paid and move on with their business.
Raymond, I understand he has threatened and sued in the past but you are putting way too much weight on the NDAs this time around. If the allegations are true and there is no doubt they are because even Dicker has acknowledged that at least some are, then crimes have been committed. Crimes as defined by the FBI. NDAs aren’t meant to keep them hidden.
I don’t think there is any weight to the NDA’s Tony I was talking about litigation in general, so that people who were hesitant could say what they wanted. I never thought anything of the NDA it seemed some focused on it on Namepros so I included that.
Sorry, but using the likeness of the CEO of YAHOO, with a some other person who may or may not even be a real person is FRAUD
https://adamdicker.com/our-team/
AKA JORDANA SMITH is Marsissa Mayer the CEO of YAHOO WHAT A DREAM TEAM
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marissa_Mayer
Not to mention having Marissa Mayer (CEO of Yahoo) as your broker.
http://www.tld.org/if-you-plan-on-doing-business-with-adam-dicker-you-should-read-this-first
but without all the facts if it is not gossiping, would it be fair to say speculating ? look, my point is simple. I read through that thread and many of the accusations are about “hooking newbies”. I am not defending anyone but as a newbie to name investing myself, I think that if a person will be crucified in that manner then it would be valid to bring up the fact, that many old timers bloggers do deliver the same promisse, perhaps on a more enchanting way, or hidden on crazy stats; although new to this, Im not new to investing and I know no one has a “step-by-step process” on how to get rich overnight.
If anything, that person is not the only one enchanting newbies with false promisses. ( And no, Im not talking about DNW nor you Andrew, but Im sure you could identify what I mean by sampling Domain news in any given week ). Obviously, it is a horrendous thing to feed an illusion, but then I ask, was he not illuded himself ? all I am saying, is that if the way this was delivered is ok then it should be a good ideia to put an education in place via all possible industry-related mediumsm wouldnt you say ?
Take sedo for instance, is it okay to let a newbie believe ThisWillNeverSell.something is worth usd1999 and then charge money, to advertise or to auction it … I suppose it is legal to say “Auction ended without being sold” .. but it is not very different from “That’s a good name, let’s build on it, buy my template” … Where is the line ?
If you do not think its fraud to take people’s money and never deliver on the service that you promised them AND THEN never respond to emails or phone calls asking for an update and eventually a refund, then remind me to never do business with you. This is what has happened to people.
@Jill Im not disputing that, I cant sentence without fully knowing the entire context. What I’m saying is that he could not possibly have done that unless there’s some level of complacency within the industry, very much like the SEDO example above.
And you still feel this way? Even with the blatant copyscape BS going on? Come on. Stop defending him – you sound like a fool.
Jill, When its one of their own, expect a lot of people in this industry to back him up, I give Andrew a lot of credit here for reporting on this and doing the right thing.. Many other bloggers and acquaintances of Adam have chosen to bury their heads in the sand, loyalist’s who were fooled into thinking he was a god.
If Adam was a unknown, he’d be persecuted from all sides right now, nobody would be giving him the benefit of the doubt. So forgiving aren’t they? it’s quite easy to forgive people when your NOT out any money, I mean who cares about the Mother who entered in a business deal with Adam under FALSE pretenses and got burned? and cant pay her bills? You will not hear a voice for them, only for the crook will you hear a voice.
I have never had any interactions with Adam Dicker.
But like many new domainers I was very impressed with his credentials and I was drawn to him as an expert. I reached out to Adam by email with some questions but he didn’t respond. He also didn’t make good on his offer for a free membership at DNF.
I thought, ‘oh well he’s really busy’. But then as I watched him on Domain Sherpa several more times I felt that something about him wasn’t quite right. He was egotistical, self-promotional and nervous while he spoke; shaking his chair with his ‘sewing machine leg’.
So I began doing some research on the web, checking out Adam’s websites for his various businesses.
What I found is that his websites for cord blood, reputation management and niche website development were all mediocre websites with dead links, misspelled words and less than premium content. I began to doubt that he was really making the $150,000 per month on ReputationRepair.com that he claimed on Domain Sherpa.
These conclusions are now supported, many months later, by his close associates like LannyB and others who have described Adams websites and businesses as mostly hype: “Adam was very shifty about giving us REAL numbers and real financials, he was very vague and often avoided answering questions about those things or contradicted himself”.
The website Adam Dicker.com has the same issues: Generic content, mediocre design, dead links [ie webcorp.ca], and poor grammar etc . How is this possible from a man who runs a website development company and just won the Developer of The Year award?
On all his websites he claims his company’s are “award winning” but gives no credentials. He also admits to buying reviews and testimonials at Fiverr.com. At the same time he’s received more than a few complaints and requests for refunds for lousy websites.
http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Adam-Dicker-nichewebsitescom-and-adamdickercom/internet/Adam-Dicker-nichewebsitescom-and-adamdickercom-Adam-Dicker-nichewebsitescom-and-ad-1259933
There are also several web reports that allege he was involved in a reputation repair scam with his website RemoveMugShots.com around 2012. Plus the domain auction scandal he caused while working at GoDaddy several years before.
I also just watched a few of his 2015 domain conference presentations on YouTube and there are a lots of red flags in his both speech and his body language. He contradicts himself several times and is clearly selling himself and his services to the newbies under the guise of “I just want to help you”.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the majority of Adam’s business success revolves around selling products and services to newbies particularly his NicheWebsites service which he sells through his many ‘free’ domain appraisal sessions on YouTube and DNF College.
At best Adam is a marketer and a salesman who has fooled a lot of people. At worst he is a compulsive deceiver. I think probably the truth is somewhere in the middle. Either way, newbies should stay far, far away from him.
I stood up for Adam at the start of the Shane Bellone thread on NP but then, as the stories came out and I saw how Adam tried to manipulate the thread and that along with his flippant tone confirmed my worst fears. His behavior showed all the signs of someone who was only covering their butt because they were caught and whose only lesson learned was to be more careful next time.
I really feel that that is the sad truth of today. I sincerely hope that Adam’s future actions prove me completely wrong.
Michael Cyger claims he’s seen the financial statements for ReputationRepair.com….
https://i.imgur.com/qHrKRxQ.png
https://web.archive.org/web/20150319104619/http://www.domainsherpa.com/reputation-repair/
Is Michael lying for his friend Adam or did Adam really show him financial statements backing up his claim of $150,000/mo? and if so were those financial statements doctored?
We’ seen from those’ come forward that Mr. Dicker deceives the public to perpetuate his false persona and scam unsuspecting victims.
I’ been searching for signs of other deceit to see if a pattern exists, then I discovered 3 examples of false advertising and egregiously inflating numbers to carry out his deceit on newcomers.
__________
First
__________
Shane Bellone stated (and expert domainers know) that DNForum is dead and deserted… it has been for years.
With that information, look at Mr. Dicker’s advertising on ConsciousMillionaire’s site on aug 7, 2015:
“Discover how to become a Successful Entrepreneur. Adam is a coach, speaker, and domain expert who owns multiple businesses including the *most popular domain forum* DNForum.com and the award winning internet marketing and web development agency, NicheWebsites.com. He has a domain portfolio of over 38,000 domain names and has sold many for 6, 7, and even 8 figures.”
Advertising on CM: http://consciousmillionaire.com/adamdicker/
It falsely states “most popular domain forum” but everyone knows nobody uses it. It’ common knowledge the most popular is not them, but a newbie would’ not know this and be deceived into thinking “one more reason Adam is credible and trustworthy.”
__________
Second
__________
Visit his forum to see the message: “DNForum is the largest domain name community on the internet and continues to grow every day.”
The message still appears today on oct 8, 2015: https://web.archive.org/web/20150820230835/https://www.dnforum.com/
Again with the “largest domain name community” and its not in any metric system. just a lie
__________
Third
__________
Mr. Dicker artificially inflated his statistics by 125,000 members to make his numbers look betterest.
387,039 members on feb 26, 2015: https://web.archive.org/web/20150226182045/http://www.dnforum.com/
… 3 months later …
389,164 members on may 28, 2015: https://web.archive.org/web/20150528001452/http://www.dnforum.com/
… 1 day later …
514,349 members on may 29, 2015: https://web.archive.org/web/20150529175307/http://www.dnforum.com/
… 3 months later …
515,417 members on aug 20, 2015: https://web.archive.org/web/20150820230835/https://www.dnforum.com/
This is not the only time either. It’ all part of the deception.
__________
I really desire no more newbies to be tricked by him.
The irony of this is that when this was posted on Namepros in the hottest thread going there, dnforum was raked over the coals for fudging member numbers. Then someone posted this: “how did NamePros go from 209,068 members on May 6th 2014 to 956,734 members on May 13th 2014 with a layout change?” That post was quickly moved out of the hot thread while the dnfoum ridicule continued. At first they left a quote that had a link to where they moved the post. When I looked later that post was also removed.
I had the link in my browsing history. Here it is: https://www.namepros.com/threads/stats.884550/ The thread is closed. If they see this post it will probably get deleted.
So there is no shortage of shenanigans.
and all of a sudden all the blogges are pasting disclaimers …
I just hope that the domain blogosphere outside of DNW, Domainshane, TLD.org, is not waiting for all of this to pass to put a positive spin on how Dicker screwed up but did the “right thing” by repaying the people that have spoken up and complained. That would be a total sham.
I just hope that the rest of the domain blogosphere that has been completely silent thus far is not waiting for this to pass only to put a positive spin to the effect that Dicker screwed up but did the right thing by repaying those that spoke up and complained. That would be a total sham.
That wont happen, too many glass roofs around.
It seems to me that a lot of nichewebsites.com customers have been conned. I think there needs to be a review into it and how much credibility it really has? What websites have won awards from clients?
Does anyone have a website by them that is actually making a ROI? There are claims on there that seem once again a little bit out there.
“As a team we have already worked with a wide range of clients from simple startups to enterprises so large that they have been featured on Fortune 1000.”
I think this really needs to be addressed so that their isn’t a continuation of newbie domainers buying in to niche website development? IMO
Even going to dnforum leaves a bad taste in my mouth now, I will boycott it.
Adam had a big 4l.com portfolio sale which is hindsight was a total blunder, but he was bragging on the Sherpa show he cleared close to 6 figures, so if these people were owed money the willingness was clearly not there.
I really question is web development t background other than outsourcing jobs to foreign lands? Credentials ???
The Sherpa show was his biggest net for catching over eager newbies, all that content should be deleted forever, especially the ones hyping niche websites as a development company.
It does sound like the nichewebsites.com customers may have got sites that do not do what they promised, or the customer got no site delivered at all.
They may not know about the emerging scandal or the namepros.com based offer of refunds – in some cases those are going to people who had repeatedly asked for refunds before and been ignored.
Substandard products are a case for refund, but non-delivery and misrepresentation are a case for law enforcement.
Maybe as with product recalls a notification will have to be sent to the entire customer list of nichewebsites.com.
The extensive posts by Rockford and Brandon are awesome. Thank you both.
I totally agree with the DomainSherpa sentiment. Any promotion of Nichewebsites.com should be taken down and if that is not possible, Michael Cyger should post a permanent video explaining to anyone that was taken advantage of to contact Dicker for refunds,etc.
Here is what DomainSherpa says about Adam Dicker on it’s website:
“If you have ever had difficulty selling domain names, this interview – really a master class – will provide the education and motivation you need to get moving in the right direction.
Adam Dicker, founder of DNFCollege.com, shares the strategies and tactics that have helped him contact potential buyers, negotiate prices and sell thousands of domain names worth millions of dollars over the past 20 years.”
And here is the about section:
“Adam Dicker is the CEO of DNForum.com, the largest online domain name discussion forum. He is also the founder and CEO of Domain Consulting Group, where he manages his portfolio of domain names and develops online businesses.”
Everything Namepros said in your link lines up and makes sense. Eric even explained to you why they were moved from the “hottest thread”. Makes perfect sense that they need to keep “hottest thread” on topic, talking about Namepros in Adam Dicker thread makes no sense: https://www.namepros.com/threads/thread-moderation.884582/
Looker at what Adam said about his numbers increased due to “groups being merged”. I asked developers on xenforo.com (DNForum’s forum software) if that is possible, and they said no, that is lie and not how it works, you can ask too.
I think domain Sherpa should replace any mention of Adam dicker with this link
http://memegenerator.net/Internet-Conman
I thought the same thing, but then it was addressed:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/thread-moderation.884582/
I clicked “reply” to Domainer Extraordinaire but it showed up at the bottom. Possible to fix?
After reading all the complaints of over $50,000 in total damages, assuming they’re all true, I can’t decide how the Adam Dicker complaints compare to the Toby Clements complaints.
What does everyone think?
There could be other claims from the 729 people who paid something like $350 each to take the Adam Dicker course on Udemy https://www.udemy.com/u/adamdicker/
That’s about 250k revenue for someone. Also the bio there mentions DNW, not sure if that is up to date
I doubt anyone paid $350. It’s common knowledge that Udemy discounts courses to $15.
Adam Dicker’s site theartofthename.com has been shut down, the domain now takes you to a Sedo parking page that says it is for sale. Minimum offer on that domain at Sedo today is set to just $90.00
Adam Dicker is nowhere to be found, he made promises to make payments today, and has gone AWOL
Pages are being deleted, almost like evidence being destroyed
It is almost like finding WALDO
Maybe time to sell Rams.com, and DCG.com
At the end of the day Dicker was always a conman from the days of dnforum.com i purchased lifetime membership then after a couple of years he decided to revamp the site and cleaned every member who had not been on there for a while including all lifetime memberships, I never did get a response from him….Stay away from this conman at least the truth is coming out now about Dicker.
Andrew was this a Pyramid Scheme?
Wow.
I was wondering what happened to Adam Dicker on DomainSherpa.com
I did not feel like asking Michael Cygar so I decided to google Adams’ name and started seeing all of stuff.
As a person (my self) in his late 40’s who has been in the Real Estate, Jewelry, Insurance and Domain Name Business (at one time owned over 650 of them), I have come to learn the following.
1.) Always learn to question the person you are speaking to and claiming to be in the that particular field. (If they are such an expert and making such good money, why are they willing to give away there Cash-Cow sort of speak for a few thousand dollars???)
Answer-Most-if not all are not. Rather, they are trying to separate you from your money.
2.) Learn all you can about the field (this is especially easy today with the internet.)
3.) Unless it is money that you don’t mind losing, ($10, $20, $50 or even a couple of hundred dollars), always, and I mean always pay with a credit card. That way you can at least dispute the charge in a month or two if things are not as favorable.
4.) Be careful about Podcasts and Internet shows that give away “free” information.
I love listening to DomainSherpa.com, but let’s face it, if you take a look at the track record of the guests that Michael has had on over the years, the majority are simply B.S.
I have had interactions with Adam and even met him in Los Angeles once during Domain Fest, but I found him to be a nice guy best.
Doing business in the domain name business in general has the same feel as the cumulative effect of reading the vitriol expressed here about Adam Dicker.
The ” newbies ” , those bashing their head against the walls of the domain name business include a great majority of the hapless domain investors that got into the game post 2001.
THE FIRST TO THE TROUGH, CIRCA 1996-1999 , THOSE THAT WERE IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME TO SCOOP UP ALL THE ONE WORD, GENERIC .COM DOMAINS, NOW CONTROL THE ENTIRE DOMAIN NAME BUSINESS.
Anyone, starting after 2001-2002 haven’t got a chance.
Those that got rich being first at the trough for the .coms now own the New gTLD market and the criminal prices being charged for premium one word names with extensions .xyz, .club, etc. etc…. is insane.
The “CRIMINAL” conflict of interest inherent in the business practices of virtually every domain registrar is a perfect example of how rotten the domain name business is.
The largest registrar on earth is also in the domain name aftermarket business and has chosen not to disclose the prices of it’s domain sales…. huh?
HELLO !!!!
Hey, all you domainers out there. Let me ask you a question.
How many times have you had a registrar blatantly attempt and in some cases successfully assume one or more of your names….
If you are a newbie or perhaps a somewhat experienced domain registrant, you are lying if you don’t admit to having been ripped off by one or more registrars.
What is being said about Adam Dicker here is a microcosm of the whole domain name buying and selling business.
There has always been a stench that permeates the domain business.
What gets me the most is the sanctimonious, geniuses that were first to the trough in registering one word .com domains purporting to be experts and gurus and well… you know what I’m on about.
Rick Schwartz is the only guru and king and there are a lot of crooks and would be, wantabe domain gurus that have embarrassed themselves on Domain Sherpa and sullied the waters of the domain name business.
I have news to all those not Rick Schwartz, you not geniuses or gurus or perhaps not even intelligent in the true sense.
Those that were first to the trough circa 1996-1999 in registering one word, generic .com domains.. were ‘FIRST’…. THAT’S IT… ‘FIRST’
Robert McLean
I all but stopped using DNF after AD stood up for mrs jello after he’d used his influence with a registrar to steal a domain he’d sold to a dnf member when he’d got sellers remorse. I challenged AD about it and his response was something like “Igal has helped me a lot, so I’ll do what I like”.
The injured party was thrown off the forum.
I’m not surprised to be hearing this stuff now.
I will add my name to the list of people Adam Dicker took money from for services he failed to deliver. My husband and I have tried for many months now to get Adam and nichwebsites.com to deliver what we paid him several thousand to provide. We get promises with delays, but nothing comes of it. His outsourced web developer from Pakistan even contacted me asking me to pay him to develop the websites I had already paid Adam to develop.
The outsourcer stated that Adam had not paid him in over 3 months.
It seems the list of people Adam Dicker has cheated is never ending.
If you are in the USA then contact the FBI and file a report of “internet fraud”.