xxxuniversity

Here's my response:

CCBILL is full of dipshits or criminals or dipshit criminals! CCBill now informs me that any affiliate revenue I generate will be withheld unless I provide information that unnecessarily places my identity at risk. The excuse provided is that this is to curtail money laundering. This isn't a bank account. It's not even a CCBill merchant account. It's an affiliate account. I make no deposits whatsoever. As an affiliate, the origin of any affiliate commissions paid to me would be....CCBill. Literally, CCBill is objectively saying that the very act of CCBill paying affiliates the affiliate commission earned is, ipso facto, money laundering.........UNLESS the affiliate places their identity risk, at which time it ceases to be money laundering.

From CCBill's own website: "Policymakers around the world want to ensure that capital obtained from illicit activities does not enter legitimate financial flows." As a CCBill affiliate, I have nothing to do with the origin of affiliate commissions! The origin would be the people paying CCBill merchants! Does CCBill demand customers of paysites scan and email their passports and utility bills?

Also from CCBill's own website: "Implementing KYC guidelines enables financial institutions to prevent criminals from using their services and concealing the origin of their earnings." How could I possibly conceal the origin of affiliate commissions? CCBill knows the origin of affiliate commissions better than I do! After all, it's CCBill that disburses the affiliate commissions! Is CCBill accusing itself of engaging in money laundering?* See: ccbill.com/kb/what-is-kyc

It's impossible for me to launder funds through my CCBill affiliate account. That said, CCBill could launder funds through my affiliate account. It's an account that CCBill pays me from. Is CCBill accusing itself of engaging in money laundering? If so, how does CCBill seeing my personal information prevent that? Withholding my affiliate payments while demanding to see a plurality of personal information in order to pay me affiliate commissions is, itself, the most questionable activity.* It could very well precipitate both identity theft and the laundering of funds by CCBill. If CCBill won't pay me the affiliate revenue I earn, what is CCBill going to do with the funds?

I've already replied to CCBill explaining this from my registered account email address. That should be more than sufficient to update a payment address. Do you think I would ask CCBill to send my affiliate commission payments to somebody else's address? CCBill would be issuing a check in my name. Why would I want a check issued in my name sent to somebody else anyways? And even if I did want a check sent to somebody else, wouldn't that be a generous act on my part? Why would that need to be stopped? That's called charity.

Regardless of where the affiliate commission check goes to, for it to be cashed, the person cashing the check would have to transact with a bank. In order to do so, they would have to show ID. Or else they are using their bank, which required them to present all of these documents to open up an account. Is my bank's "verification" of me not sufficient?

To be clear, it is my address I used, but it's not my home address. I don't use my home address for affiliate commission payments, and it is for perfectly legitimate reasons. Maybe some people prefer some privacy from prying eyes over adult related activity. The same reason I wouldn't set up a web camera in my shower for CCBill to pay me my affiliate revenue! But most importantly is that I have had an issue with mail theft. I tried providing CCBill with my PO Box, but CCBill rejected that on the basis CCBill doesn't allow affiliates to get paid using PO Boxes. Even my actual bank - where I do make deposits - allows me to use a PO Box!

So then I provided another mailbox of mine that isn't a PO Box. That seems to work. But now I must provide a plurality of documentation that places my identity at risk. I am also being told I must provide documentation that, quite frankly, doesn't exist, because I don't have utilities at this mailbox address I use. But, again, seeing this documentation CCBill is requesting does nothing to curtail or stop money laundering, since the only party that could be engaged in money laundering by disbursing affiliate commission payments is CCBill. It does, however, undermine basic privacy and enhances the risk of identity theft.

Furthermore, even if CCBill sent the check to my address only after seeing all of this documentation, what is to stop me from signing the check over to somebody else? Is CCBill going to send an agent to my house to monitor me 24/7 to ensure I don't do such a thing, as if doing so is inherently bad and something CCBill needs to stop? If not, this is altogether chimerical for CCBill to use the explanation it is using.

Or why not require anybody who subscribes to a CCBill merchant website - which is where funds actually come from -* to show their passport and a utility bill? After all, could not a person make payments to a CCBill website as a cover for money laundering? But to receive affiliate commissions? CCBill is either brain dead or CCBill is the guilty party, and now they want to steal identification.

I hate to give CCBill pointers on how to perfect their fraud, but it would be less concerning if CCBill said they needed to see identification to verify the account hasn't been taken over by another individual, in order to protect the affiliate. That's because I could see verifying 1) The affiliate is a legal adult and 2) The affiliate's account hasn't been taken over by another party. But a utility bill to verify the payment address? It's not only unnecessary, but, at that point, CCBill is collecting enough information to harm the affiliate. It's especially absurd when we are talking about an affiliate account that has been opened for over 20 years. I'm the same person I was 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years ago. Once the affiliate has verified that it's the affiliate making the account changes by verifying identity, the affiliate should be able to use whatever address the affiliate wishes to receive a payment. There is no need whatsoever to see a utility bill to disburse affiliate payments! Which prompts the question: what's the need to know the affiliate's actual home address, except to inflict damage?

Especially since this is an affiliate account and not a merchant account, I'm compelled to wonder if CCBill might actually be facilitating money laundering. CCBill is in the business of both withholding affiliate commissions and acquiring enough information to open up an actual bank/merchant account in the name of the affiliate victim.

What CCBill is doing undermines privacy. What it doesn't do is curtail money laundering. This threat by CCBill to not pay me affiliate commissions means I am going to stop promoting CCBill programs, and I strongly encourage every webmaster to stop partnering with CCBill. This documentation will not be forthcoming. CCBill should reconsider its ways.

------END OF MY RESPONSE

UPDATE: I just updated the payout method to ACH, with the deposits going to my checking account at a U.S. bank There is now truly no need for CCBill to see any documentation, and if CCBill still insists upon seeing my personal information to release payments, then I will be compelled to accuse CCBill of facilitating fraud. Why else would CCBill need to see that information other than to facilitate fraud? After all, it's a U.S. bank account the funds would be sent to, and I can guarantee you that my bank has already "verified" me.

UPDATE: CCBill replied to me explaining everything I explained above to them, telling me that they must see all of this documentation in order to disburse affiliate commissions. In other words, CCBill is now refusing to disburse affiliate commissions on an affiliate account I've had for over 20 years, with the payments going directly to a U.S. bank account, which required me to be "verified" by my bank in order to open!

UPDATE: Not only has CCBill maintained that they must see all of these documents in order to disburse payments, with the excuse being to curtail money laundering, but in their latest response they cite my "empty threats", saying that they won't change despite my "empty threats". ALL of my communication with CCBill has been in writing. I wrote to CCBill explaining exactly what I explained above. At no time have I threatened anybody. The only "threat" I can think of is me saying I would stop promoting CCBill. That's not empty. I am now officially done promoting any site that uses CCBill. Have a nice day, CCBill!