So basically here's the story/update:
1. I'm told my account is frozen due to reaching 5k and I must send required info in (as many of us have had to do). No problem, photo ID, etc. sent.
2. I'm told by a supervisor it's due to one gift account created back in March linked to my account which participated in fraudulent activity.
3. Another rep tells me not ONE but FOUR "gift accounts" were created and used in fraudulent activities.
4. I'm emailed the following:
Dear XXXX,
Pursuant to ePassporte Risk Management policy, we regret to inform you that we can no longer accept your business. Therefore, your account and the gift accounts you have created will be terminated immediately. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Sincerely,
ePassporte Account Verification Department
[email protected]
REF: AM
5. I call up epassporte again. They then inform me that "accounts verification" consists of a total of 4 or 5 people and that they basically handle anything and everything related to epassporte minus customer support. I am suggested to e-mail them at the given address stating my denial of their claims and so forth. So I e-mail them and get no response. I call back they tell me "they're not ignoring you, they're just 4 or 5 people handling everything so they might not have gotten a chance to get back to you".
Now, I can understand it's only been about a day or so that I sent that follow-up e-mail, but they SURE as HELL weren't too busy or backed up to e-mail me twice stating my account was taken and I could never obtain an epassporte account again.
Keyser was nice enough to hit me up on ICQ to find out the story and look into it. He told me corporate said the account was terminated and not able to be re-opened nor could I open myself up another account.
Now I ask you this, to please think about the following:
For 3 years using Epassporte, I've never once had a single violation or have done something to violate their terms of service. I have never had a negative balance, any questionable purchases, anything illegal AT ALL linked to my account. Now with this knowledge that the epassporte corporate office can surely look up, and possibly compare with the most recent questionable activities, including but not limited to verifying the IP address, date, time, and possible cluster-hack (where this has happened to several others with a similar situation and end-result), why would they consider my case to be so "open and shut" that they would react in the manner in which they did?
One other thing comes to mind which plays a big part in my question of their authenticity, trust, and truth, is why would they initially tell me it was due to the 5k reach and request my photo ID, back and front of my credit card, and a copy of my BANK STATEMENT, then tell me ONE "gift account" was created (one story), and then FOUR were created (yet another story)?
So why would I even send them my personal information, ID, bank statement, if I was trying to pull a fast one? Wouldn't I just run away and forget the situation was even present? Forget about epassporte or open up another account to continue commiting such questionable acts?
The answer is: No. I would certainly not, IF I WERE ILLEGITIMATE.
Epassporte, I've switched the 100+ sponsors I work with's payment method over to check. While I might not have been the biggest client of yours, I hope this post assists new and current webmasters when they are considering a choice of online payment solutions. This is more distasteful than Paypal and that is not saying much.
I'm done. Sorry for the long post folks, just thought the facts needed to all be outlined and out in the open so that hardworking webmasters like myself would not be in danger of such things. This can't happen to you? I thought so too after almost 3 years of no issues whatsoever. Proves me wrong, doesn't it now?
Kindest regards,
JM