Online Poker Forum at Full Tilt Poker

Matt The Kid · High Card Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Posts: 2

After what happened with Neteller I was looking into opening an account with ePassporte but first I wanted to find out what country they are based out of. I guess I just want to know where my money is going. I could not find this info on their web site so I sent an e-mail to their support yesterday but did not get an answer. About 2 hours ago I did a search on google. Now I would like for you guys to follow these steps.
Go to google. Type in ePassporte corporate headquarters hit enter.
When you see the web site list click on kenwendland.com>>Blog Archive>>Debit Card Fraud. After you read this blog click on the link in the article for the update. After you read this, back out and go back to the web site list and click on XBiz-Paycom, ePassporte Split; Mallick Takes Part Ownership
Let me know what you think of this. The internet is so amazing.

Holdem-Holik · Three of a Kind Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 81

Followed all the links and read it all. I also did my own searches using the name Christopher Mallick. I wanted to see if I could find the references to this guy being involved in porn. All I could find there is that when he was with Paycom they processed payments for people to look at dirty pics. Hardly enough to tie him to porn. They also make some reference to him being involved in court cases, but that seems justified as he was trying to keep a club open and the other reference is to a Chapter 7 and how many people do you know that have been there, done that?

What I didn't like that I found on that blog were all the additional posts of people that had the same thing happen to them by epassports. At first I was thinking that their site was not secure and it was hackers getting customers info, but now that I've thought about it more....that can't be the case, as the blog people were not their customers. Not sure what to make of it, but there seems to be a pattern here. It could be just hackers that got bank numbers and epassports was an easy way to process the stealing.....so if that's the case hard to blame epassports. This needs more thought after a good nights sleep, which I haven't had yet.

You may want to check out this link for some updated information on what's available with US ability to deposit:
http://www.gambling911.com/online-gambling-deposit-methods-012007.html

Holdem-Holik · Three of a Kind Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 81

Just to make it easier for people.... the first link that Matt The Kid wants you to find is here

http://www.kenwendland.com/index.php/2006/11/28/debit-card-fraud-update

The second link is here:

http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=9684

(Rather than doing the Google shuffle!)

Matt The Kid · High Card Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Posts: 2

Holem - Holik

Thanks for your response. I guess my biggest concern about this is can we trust ePassporte with our money and how long will it be before this Chris Mallick guy is arrested for something. It could be for money fraud, porn or whatever. I had already checked out the gambling911 link from deadmoney314 before I read your response. It will be interresting to see what this plan is going to be. Maybe the poker sites are going to start offering their own Visa debit cards.
Talk to you latter.

Holdem-Holik · Three of a Kind Joined: 04 Apr 2006 Posts: 81

Matt....this was a bulletin posted at my "myspace" some of the info is old as things are changing on an hourly basis....but thought you'd like to see the part regarding epassports so I am pasting the entire bulletin here for you to read....

As many of you know, Neteller - the most popular payment processor for poker sites - left the US market this week. Here is an informative article from PokerNews.com about alternative payment methods.

As you can see, there are pros and cons to these methods. This article seems to endorse click2pay. I'm going to be looking into this issue some more and I'll send out any info when I get it.

***

Alternatives to Neteller for Online Poker Withdrawals and Deposits
January 19, 2007
Staphen Noh

While the shutdown of Neteller was greeted with a collective groan by the poker community, by no means does it signal the end of online poker. Although Neteller was by far the most popular method of deposit and withdrawal from online poker sites, there are and have existed for some time many other options or "ewallets" to choose from. Two of the more popular choices to replace Neteller are Epassporte and Click2Pay.

Epassporte has been around for a while and is what I used four years ago to make my first online poker account deposit and withdrawal. One frequent complaint from Epassporte users is the amount of hidden fees that they attach � for instance, their load/reload fee is $5 per $100 deposit and in order to withdraw funds, you need to purchase a $35 electron card with a $2 fee for withdrawal or do an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). While I have personally found Epassporte a bit inconvenient to use, I did not have any major problems depositing and withdrawing in the period that I used it.

One cause for concern was Epassporte's Better Business Bureau (BBB) rating. BBB exists as a private non-profit service to provide reports to customers and create accountability for businesses. Epassporte's BBB rating was an F, the lowest rating possible out of a 10-point scale, which corresponds to the following description:

We strongly question the company's reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law's licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company's industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.

Click2Pay has been around for a while too, although it has seen a major surge in accounts since Neteller's shutdown. Click2Pay offers deposit/withdrawals through credit card or bank transfer. Unlike Epassporte, Click2Pay does not charge a fee on deposits made directly from your bank account. It does, however, charge a 3% fee on deposits made using your credit/debit card. Customers report that Click2Pay currently has a 7-day delay between opening an account and processing a withdrawal. Unfortunately, a BBB rating for Click2Pay was unavailable.

Paper checks also currently remain a viable method for withdrawal for Pokerstars at the time of this writing, however Full Tilt has temporarily suspended issuing checks. I contacted both representatives about the option of paper checks and got these responses from both sites:

From Poker Stars:

At this time, the only other regular cashout method available to US
customers is by check. The minimum cashout by check is currently
$50. All checks over $1000 are sent by courier; smaller checks are
sent by regular mail, but can be sent by courier if you pay a $25 fee.

From Full Tilt:

Unfortunately, due to a recent change in our check processor's policies,we are temporarily unable to issue checks to US residents. We areworking to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. In the meantime,rest assured that this does not affect the money in your Full Tilt Pokeraccount in any way. Your money is safe, secure and ready for use on ourtables or for withdrawal at any time. Full Tilt Poker is fully committed to continue offering its services to all of our players worldwide.

***********************
Bulletin originated from this myspace site:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=93296228

StrawberryFloat · High Card Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2

May 24, ,2007

I would like to communicate with Fulltilt and see if better arrangements can be made with the Epassporte.com problem that all of us face, just as you referred to in your recent email to me regarding WEBATM.

Each time I have requested a load of funds, which you can see is considerable, Epassporte.com presents the following message, quote:

"It will take about 7 business days for the funds to be available. Funds loaded today will be available Tuesday, June 5, 2007 5:30 PDT. Are you sure you would like to proceed?" I had just requested that funds be loaded, which was approximately 5:15 EDT, May 24, 2007.

My calculations show that that would be ten (10) business days, which should not be acceptable. However, even if it took their stated 7 business days, that is also not acceptable. The reason for this is because these funds are electronically removed from my account within one hour of the requested load.

I telephoned Epassporte.com quite some time ago about this and talked with a Supervisor. The gentleman was very nice and kind; however, in that conversation, he stated the following:

1. That when we are dealing with checks, it takes the customary 7 days. I explained to the Supervisor that I had called my banker, and my banker stated that the funds were electronically requested and removed IMMEDIATELY. My bank statements even show the electronic transfer tracking number, date and time.

2. That Epassporte.com does not handle this transfer, but that a go-between out of California handles the request for funds from a user's account, then they submit the funds to Epassporte.com. When I attempted to contact this company, it was impossible to contact them by phone or e-mail unless you had a specific account number with them. This is also unacceptable. This company has use of my hard-earned money immediately, and they have use of this money for in excess of 10 days each time. One reload which I requested from Epassporte.com took over 16 days.

The people at Epassporte.com are very kind and gracious, and I do not have a specific complaint about them, except for the fact that they do not request this other company to be expeditious with the customer's funds.

What also comes to mind, is the fact that they, too, could be handling a lot of requests. Understandable, of course. However, if they are able to electronically remove funds from my account (which is CASH) within minutes, they also should be able to credit the funds to my account within minutes, but at the very least in a day or so.

Thousands upon thousands at Fulltilt experience the same problem. I dealt with WEBATM one time and refuse to do so again, because of the same delay times as we poker players experience with Epassporte.com

I am sending a copy of this email to Poker Players Alliance in hopes that Fulltilt, PPA, and all united players can work a better solution to this problem.

mzbuns · Posted: Sat May 26, 2007 5:28 pm Post subject:

I've used Epassporte now for about a year and a half and haven't really had any issues with them. I just made a withdrawal and there was no problem whatsoever. The report referenced above does concern me though. That's why I went ahead and took my $$ out of my account with them just in case.

mdx1958 · High Card Joined: 09 Oct 2007 Posts: 2

Please be aware that its easy to deposit to this company. However to get your money or to withdrew your fund you might never get it back. I have sent them 20 e-mails, called them 20 times and even complain to Better business bureau but still no luck good thing my transaction was only for $300. So beware this company will use all kinds on delaying tactics so you won't get your money back.

Sincerly

MDX1958

Kappa-KoReal · Three of a Kind Joined: 27 Aug 2007 Posts: 91

I've never had any problems with epassporte... Always thought they were pretty legit but never kept money on there for more than a few minutes.... it's always just been a middle man..... good for taking money out of my bank account and putting it in....

besides....

You guys trust your money with Full Tilt which is Completely retarded so why not trust your money with epassporte?

knobboy · High Card Joined: 15 Jul 2007 Posts: 7

CitizenCain · Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2007 6:36 pm Post subject:

You know what's funny?

Paypal was a lot better when it was run by a cartel of money launderers located in Singapore than it has been since it got bought by a huge American company.

Let's face it - "shady" isn't always bad, and "legitimate" isn't always an improvement.

rawz · High Card Joined: 21 Oct 2006 Posts: 14

Epassporte uses overseas banks , used to be the caymans now i think netherlands . Paycom is one of the biggest adult payment processors on the net which formed epassporte then split .
Paycom formerly owned another company that screwed over alot of people and alot of companies and went belly up .

lllMARKS · High Card Joined: 17 May 2007 Posts: 6

For every single transaction, There is a $5 fee, Now fulltilt requires a minimum deposit of $45 with Epassporte, wow they lowered the minimum deposit but they still dont cover the fees. A-s.S.-H.-oLes

noysauce · High Card Joined: 24 Sep 2005 Posts: 3

After becoming impatient here was the email i sent them"

I made 2 transactions from my checking account to epassporte on 31 Oct. and the money was taken out of my checking account on 2 Nov and was suppose to be in my epassporte account on 9 Nov. That was 7 bussiness days and after calling in to customer service they tell me that it may take another 7-10 bussiness days to resolve the problem thats a total of 17 business days or 26 calender days!!! Whats the deal?! Also I sent an email on 31 Oct wanting to cancel one of my transactions but for some reason I haven't gotten a reply, you have 24/7 customer service and it has been 12 days with no reply to my email! Anyway since its been so long for that one, just disreguard that email and try to get the money in my account(that may be what you guys wanted). But I'm sending this e-mail on 11NOV2007 at 11:53 EST, I hope I get a response soon, have a nice day.

wildcat813 · High Card Joined: 18 Apr 2008 Posts: 1

Epassporte no longer allows players to load money into Full Tilt or any other poker site. They do not tell you that on their site and you will pay $5 to load money into the site only to find out you cannot deposit into Full Tilt. Then you will be charged $3 to have the money returned to your bank account. So, basically, you will lose $8 before you find out that they no longer do business with Full Tilt. I have been using epassporte for a long time and have always went to epassporte first so I can deposit the loaded money right onto the poker site from their deposit funds button. Please verify that epassporte considers your site a valid merchant BEFORE you load money into their site - It was an eight dollar lesson for me!

	Full Tilt Poker is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. © Copyright 2004 - 2005 FullTiltPoker.com., All Rights Reserved