Bad news from ePassporte

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musemo

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Feb 10, 2010
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IMPORTANT MESSAGE REGARDING YOUR EPASSPORTE ACCOUNT

From: Christopher Mallick, Owner, ePassporte.com

Dear ePassporte Account Holders,

Please be advised that, at 12:00 PM PDT today, September 2, 2010, we were notified that effective immediately, Visa International has suspended our banking partner's (St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank) ePassporte Visa program. The ePassporte e-Wallet program continues to be up and running, except funds cannot be transferred between your Visa Account and your e-Wallet. At this time ePassporte can no longer issue Visa Cards, and the ability for our Account Holders to make point of sale purchases and withdraw funds from ATMs has also been suspended.

At this time we do not know why this drastic action was taken by Visa. To us, it is unconscionable that such action would be taken without the opportunity for ePassporte to fully understand Visa's reasons and to be able to take all steps necessary to keep our program running the way it has so successfully done for over 7 years. But that is what Visa has done.

As soon as we have more information we will be in contact with you.

In the meantime please be assured that your funds are safe.

We are very sorry for the short notice and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. The ePassporte team is working diligently to rectify this situation.

We kindly ask you to bear with us while we work through this issue.

Please feel free to contact us via the message center or at our call center, should you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Thank You,


Christopher Mallick
 


yeah i heard, what a bunch of cocksuckers, I doubt visa just pulled the plug, it's more likely there was an ongoing dispute between epassporte and paypal, and ep kept all of us in the dark,until it was too late, not giving anyone a chance to withdraw the money

I have $320 sitting in my visa account, I could have withdrawn the funds at any time. I actually logged in yesterday to check my balance, and today.. too late
 
wishing all the affected a smooth transition to other payment systems and that they will recover any lost money. we have had a lot of requests to pay by Epassporte over the years, and never added it due to their offshore presence and the lack of recourse we would have in an event like this. that being said, we never like to see our peers take a hit like this.
 
TigerUK said:
yeah i heard, what a bunch of cocksuckers, I doubt visa just pulled the plug, it's more likely there was an ongoing dispute between epassporte and paypal, and ep kept all of us in the dark,until it was too late, not giving anyone a chance to withdraw the money

I have $320 sitting in my visa account, I could have withdrawn the funds at any time. I actually logged in yesterday to check my balance, and today.. too late
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Dude, that sucks butt nuggets...
 
This is a pretty quiet thread, but it's horrible news for all the old school porn site owners and Fleshlight affiliates...

ePassporte: Visa Situation Should be Resolved Next Week
The issue is with Visa and not with its bank, says ePassporte
By Tom Hymes
Sep 3rd, 2010 02:26 PM

SANTA MONICA, Calif.—In response to a call from AVN seeking further clarification on the sudden suspension by Visa of the ability by ePassport’s West Indies-based bank—St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd.—to process Visa transactions, ePassporte’s business account manager called to comment on the situation.

“The problem,” he said, “is not our bank. Our bank is perfectly fine. Everybody’s money is safe. The issue is literally with Visa. Visa functionality is the only thing that’s down, which means eCards and vCards. We are working to resolve the issue and we will have a resolution by next week, but at this point in time we don’t have any more information and we will contact everyone as soon as we do have any update at all.”

When asked about the increasing concern among some ePassporte clients that their money might remain inaccessible for some time to come, leading them to seek alternative means of delivery, he said, “I think the most important thing right now is for people to be patient until we have a solution. I wouldn’t move any [funds] at this point, because by the time you would receive a wire we’ll either have Visa functionality back up or we will have found another solution.

“The problem,” he added, “is that yesterday we were given about an hour’s notice of the situation, so there really wasn’t enough time for us to prepare any sort of documented statements other than the message that came from our CEO and owner, Christopher Mallick.

“There’s nothing to worry about," he stressed. "It’s an issue with Visa, not with our bank. All of our functions outside of Visa are working perfectly. If people’s funds are in their wallets, they can feel free to contact customer service and do a wire disbursement, but if they can wait, that would be my recommendation. I wouldn’t make any hasty decisions. But we’re not going anywhere; there’s nothing wrong with the business. This was an unforeseen issue, and we’re not exactly sure where it came from on Visa’s side.”

Before hanging up, he once again expressed his hope that calm would prevail over the long holiday weekend, after which the company expects that the situation will be quickly resolved.

“There really is nothing to be panicked about,” he said. “We just have to be patient and see what the solution is. All I can say is that if we had been given more notice, we obviously would have been better prepared and would have contacted all of our clients beforehand.”

In the meantime, several affiliate programs have sent letters to their affiliates notifying them that they are temporarily suspending the use of ePassporte until the Visa issues are resolved, and recommending that people log in to their accounts and change their payment options to either checks or wire transfers.

Several messages left througout the day with managers at the St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank Ltd. went unreturned. One call did go through to the managing director's assistant, who said everyone was at lunch and to call back, and provided a stateside number for ePassporte. Later calls all went to voicemail.

Check back with AVN for more updates as this story unfolds.
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Oh shi, this is not good, I hope they will resolve this ASAP..
Just checked my ePassporte inbox and:

Dear ePassporte Account Holder,

Christopher Mallick, owner of ePassporte, has just released the R-Rated Trailer for his film entitled, Middle Men and wanted ePassporte Account Holders to be some of the first to view it online. If you would like to view the trailer, please copy and paste the link below into your browser:

Middle Men Movie Red Band Trailer | In Theatres August 6th

Middle Men, which is being distributed by Paramount Pictures is set to hit theaters in the United States and Canada on August 6. The film stars Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi, James Caan and Kelsey Grammer.

Thank you and we hope you enjoy the trailer.

Sincerely,

ePassporte Account Services
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I mean, WHAT THE F? It seems that they are jerking off to internet porn rather than actually doing something useful..
 
I would be more surprised if this just happened by coincidence at the same time their movie came out gloating about the way they do business.

In this political and economical climate, its just asking for trouble. Its like Al Capone bankrolling a movie about bootlegging during prohibition, its going to draw in unwanted attention and unnecessary problems are going to come up as a result.

Not to mention the 20 million spent on the movie, and the return only up to $733k (domestic).
 
I have around $2k there. Many small adult affiliate programs who can't issue a check was paying thier international affilates through epass.

I hope they will sort it out or my 2k is fu@ked.
 
I was thinking of opening an account this week. Is anyone actually going to lose money for good or will it just be stuck there for a few weeks in that Visa blackhole? :eek:
 
that is good advert for the movie and I hope its going to have happy end.
Next pay period is ending and with my many micropayments from several affiliate programs I am not sure how the money gets to me.
 
I'm running an affiliate program and the last four days have been chaotic. many affiliates that used to get paid through epassporte are really pissed off..
we are trying to find alternatives. any suggestions?
I work in the adult industry btw
thanks
 
I guess I don't understand the issue? I have an ePassporte account and I just withdrew my funds to my bank account. No money lost ...
 
It's gonna get fixed but I think we will end up having MasterCard like Payoneer provides instead of Visa.
 
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