Originally Posted by k0nr4d (Post 17485668)

I doubt epassporte makes its money on the little fees and whatnot. 50 cents per transfer? A few bucks for card renewals? How many transactions can possible go through their system a day?

My opinion is Epass likely keeps a certain % reserve to pay out ATMs, and invests the rest like any other bank or pseudo bank. Invests into currencies, companies (like oxymoron productions for instance?). The reserves probably fell below this certain %, and the bank requested from Visa that it shut down it's visa cards.

Why can't we transfer from the VV to the Wallet? Visa says that epass and SKNA has control over the funds, not them, so it's not visa locking it. If the funds from VV and Wallet are stored in two different banks, then there is no chance that they are physically moved when you do a transfer because they would get eaten alive with wire fees. It is far more likely that the money is moved around a database, and batch wires are done once or even a couple of times a day. This suggests SKNA has a lock on the VV account to make sure the balance doesn't go further below the required %.

All in all, this is a fucked up situation and I would be weary even if you do get wires and ach transfers coming through. I say if you can get your money out, get it all out ASAP. With the cards not working, there is little reason for anyone to load their accounts and the amount of money circulating in the system between those still accepting this is finite.

This is all of course my speculation with nothing to back it up other then my own logic, but at least it gives the people refreshing the epass threads something to read and gets some stuff off my mind.

Originally Posted by MobiusMike (Post 17485942)

I appreciate the difficult position Michael O and the folks at ePassporte are in. I would hope that following statements from them quickly resolve the following:

1. In the communication above you state that ePassporte did not "see this coming". Were negotiations to resolve the issue that resulted in the program closure being conducted with St. Kitts bank? Did these negotiations unexpectedly break down suddenly causing the "unanticipated closure" or was this a completely unanticipated closure of the product?

2. Have you been able to verify that a gross amount that meets a "reasonability check" against what ePassporte shows as outstanding VV accounts total balances is either on deposit or frozen at St. Kitts? Are you currently working jointly with St. Kitts to verify VV account balances or has this process not been started yet?

3. Has St. Kitts' Ministry of Finance and more specifically the Financial Regulatory Department been informed of St. Kitts actions against their Visa cardholders? If so, is the Ministry's office directly involved in helping to negotiate a release of these funds?

4. Is there currently any investigation by either St. Kitts Ministry of Finance, the U.S. FTC or any other regulatory agency concerning the disposition of the Virtual Visa balances or the policies/procedures or operations of the ePassporte program?

Originally Posted by Tjeezers (Post 17485910)

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.

---------------------

LOL, well that will buy you some time

Smoke Cloud Alert

Originally Posted by Jdoughs (Post 17485961)

Which part about epassporte not giving a shit about our questions did you miss. (lol)

5000 posts, 125,000 views and not one answer.

You're asking in the wrong place, nobody from epass is reading this nor cares to answer you.

Originally Posted by MobiusMike (Post 17485988)

LOL...point taken. Alright, just call it "thinking out loud" then.

Cheers

Originally Posted by k0nr4d (Post 17485668)

I doubt epassporte makes its money on the little fees and whatnot. 50 cents per transfer? A few bucks for card renewals? How many transactions can possible go through their system a day?

My opinion is Epass likely keeps a certain % reserve to pay out ATMs, and invests the rest like any other bank or pseudo bank. Invests into currencies, companies (like oxymoron productions for instance?). The reserves probably fell below this certain %, and the bank requested from Visa that it shut down it's visa cards.

Originally Posted by lucPL (Post 17485025)

all funds are frozen thats why no single wire went out

ACH are working because they have other account, in US, with some small funds only to cover few ACH so that funds are propably gone by now.

Originally Posted by Yookaroo (Post 17486027)

Hey folks, been reading along for a while and I thought I could shed some light on what I am sure is helping hold up this issue and that Michael mentions in his statement, but not too clearly.

when you make a purchase visa checks your balance and then approves the purchase or denies it, but even in this digital world, people can still do things manually and submit through mail. Visa has to wait a given amount of time for all those potential transactions to come in before they will release the funds back to your wallets.

Also people make reservations on hotels/trips that are often preapproved on your visa card, I think it can take up to 30 days for those to clear. you may have noticed on your statement that purchases are pending in the past, thats because they are waiting to get the proof from the retailer that the purchase was actually made before actually removing the funds.

Ive worked with Moneris in designing 3rd party billing and I know those are some of the issues we are dealing with now. Visa protects the retailers as well so they dont want to release their end of the funds until they are sure they have all the purchases cleared.

Originally Posted by Alprazolam (Post 17486212)

someone please post dead horse pic getting a beating.
it is time.

Originally Posted by wyldblyss (Post 17485855)

I'm not trying to be rude but I'm not sure you thought that statement out. I highly doubt Chris, who lives in California walks into an office daily and sees everyone. There is more than one office and I bet that 90+% of the people that work for him have no clue where he is at any given moment and the vast majority have probably never laid eyes on him. The support staff all seem to be from India, excluding MichaelO (who I don't believe lives in California either).

Originally Posted by Juicy D. Links (Post 17486186)

I am listening to Lady gaga now

Originally Posted by brassmonkey (Post 17486225)

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh oh snap!

Originally Posted by Juicy D. Links (Post 17486239)

yo ayone sum up this announcement in a few lines? I aint reading the whole thread

Originally Posted by Juicy D. Links (Post 17486239)

yo ayone sum up this announcement in a few lines? I aint reading the whole thread

Originally Posted by maxpower (Post 17486270)

Your Fucked and you will never see a dime of your funds........

Originally Posted by Phoenix66 (Post 17486223)

You are right, but imagine that you are one of the employees, you have access to the accounts and you see that the money are gone and you can't contact the boss. Would you really bother to write made up "official statements" on forums in such a situation? You would more bother about how to avoid criminal responsibility. Writing statements on forums is assuming it, not avoiding. So someone should be in charge there anyway, even if it's not Chris personally.

By the way - I would never give an access to multi-million bank accounts to the people from "Craplakistan" I can only contact via e-mail. And I doubt that anyone would. So the people who deal with money and not just answering stupid questions should be in more or less close contact with the owner.

Ahh, the hell with these theories... I know no better than any of you what's really going on there. It's a major fuckup for sure.

Originally Posted by Alprazolam (Post 17486212)

someone please post dead horse pic getting a beating.
it is time.

Originally Posted by sebaland3 (Post 17486377)

For security purposes your Account has been placed in a temporary fund protection mode.

Originally Posted by gumdrop (Post 17485720)

OF course it is. He used the cash to fund his movie expecting to make millions....the movie bombed at the box office. Where else would he get that kind of money? 20 million. :2 cents:

Originally Posted by Alprazolam (Post 17486212)

someone please post dead horse pic getting a beating.
it is time.

Originally Posted by Socks (Post 17485955)

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Chris's office.

Originally Posted by spacedog (Post 17486424)

Ok.. End of business day is here.. now what?

Originally Posted by Michael O (Post 17484796)

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

Originally Posted by elron (Post 17484959)

1 - why did visa close your partnership program ?
2 - how come the money on prepaid cc's is still not accesable after a week ?
3 - who is holding the funds on those prepaid cc's ?

Answer these 3 questions and i will trust you like trusted you all those years.

Originally Posted by 18teens (Post 17486436)

I'm sorry but that load of crap sounds so very similar to the bullshit statement iBill issued a few years back. This shit is really starting to piss me the fuck off. Please explain why the fuck our funds are "in motion" Chris.

By the way, my anger is not directed at Michael, who I know is just doing the shitty dirty work that Chris is too much of a pussy to do.

Originally Posted by noekk (Post 17486454)

Why haven't any of you sued yet ? What, exactly, are you waiting for ?