ePassporte Official Statment

[RedCherry]

Originally Posted by Cleo

Yeah I'm going to really miss stopping by the local ATM to withdraw a big wad of cash.

I've not had a physical card for awhile, I was just getting ready to get another one, mine expired last year. Glad I didn't go through with it, as that would be $35 down the tubes.

[ArtWilliams]

http://www.italkcash.com/forum/e-cur...tml#post331037

From the above thread ... "The reason for this move from Visa is most likely because of the new rules enforced by Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

New rules has come in place regarding debit pre paid cards, gift cards and reloadable top up cards. The rules, which were mandated by the Credit CARD Act of 2009, require more data collection and reporting from businesses, and some experts say they could make prepaid card buying a challenge for some consumers.

Starting June 28, the public will have 30 days to comment on the rules, which require nonbank prepaid card providers to:

Quote:
File suspicious activity reports (SARs) with the government on suspicious activity of more than $2,000. Suspicious Activities Reports are Treasury Department forms already required of banks, casinos, poker rooms, securities and futures firms and others in the money services business. More than 5.6 million have been filed since they were first mandated in 1996 (see chart). The proposed rule would add nonbank card providers to the ranks of those required to file forms with the government when their suspicions are aroused.
Collect customer information anytime a card is reloaded at someplace other than a bank.
Maintain transaction information.
The rule focuses on the following:

Quote:
Don't have the value clearly labeled on them.
Are reloadable at places other than banks.
Can have a maximum lifetime value of more than $1,000, including reloads.
Can be used anywhere -- especially if they can be used internationally.
Can have the value transferred to another card.
Are purchased in large amounts or seem otherwise suspicious.
Basically this is another terrorists anti-money laundry mumbo jumbo, but for now Epassporte is going to stay closed unless they will be able to comply with the new regulatations that came into force just a bit more than 30 days ago."

If it is true then it paints a very dark shadow on this type of business since complying with the regulations is onerous to say the least.

[Ramster]

Originally Posted by Cleo

Yeah I'm going to really miss stopping by the local ATM to withdraw a big wad of cash.

I hear ya! Timing couldn't be worse neither as many sponsors pay on the 1st and 16th. Boy do I wish I went to the machine yesterday and took out some cash.

Good news is my biz account is set to receive funds in the wallet so that money is accessible but my personal account is not set that way (I just changed it) so that money is froze. Fuck me!

[JustRobert]

What I do not understand is that if you can still send and receive money thru their wallet account why am I receiving all these emails from sponsors saying to choose another method of payment.

Do sponsors "have" to pay affiliates thru their visa account?

Or are they just afraid of having their money frozen, even if it's in wallet, like what happened at webmaster checks?

(I think I might of answered my own question when typing the last one out, lol)

[petergg2]

I have question to epass -

have You any idea when that frozen funds from virtual visa accounts will be or we can transfer to wallet ?

[Greenguy]

Might actually be a legit time to use this smiley...

|skyfall|

[spookyx]

Originally Posted by Greenie

Might actually be a legit time to use this smiley...

|skyfall|

its also a good time to hang out in your irc channel. lots of sexy girls from Europe there

[Cleo]

I see the ePassporte story even made Slashdot.

[SCORE-Cash]

Originally Posted by JustRobert

Or are they just afraid of having their money frozen, even if it's in wallet, like what happened at webmaster checks?

(I think I might of answered my own question when typing the last one out, lol)

Yes you did.

But I don't see ePassporte going away, the industry needs them and a core group of affiliates have no other choice for a payment option.

[Keyser Soze]

Money in the Wallet is safe, the reason that the money on the virtual card can not be moved is that Visa suspended the cards and then its not possible to move money to/from the cards, we are working with Visa to get this issue solved and hopefully this will be solved soon.

[twinkerbell]

Originally Posted by Keyser Soze

Money in the Wallet is safe, the reason that the money on the virtual card can not be moved is that Visa suspended the cards and then its not possible to move money to/from the cards, we are working with Visa to get this issue solved and hopefully this will be solved soon.

How soon? kids getting hungry...me going bonkers

[Keyser Soze]

Originally Posted by twinkerbell

How soon? kids getting hungry...me going bonkers

Sorry no news yet as soon as we have we will post it and send message to message center. We expect a solution this week.

[terry]

Fingers crossed

[Goodlove]

Any developments?

[Senator_x]

Originally Posted by Keyser Soze

Money in the Wallet is safe, the reason that the money on the virtual card can not be moved is that Visa suspended the cards and then its not possible to move money to/from the cards, we are working with Visa to get this issue solved and hopefully this will be solved soon.

Are things progressing?

[pc]

Some sponsors starts to offer payouts through payoneer.com

[Cleo]

This has been posted in our inbox.

September 16, 2010

Over the past few days there have been numerous blogs and posts calling into question the reputation of Mr. Gregory Elias, United International Trust and United International Bank.

We are issuing this press release to clarify Mr. Elias' position as well as the position of United International Trust and United International Bank in regards to ePassporte.

ePassporte has utilized the services of United International Trust since 2006. United International Trust serves only to manage the corporate governance of ePassporte and has no input, or control as regards its daily management.

In 2009 United International Bank was formed to provide commercial and corporate banking services and subsequently ePassporte has moved some of its operating accounts to this bank.

United International Bank does not hold funds for ePassporte holders. United International Bank merely pays the vendors for ePassporte.

Neither Mr. Elias, United Trust nor United International Bank have any control over these funds.

All requests and inquiries should be forwarded to ePassporte at the Message Center, which you may log on to at www.epassporte.com if you are an active cardholder.

We apologize to Mr. Elias, United Trust and United Bank for any confusion that may have arisen these last weeks as a result of difficulties we at ePassporte, with St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank, are responsible to manage.


Christopher Mallick, for ePassporte

September 16, 2010

ePassporte N.V. has had several extensive meetings with St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank (the "Bank") in an effort to resume operations and card functionality.

We are encouraged and believe these meetings and ongoing discussions with the Bank will result in all card functions becoming operational shortly, although a date has not yet been determined.

ePassporte and St Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank want to assure cardholders that their funds are safe and that resuming operations is a key and attainable goal.

A few very import points:

For information regarding your Account, it is imperative that you contact us via the Message Center or call our Account Holder Services line (310.301.2001).

PLEASE DO NOT contact ePassporte N.V. in Curacao, Mr. Elias, United Bank or St. Kitts Bank. Messages sent to the above may not be answered. All operational issues are handled by the ePassporte team via the Message Center or Call Center ONLY. Please also avoid posting your username on forums as this could pose a security risk to your Account.

We greatly appreciate your continued patience and understanding and will continue to update you regarding this situation via the Message Center.


Sincerely,

ePassporte.com

ePassporte Message from Chris Mallick

We at ePassporte are as distressed as you, our valued cardholders, over an action that we did not see coming and as of today we still have received no good basis for it.

First, be assured that your funds are fully safe and protected. You are owed that and it will be fulfilled. The funds are secure.

Second, ePassporte is working with the St. Kitts bank to work out how all payments will be made and when. The details are complicated, because there are funds in motion and where and when they settle requires us to all be careful that we fully and properly account for all those funds and their rightful owner. This issue stems from our processing and reporting ability through the Visa system and their processor.

Third, ePassporte's most important asset has always been our account holder's. We are not going to undermine that asset by treating cardholders in any manner other than the best we can.

Most of us have had the unfortunate experience of dealing with banks and card associations that simply "cut us off" and did not pay us. Those actions were limited to card acquiring (merchant accounts), not card issuing, which is what we do. We can all take some comfort in the fact that this situation is not anything like the acquiring side of the business.

We all fully understand that communication to our cardholders is critical. However, it does not help any of us if we are constantly updating you on the basis of the calls that take place almost hourly. It seems to us that giving you facts, based on agreements we are working on is the best form of communication. This is what we will be doing. When we know something, that is a fact, we will report it, quickly. Our staff is all working diligently to resolve these issues and the many moving and complicated parts of getting the funds returned. Therefore, please do not mistake our silence as "hiding", "avoiding" or "stringing you along". We too have funds that are stuck in the system, as well as massive costs of operation without any income.

Rest assured that when we know, you will know and you will all be satisfied with the results. Again, your money is safe.

For those of you that have been in the industry for many years, I hope you will recall that I have a very strong track record of fighting for the rights of webmasters, program sponsors, billing companies, merchants and the industry; that dedication continues.

Thanks you for your understanding in this difficult time and for your support over the last 8 years of our operations.

Chris Mallick
For ePassporte

[plateman]

imo the only thing that can save our money is to stay put and trust that our money is safe and were gonna get it, if all the sponsors run and never go back and us webmasters do the same, then there done IMO & we may never get anything or maybe half of the card holders will get there's

I think chris lost a ton on the movie thing, and had to use our money to get him out of trouble, now he is prolly been rounding up some investors to invest in epass to give our money back...

and/or he is prolly working out the details to pay back a mega loan to get epass back in action, and when your talking that much money it takes days and days of meetings

if he can pull it off and I can go get my cash out I will leave 20.00 in my account to show that I am still a customer, if you dont trust him with that then dont close your account

all of us should show that if he pays out, the adult net biz will still use there service, cause we mostly all love epass, and it makes our life a little less of a hassle...

[Mr Spock]

As an affiliate payment option they are dead , granted the Visa side isn't even needed to make affiliate payments to the wallet and you can safely transfer form the wallet to your bank , credit card. However finance is all about faith and it seems that ePassporte have used/lost that. Several affiliate programs are opting out and no longer offer ePassporte as an option.

Payoneer is already stepping into the gap and I will be looking at that option. if the problem with ePassporte were fixable it would be fixed by now.

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by Mr Spock

Payoneer is already stepping into the gap and I will be looking at that option. if the problem with ePassporte were fixable it would be fixed by now.

I looked into Payoneer when it looked like my current processor was about to disappear. Two things struck me, and scared me away:

1) If you want to use their service to pay affiliates they don't have a published fee schedule, instead you have to contact them with your details and a rep will talk to you. Or in other words, they work out the maximum they can screw you for on a case by case basis. Not very encouraging.

2) If you are the person receiving funds, and you want to find out how much it will cost you in advance of signing up, you cannot. Their FAQ states:

What are the costs associated with the card?
Costs are listed and explained when you sign into "My Account"

Or in other words: Their fees for the person receiving funds are so damned high that they dare not tell you the fees until AFTER you have signed up!

All I can say from that is "Come back ePassporte, all is forgiven"!

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by Mr Spock

Several affiliate programs are opting out and no longer offer ePassporte as an option.

Lesson one in how to make a bad situation worse for yourself!

If ePassporte do come back, affiliates who signed up for those programmes to use ePassporte will simply drop them and go elsewhere. And with an increasing number of WMs using ePassporte there will be a less new WMs signing up for their program.

And even if ePassporte is a dead duck, a lot of WMs are expecting them to come back, so will leave those sponsors anyway.

So expect those sponsors who drop ePassporte to appear in the "Cemetery of Sponsors" thread in the near future!

[tickler]

The threads at the zoo seem to indicate that you would have to have a different card for each sponsor, meaning more fees, smaller balances per card.

I don't think they have the P2P transfers either.

[blinki bill]

payoneer.com is not a very good option, paypal would be better. I'm not sure why affiliates don't use paypal, i mean they can't use paypal to cell subscriptions but paying to your affiliates is not a problem, there are few programs that do it already

since the epass-visa issue is not solved yet it probably won't, maybe they should go for a new deal instead - mastercard?
however a lot of sponsors are dropping the epass as an option which i think this is not very good, I still prefer epass as payment option as i can transfer the money from my wallet to my own debit card. A lot of european webmasters may feel the same.
The other payment options are not very good when based in europe - checks take ages to cash into your account and you have to pay 10 euro/pounds(imagine what's left from 50$) and you can't even cash in a check if the amount is less than 100$ (50$ is 30 pounds or 35 euro which is way below the minimum).
The wire is also not a good option as it costs around 20-50$ and the minimum amount is very high(500$ for some sponsors)

[ecchi]

Originally Posted by blinki bill

I'm not sure why affiliates don't use paypal, i mean they can't use paypal to cell subscriptions but paying to your affiliates is not a problem, there are few programs that do it already

You have no idea how hard it is not to use this comment as an excuse to spam my prog.
Seriously though, PayPal don't like it, even just to pay affiliates, so you have to keep real quiet about it and hope word of mouth gets round.

[Ms Naughty]

Epassporte is asking for verification, wanting copies of my driver's licence and other stuff before I can use the service again.

I'm wondering, should I bother? There's something disconcerting about sending off a scanned copy of my ID, especially when the whole thing is up in the air.

Did anyone else get this request? What do you think I should do? Verify and then wait? Or just wait, cross my fingers that it will be fixed and THEN verify?

Perhaps my question to Epassporte is: does getting your Visa status back require webmasters to show they're not money launderers?