Credit card giant VISA International has suspended its business with ePassporte, an Internet payment system widely commonly used to pay adult Webmasters and a raft of other affiliate programs.
Company owner Christopher Mallick broke the news to ePassporte customers in an e-mail sent Thursday, saying Visa International had suspended the company’s ePassporte Visa program, which is processed through St. Kitts Nevis Anguilla National Bank.
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
ePassporte’s Visa Virtual Account allowed customers to pay online at any Website that accepted Visa cards. The program also issued customers physical cards that could be used to withdraw cash at ATMs around the globe.
I reached out to both Mallick and Visa for further details and will update this blog if I hear from either.
Update, Sept. 7, 1:07 p.m. ET: Visa just issued the following statement, sent to me via e-mail in response to my request last week for more information:
“At the request of St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank (SKNA), on September 2, 2010, Visa blocked network access for prepaid cards issued by SKNA and operated by ePassporte.com to address certain program deficiencies. ePassporte.com is a third-party agent that works with SKNA.
“It is important to note that impacted SKNA prepaid cardholders are still able to access their funds through SKNA or SKNA’s agent, ePassporte.com. For more information cardholders should contact SKNA or ePassporte.com.
“Visa is committed to maintaining the integrity of its global payment network and routinely conducts due diligence to ensure Visa prepaid programs adhere to the company’s stringent program requirements and controls.”
Original post:
This news caught my attention because I have recently encountered ePassporte accounts tied to several shady affiliate programs, such as those used to reward people who promote rogue anti-virus products and online pharmacy sites.
A number of adult Webmaster forums are buzzing with the news, but few seem to know more than what’s in the statement from ePassporte. However, the administrator of the online forum italkcash.com suggests that the move by Visa is in response to new anti-money laundering requirements mandated by the Credit Card Act of 2009, which affects prepaid cards and other payment card instruments that can be reloaded with funds at places other than financial institutions.
While ePassporte’s Mallick can’t be happy about these developments, the situation may provide a nice bump for his new movie: Mallick helped produce the Paramount film Middle Men, a movie released Aug. 6, 2010 that is based on his personal experiences in the porn Web site billing industry. The synopsis from the film’s Wikipedia entry seems oddly prescient:
In 1995, straight-and-narrow businessman Jack Harris (Luke Wilson) who builds the first online billing company dealing exclusively with adult entertainment, finds himself in the middle of a whirlwind filled with starlets, con men, Russian mobsters, federal agents, and international terrorists. Caught between a porn star and the FBI, Harris learns that even becoming one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs of his generation may not be enough to keep him out of trouble. It is based on the experiences of producer Christopher Mallick.
Click the image below for a Youtube.com trailer of the movie.
If I understand correctly, Visa International has suspended EPassporte. That doesn’t mean Visa Europe has suspended the transactions as well. If you can go to an atm that uses Visa Europe but does not go through Visa International you might be able to get some of your money. You might even be able to use it for a local purchase there as well. I could be wrong though.
U.S. requirement that foreign transaction be monitored or traced. Once ePassporte registered with U.S. Homeland Security & the U.S. Internal Revenue Service Visa International should lift the restrictions. Again, I could be wrong. This is just my opinion.
Greg, you are wrong. People cannot get their money. Not in Europe. Not in Africa. Not in Asia. I’m not sure abour South Pole but we can guess.
Which word you use to address people those take someone’s money without mr. Someone consent?
how could they think the notice they gave us was sufficient. one second i’m withdrawing money..and the other i’m being told that there’s nothing i can do to touch my money. we need some sort of cam girl union.
Cam girls/guys are not the only people who can’t access their money. So many people can’t get money off their account. And what would a union do? The companies we work with don’t own epassporte or visa..
hi! any comment about Vladislav Horohorin arrest?
Well as a cam girl ,I never ever trust any payment party period .And would never leve a dime in my epass account .I was right to the atm to withdraw my money the very minute it came in to my epass account . it wasnt til the next day thank god that visa pulled the plug and froze are money .But what i do not understand is why so many webcam girls kept there money in epass at all .I hear some of you have over 5,000 left in our account . wow .I always new that sence working as a cam girl we have a lot of charge backs .thats considered fraudlent activity .not done by us(cam host) but done by are costomer.So I always thought the adult sites we work at should of only used epassportee to pay us out,not to also allow costomers to buy credit to spend on the adult site.at lest not from certin countries, that are famous for doing charge backs to girls (fraud). why on earth did these adult sites allow credit to be bought threw a visa company from say romania ,It was like setting up this whole play that has happened .Of course only in a matter of time any cc company would pull the plug , Duh !! .because of my thinking like this .It is why i never never left any money on my epass account and always with drew it the minute it came in . Sorry ladies and gents that did not see this type of thing could and was bound to happen. I hope you have learned a lesson .when working in certin feilds never trust your money to be any place but with you and deposited in sepret accounts not connected with how you make the money
Your funny! Again, not everyone who uses epassporte is a camgirl/guy. Not everyone has their life savings on epassporte either, and if they do so what. You were lucky enough to get your money off in time. I take my money off my account every pay period. I went the day after my money was deposited and was slapped in the face! Epassporte has been in business 7 years, and a lot of people trusted them. Again you were lucky to get your money in time, and if you were really as smart as you say 🙂 and really didn’t trust epassporte then you would have opted to receive paper checks. Don’t put people down just because you were lucky enough to withdraw your money before 12pm est aug 2nd. By the way, some people don’t even get their money deposited on epassporte till after the 3rd of the month. The same thing could have happened to you as well miss smarty pants
that s wrong …….
Maybe mr Mallick is doing a prety good trick to create noice around his name so more people to watch his movie 😉
Just a thought….
But if the problem will be solved next week as they let it leaked, then be sure then whole thing was an advertising trick.. and yes maybe with this trick he will recover the money that he will loose from people that got scared and left epassporte…
It simple math actually…
I also went to see the trailer for the movie after this…
I must say its really good advertisement and if its in cinemas sooner than online than I am going to see it in cinema also.
After I saw the trailer I knew that what Mallick does is exactly what I would do if I had the chance.
Lets see if the story has happy end and I see my money in my hands also.
I agree that it seems very convenient for this to transpire right around the opening of his movie. I for one will not pay to see Mr Mallicks low budget film.
darn is this problem gonna be resolved after a week?
U.S. plastic is being systematically crushed, pretty soon anything other than Applebees, Exxon or Macy’s will be restricted. Any transactions outside the U.S. are being blocked by gov. regs. I picked up a $100 gift card to order my monthly heart medication as I’ve been doing for almost 5 years now and the cards now restrict transactions to U.S. processors so no cheep heart meds for me this month. Am I going to stop taking the medications which keep me alive? No, I’ll find another way to pay…welcome to the rise of alternative payment products. Do you think all of these junk affiliate and porn programs will just cease? Nope, they will also find another payment method. Out with the bank products and in with the new digital currency alternatives.
Mark Herpel
P.S. Another great article from Brian Krebs.
I was notified by another prepaid card vendor back in May that they would be blocking questionable financial transactions (i.e. gambling) as of June 1, 2010.
I would think that VISA has no keen desire to see a source of revenue dry up and most likely gave effective notice for the ePassporte crew to step up and clean things up.
The silence is deafening …
Where did you get the VISA statement? I couldn’t find it anywhere on VISA’s website…
Thanks!
I can hear a pin drop . no the movie was not the problem , I mean it grossed 200k and cost 22 mil so gosh we all know it’s gonna make money lol . I think we just need to keep waiting . I am sure we will hear something soon …..keep listening and waiting ….hello hello ….is epassporte out there ? ….hahaha
Брайн, какой же ты долбаеб!
the problem is the money from casinos and gambling sites gambling, in my opinion the bank perzonal fluid capital short by a large leak or safety .. those are my theories perzonales not say it is so big effort but they are theories of what might happen to have no (statement) “official” does not contradict with each other, but also if I think about the bank’s capital has proved necessary to continue using epassporte.com guess .. That does not mean that the bank is based but that too may have cut the VISA and epassporte president said something different to avoid creating panic.
The movie is nafing more a move press publish the movie nafing more.. the bank is stop capital fore leakage money or security of payments casinos ar gambling sites and is more money fore the bank in teoira…
epassporte f***yourself, i dont have money to pay my rent. wtf? solutions? bloody hell, they blocked our money and they do s**t. you’d think we have rights, well mallik pis**d on our rights!
If VISA Said yesterday….
“It is important to note that impacted SKNA prepaid cardholders are still able to access their funds through SKNA or SKNA’s agent, ePassporte.com. ”
Why is our money not accessible still??
What a Joke.
i have a money in epassporte account…and i have send them already a letter telling them that i need a bankwire adn my money is in wallet so its ok.
but i never receive any reply from them..its been 5 days
This is a joke now! Never again will I trust epassport. The worse thing is there is no communication! Why is’nt he keeping us updated!
Good morning.
I apologize for my English not perfect. I read this blog I visit hundreds of times a day. and I seem to live a nightmare. espassporte to receive a salary and pay money home loan and keep the child with a thousand afflictions. I hope this story ends quickly unlocking the cards I do not know which way to run. The thing that most annoyed that a serious company like ePassporte had time to send the news about the film that no one goes there to see that no one interested in sex, drugs and rock but not able to respond to email and can set up a page Central Communications as the negotiations proceed with the visa. really once you unlock this situation, the mass of people corerra withdraw his savings, and you can stay sure that will be their end. those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind. I write from Italy and I can assure you that with all the people angry with them because they do not communicate anything to bad raport with customers once the people taking their savings and salaries breaks the paper will no longer be paid unless such servizzi. are worries me is the crisiisterica every time I turn on PC to check again. I wish all hope that this nightmare will finish before posibbile. O my God help us.
Great! I moved my funds to E-wallet a day after this disaster. And funds from wallet can be wired to my bank account however funds from Visa Virtual are on hold.
I still love epass not the people behind it.
anybody heared anything about epassporte? Mallick said it will be resolved this week… and today is thursday and still didnt hear anything…. really worry..
thnx for answer.
a girl from hungary
Thanks for the update on sept 7. I have been reading on twitter that ePassporte is suppose to release a comment later today? Not sure if that is true, but I am interested in hearing what lies they have for us. I highly doubt they will tell the truth at this point. After reading the latest update on this blog, I am now convinced that Christopher Mallick is a crook, and has probably used our hard earned money to fund his low budget pathetic film about his worthless life. I am now concerned that I/we will never even see our money.
“To us, it is unconscionable that such action would be taken” This is what Mallick said to us in his first statement. Well I find it unconscionable that Christoper Mallick has single handedly destroyed his name, and his multi million dollar business to royally screw innocent people out of their legit and hard earned money. I think it is unfair and despicable, and cowardly to not face his victims and give us some answers.
This is beginning to turn into a Bernie Madoff situation with his ponzi scheme. Maybe Christopher Mallick should also be brought up on federal charges and put away for 150 years in prison for stealing too..
Sheesh Brian i’d very much like to know how that guy in the jpg you posted made the $128K in his visa ???? I was not a person who used the EP account for what apparently is a big market in online adult materials promotion & sales if that jpg is an example?
I just thought it was a convenient account for a visa that could buy stuff online that is nobody’s business. Everybody deserves some privacy in this day & age of super snoops, gov & otherwise. Does this mean the spies are looking into all these accounts?
I made a point of only keeping about $100 or less in my virtual visa to pay for various online purchases.
I can confirm only that the few funds that were in my wallet today were allowed to be transferred out to a bank account. BUT > that’s on the transaction side of EP, i.e. it allowed the funds to be transferred; whether it actually goes thru is yet to be determined.
I believe totally in adult rights to privacy (before anyone flames me: I don’t believe in child porn (or violent crap, violation of any living things) etc to me that is a different matter of course!!!! I’d go after those scumbags with everything possible!!!!
But consenting adults making their own choices in whatever matters they choose to buy or participate in or whatever — well that is something that is no one’s business!) There seems to be a global breakdown in advanced democracies of citizen rights when it comes to privacy. US is even more like paranoid places & other locked down countries in that regards it seems. UK not far behind but there are some protections in EU & UK not afforded — no, not demanded by US citizens.
This is a topic I will remain interested in b/c I still am out close to $100 US myself
Many rather large affiliate programs use ePassporte to pay their affiliates, especially those who reside outside of the U.S. and for whom checks can be a real hassle.
It’s not uncommon for those companies to make 6 figure wires to ePassporte to fund those payouts.
I can’t imagine an individual using ePassporte to hold that kind of money, considering that it doesn’t offer the kind of deposit insurance real banks do, but stranger things have happened I suppose.
Hello everyone
no updates?: (No New?: (:(
there are some interesting angles developing on this story. stay tuned. hopefully i will have updates soon (assuming I can confirm some things).
I know that a lot of you have been following this blog post to see if there are updates. Just a reminder that in addition to subscribing to the blog’s main RSS feed, you can subscribe to the feed for this particular post, which will update whenever there are new comments
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2010/09/visa-blocks-epassporte/feed/
I have $1400 frozen with epassporte.I messaged them twice no reply.i wanted to have my fund transfert to my french bank account.This morning i tried to call them over and over again no one reply my calls!!!this dosen’t smell good at all!!!besides no udates on this issue is being posted on their website, as to calm down customers.Obviously they don’t care about us!Hope they won’t go away with this!they must be a way legal way to go after them if we are united !
hopefully solve the problem. they do still have my trustworthy!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Internal Notification
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
I can’t understand why you trust them.
Probably never.. 🙁
Hello,
I think there’s a reason what cause VISA to do so….just I guess,
1) Anyone in a globe can easily obtain an epass account without real identities, and can draw money in any ATM in any place, so you can not deny this is one of the good way to funding terrorism activities especially in the country like Philippines, Indonesia, India, or other those have terrorism activities. so that’s why card issued by St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank GOT NO Problems, only epass are in trouble. why? because if you need a debit card you must show the bank your real identity.
2)Adult site run by US citizens needs to pay tax, many of them run a pay site for because of living, but now you can see those fucking what called adult affiliate post people’s original contents in hotfile, filesonic etc, do you think this is fair? many of what call adult affiliate are from Islamic country such as Malaysia, Indonesia, India etc. they just rob other paysites copyrights material and spread it the whole internet because of wants to earn US15 per 1000 downloads, for me, maybe I should call them “internet’s terrorism” which make other country and people facing a big financial loss, thus I believe US goverment force VISA to terminate Epass immediately to protect their rights and income in terms of billions US dollar a year. since US goverment can not take action to hotfile because maybe they are in a third world country.
Just I guess…..