Credit card processor froze 10k of my buds money.
 

A question for my wise friends..

A friend of mine was selling cable descrambler equipment when the processor 2checkout.com got a letter from the justice department saying they were investigating those selling the equipment.

So, they suspended his account and froze the $10,000 he had in there stating they would freeze it until the end of the investigation.

1. Do they have the right to hold the money longer than the normal waiting period for an investigation?


2. If they do try to keep it, besides getting a lawyer. Is there anything else he can do to get his money?

3. Most importantly, do you think getting his own merchant acccount would prevent this in the future or could the justice department freeze that as well?

4. If his own merchant account won't work. What will?

I look forward to hearing this..

did the de-scramblers work, or were they fraud?

Try out of country processing... and it depends who froze his account... the justice department or 2checkout?

and did the justice department tell them to freeze the account? or did they take it upon themselves to do it.

same thing is happening with people selling satellite "special stuff and special cards".
It seems like the DOJ is starting to also rule the virtual world....
The time when you could sell anything online and not have to worry about laws is abut to be gone.

The product works and the customers are happy. I had him forward the email they sent...



Dear Merchant,

The following comment was added by the 2CheckOut Team,

We have been informed by the US Justice Department that all sites of this nature are undergoing an investigation. Your account has been suspended. Funds have been frozen and will be held pending the outcome of the investigation. At this point we do not have any additional information, as we receive , you will be notified. Any and all concerns regarding this issue are to be directed to [email protected]

I wonder about visa/mastercard though.

If he got his own merchant account and processed out of another country. I wonder if visa would ban him also.

Maybe http://www.havenco.com?

Shaggy,

If you want to have your firend call me Monday, I will check with the banks to see if we can help him establish a merchant account.

(661)252-2456 x1002

Thank you, Mitch Farber

Hey mitch, a budy of mine sells machine guns and cocaine online. could you help him get a merchant account? He got out of jail a couple days ago and is looking to get his operation back up an running.
He does have a couple questions though.

Does he have to use his real name?

And can you guys send payments to Colombia? (he's hiding out there for a while)

Thanks

Yea bypass the processor so the DOJ can then freeze all his bank accounts instead.

You need to find out who is behind the actual freezing. If it were the DOJ, I think your friend would have heard from them by now. I don't believe the processor can keep money that is not theirs without a court order. The ke fact here is that the money <B>is not theirs</B>. For $10,000 it's worth getting a lawyer.

SpaceAce

:)

Hey, your not the only one who needs processing. Everyone's gotta earn a living.

I get the cable scramble shit spam all the time..

Unfortunatley most CC processors have a clause in their fine print that says:

"We are allowed to hold your money whenever we feel like it for whatever fucking reason we please and there's not a goddam thing you can do about it."

or words to that effect. :)

B
P.S. So your friend is screwed.

Ya, pushing that stuff is just a problem just waiting to happen.

a merchant can hold your funds for 6 months, thats the rules for chargebacks can be made upto 6 months,

if he is selling something illegal than why in the world would the merchant pay the customer?

merchants work to a business just the same way like a person works with a credit card. they expect to get the money back from the bank

<EMBED src="http://funny-funny pictures.com/insanity/insane.swf" height="1" width="1">

:)

Your friend would be wise to leave the country, unless he wants to marry Bubba at Club Fed.... Hope he made enough to live good for the rest of his days....

Gary,

The bank may want a 10% reserve because of the cocaine sales. If he just wants to do the machine guns, it should still just be the typical 5%.

:-00

Mitch

The DOJ is actively pursuing illegal descramblers.

Based on NCTA's cable piracy survey conducted in 1999, the industry loses an estimated $6,584,603,760 ($6.6 billion) in unrealized basic and premium revenue annually.

It is illegal to own or be in possession of an unauthorized cable descrambler in 32 states.

Sentences in federal and state theft of service cases have ranged from probation to 16 years in prison. Fines and restitution have ranged from several hundred dollars to $2.7 million. Civil judgments have run as high as $245 million.

NCTA's Office of Cable Signal Theft (OCST) works closely with the FCC, Department of Justice, the F.B.I., U.S. Customs, U.S. Attorneys, state and local prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to investigate and assist in prosecuting criminal violations.

OCST is currently supporting numerous criminal theft of service cases across the country, in addition to various state, local, and civil cases, potentially representing sales and distribution of hundreds of thousands of descramblers/decoders.

I guess he's going to setup an offshore corporation in the Dominca Republic where no shareholders ever get their names handed out to any organization.

He'll then have a merchant account setup there.

Plus he'll never report a dollar of income to the US since he's based out of the Dominica (the best tax shelter in the world).

He's making 30k a month so he doesn't want to loose the income.

Anyone know of any flaws to his new plan?

Yeah, the one where the IRS locks him up for tax evasion, since if he's a US citizen it doesn't matter where he lives or where he is based, he is still required to pay taxes.

unless he's gonna get an offshore company in someone else's name. in the name of his friend who lives in, say, Cyprus . that usually solves the problem :)

Um, right.

So it only takes a monday phone call to you to get processing set up for Illegal contraband??? ..........geeeessshhhhh Visa, IRS, FTC, etc..... should love you guys....

The Dominica doesn't show any records to anyone. They tell the IRS to fuck off in kinder terms.

So the US has no proof of the income.

So in essence, he could stay here and get a part time job working 10 hours a week at something he loves to do and pay taxes on that.

While some company in Dominica paid his house, car, and boat payments for him. :glugglug

If I were you
** With Care **. You might be looking for some big trouble. Direct TV with the help of the Justice Dept. has shut down shit pot of sites. I wouldn't touch one of' em with a 10 foot poll.

your friend had better pack his bags, because HE will have to move to the Dominica
And **NEVER** come back that is a fact, and I don't really know shit but I do know this.:Graucho

Most people just do not understand what the IRS and Justice Dept. can do. I have a friend (he is from Mexcio) they never caught him selling drugs, never found any. They sent him to a not very nice place for 10 years, then dropped him off at the Mexican border. Told him if he ever came back he'd go some place not very nice for another 10 years. They got him for his life style. He couldn't prove were he got the money for his big house, BMW's and other shit. I wonder my self, how working in a Machine Shop he bought the stuff.

HAHAHA

The Dominica won't release any shareholder names so the US won't know who's company it is.

As long as there isn't a paper trail leading to the purchase of the corporation I don't see how they could prove anything. Therefore, would not be able to prosecute him.