Breaking news! Epassporte shuts down Visa Electron card for all users

[italkcash]

They cant get hit, at least not by Visa as the dont offer cards. Its not the adult industry so to say they are against, its pure Visa vs. Epassporte because they dont follow the new regulations.

[James1230]

Christopher Mallick on CritiquePeople.com

Write anything you want about the founder of Epassporte here. Read what others have said also.

[italkcash]

A few things doesnt make any sense at all.

If Epassporte has problems with Visa, which is completely unrelated from the bank itself, then how come they dont allow people to wire money out?

Epassporte - Can we please get the reason to why you freeze assets when you at the same time claim the only problem is Visa, which is just a merchant bridge, or so called ATM to clearing account.

[kangnido]

It's seems the only assets that are frozen are those that in the users prepaid Visa fund account. Not the eWallet account. People are able to wire money out of their eWallet account if it's $1000 or more and also have to pay a wire transfer fee of $50.00.

So the question is what is the different between the 2 accounts?

[italkcash]

Official Visa Statement: Visa Issues Statement on Suspended ePassporte Accounts

[kangnido]

There is no other confirmation anywhere else about this so-called statement from Krebs blog. And Visa admitting that any action had been taken strikes me as extraordinarily out of character especially with such a vague statement.

[kangnido]

Originally Posted by italkcash

There is clearly no doubt that Epassporte falls under the prepaid/gift card rules as they issue cards without being able to perform sufficient due diligence. Since Epassporte can be used by anyone in the world without anyone being checked, Epassporte will probably see the end of its operations for a long time to come.

That's not exactly true as they have been asking for ID's. Copies of passports etc. The question is what is "sufficient due diligence".

There's something more than meets the eye.

[neo54]

At this point i think they r gone to the wind . No email answers and on the phone they just say they dont know when this will be fixed .

[affiliate1]

New Message from Epassporte:

Received: Sep 10, 2010 2:06 AM PDT
Subject: 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

==============================

what you think guys ? is it over ? no more epass

[italkcash]

So much for "resolved next week" which he said last week. Clearly they are no longer in control of the outcome of their program.

R.I.P Epassporte