ePayments account suspended – On February 11, 2020, all ePayments users received a notification, indicating that their account has been suspended.
This company has more than one million users, and is used ACTIVELY by webmasters and cam models, which receive their payments from Chaturbate, Bongacams, Cam4, ….
At this point, we will be honest, we do NOT know anything true, about whether it will be available again or not, even more if we take into account the problems of some similar payment services, in the past. Sometimes, when they close, they close forever.
For now, if you are a webcam model, we recommend that you DO NOT wait any longer, and see the alternative payment options that each live cam site offers.
Unfortunately, there are very few real alternatives to ePayments, in fact, in almost all chat pages, the only alternative is usually “PAXUM”.
What is known for now? – ePayments account suspended
ePayments Systems Ltd announcing on its website that it has suspended all activity on its customer accounts following a review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
In the announcement from the electronic money institution, the company said that its operations had been suspended due to weaknesses in its anti-money laundering systems and controls which “required remediation”.
The British regulator has recently updated the Financial Services Register, placing the following requirements on the company:
- Institution to refrain from AIS or PIS for an indefinite period
- Epayments Systems Ltd must inform customers
- Epayments Systems Ltd must not register nor on-board new customers
- Epayments Systems Ltd must not conduct business with corporate, individuals and/or freelancer customers
Aside from updating the register, the FCA was not willing to comment further on the matter.
The platform previously allowed users to exchange cryptocurrencies and fiat as it was closely affiliated with Digital Securities Exchange, a UK-based cryptocurrency exchange. The exchange was registered with the FCA as an agent of ePayment Systems Ltd.
ePayments targeted its services, including its debit card, at cryptocurrency traders—allowing them to transfer Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Bitcoin Gold to-and-from crypto wallets at a competitive rate.
It is still unclear what weaknesses the FCA found in ePayments Systems. As the company has been registered in the UK and licensed by the FCA for issuing electronic money and conducting payment transactions, its users were required to pass extensive know-your-customer (KYC) procedures and disclose their personal information in order to setup their accounts.
Probably the BREXIT had something to do, but, … these are the known data.
The FCA has been following a strict attitude towards the security parameters of cryptocurrencies. Last month it was reported that the organization has presently established itself as the UK’s only AML authoritative institution.
Apart from the statement published on its website, ePayments has sent out emails to its users, giving out details about the results and consequences of FCA’s latest review. The company’s one million user accounts cannot be accessed and users will be unable to transfer, deal, withdraw, deposit their funds, or use their ePayments cards.
The decision to halt all operations reportedly came after an agreement with the FCA, the company said but didn’t disclose what steps it will take to remedy the situation.
According to Nikita Zuborev, a senior analyst at Bestchange, this was most likely caused by enforcing the Fifth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD5). The directive, which came into force in January, introduced regulations aimed at cryptocurrencies and providers of crypto-related services like exchanges and wallets.
Zuborev told Russian news outlet RBC that the directive has already affected many companies dealing with online payments, including cryptocurrency exchange Deribit which was forced to leave the EU and move its operations to Panama.
While it’s mostly companies that deal with regulatory issues such as this one, ePayments customers might also be required to participate in the “remediation.” Viktor Pershikov, a leading analyst at 8848 Invest, said that ePayments could request additional documents from its users confirming the sources of their funds to determine the feasibility of financial transactions within the platform, he told RBC.
Our most sincere CONCLUSION
If it is NOT necessary, DO NOT save your money in any of these companies, even if they work well for years, there may come a time when suddenly and without notice, your account is locked overnight, without any explanation.
We believe that as a general rule, you should not save more than 10% of the money you earn in these companies. You can also look for alternatives and distribute your money among several similar companies, so at least, you will only lose access to a minimum part of your money.
UPGRADE – ePayments account suspended
As always, there are opportunistic people who try to deceive you. These are the latest recommendations of Epayments, because NOW is trying to deceive customers.
We decided to help prevent these attempts by publishing the recommendations of epayments here:
Following yesterday’s announcement outlining the suspension of activity on customer accounts, we have become aware of customers being approached by third parties, offering to help access suspended accounts and recover funds.
ePayments did not send this message nor did we authorise any party to send it. Any such request should be treated with extreme caution and we urge you not to reply to it. Also, please do not follow any links, included in these messages.
We highly recommend the following security rules are followed:
- do not give your password to third parties (even to us). Access to your ePayments personal area should only be available to you
- do not send your password via email, instant messengers or SMS to anyone
- use two-factor authentication (2FA) for authorising your account
- before entering your password, be sure that the real website address is shown in the browser’s address bar
- do not follow links from emails with suspicious content. Always pay attention to the sender’s email address and the email format (if it differs from the usual format)
- do not send your personal information and copies of documents upon request if you are unsure who exactly is requesting them. ePayments always addresses clients by their name, and requests will only be sent from the email addresses indicated on our website
- do not install suspicious programs received from acquaintances and strangers, especially if the program was downloaded from a website that distributes illegal content
If you received an email but are not sure whether it is from us, do not follow any links contained within it and do not open any attached files. Send us an email at [email protected] and we will look into it.
All official information is posted on the ePayments website and sent by email to all ePayments customers. We do not send SMS messages with announcements.
We understand this is a frustrating time for our customers, we are working tirelessly to bring our services back up and running. We want to assure customers that their funds are safeguarded throughout this process.
The VerEnCasa team.
ePayments account suspended
