Dear Mr. GDCA President,

I have been writing and blogging lately about the possible or alleged recent issues regarding e-Bullion. I feel, as do many readers, it is important to determine whether these possible issues are rhetoric, a few unhappy agents or possibly big events that will effect the industry as a whole… I now see that the GDCA has posted a warning regarding e-bullion at: http://gdcaonline.org/content/news.html

In that warning it states that :

“….E-bullion.com closes and/or freezes accounts without any court order or reasonable justification, sometimes freezing customer funds forever.”

• Please present proof of these events by showing the closed account documentation and any correspondence with e-bullion regarding that account and its closure.
• Please comment on why e-bullion closed the account or accounts, any justification e-bullion presented or did not present.
• Please provide your opinion as to why e-bullion has taken this action.
• Please provide evidence of e-bullion seizing or freezing account holder funds and not returning them as stated in your comment/warning above. Who had their funds ’stolen’ or has stated they had funds seized?
• Please show me the evidence of a rumored investigation by the USSS, because I heard a rumor they were going to be bought by Donald Trump. Rumors are not fact and have no place in an industry ‘warning’ without supporting information. Provide me these facts or the person openly commenting about an ongoing investigation being conducted by an agency of the US government.
• Please provide me copies of any complaints from users that the GDCA may have received regarding e-bullion for the past two years.
• Please include e-mail or other documentation so these can be verified by me.
• Please provide me any exchanger opinions or complaints which you have documented regarding the policies and terms now in use by e-bullion.

You should know that I have already been in touch with Mr. Joseph Hamilton, CISSP Chief Technical Officer, e-Bullion.com, on several recent occasions regarding these stated rumors.

Its my firm belief that resolving any problem whether minor or serious can be accomplished by logical discussion and clarification of facts, not rumors and flaming.

I would appreciate it if you can comment here below this post at your earliest convenience, whether you can or will produce the above requested material to me via email. All other comments and questions are welcome. Feel free to remove any personal or financial information from these documents. After hearing from you, Mr. Hamilton of e-bullion will again be contacted for his comments, he is available and reaching me just fine.

Thanks and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Mark Herpel

Welcome to Amazon Payments. It has a lot of competition like PayPal, Google Checkout and all those online merchant account services but with Amazon.com’s built in global retail market, this new ‘payment processor’ is sure to be a big hit. Here is their pitch…

Amazon Payments provides you with the same trusted payment experience available on Amazon today, leveraging proven fraud detection and risk management capabilities.

• Customers can pay you with their existing Amazon.com accounts and stored credit cards in just a few clicks
• Payment information is kept secure on Amazon servers at all times
• Amazon Payments ™ is free to sign up with no startup or monthly fees of any kind
• Use Amazon payments for auctions, web stores, personal debts or anywhere else you need to get paid

Is this a new twist on e-commerce?   No, not really…with an Amazon Payments Personal Account shoppers can use their CC through their Amazon Payments account to make secure purchases from 3rd party web sites wherever Amazon Payments is accepted. Those third party web purchases, do not require you to re-enter your payment information. Just like Google Checkout.

You can also ‘enhance’ that Amazon Payments Personal Account by linking to your US bank. With this enhanced set up you can pay or receive funds from others and the dough will remain in your Amazon account. Store your funds online in this account and spend them as you shop, withdraw them to your linked bank or even an Amazon.com gift certificate.

Read more

PayPal has just announced the launch of Mobile Checkout, a service allowing consumers in the U.S. , U.K. and Canada to buy items securely using cell phones and the mobile web. The partnership with GPShopper, the leader in mobile product search technology, enables PayPal users to search for products from PayPal merchants, see product descriptions, images and then buy products from their mobile phones.

Mobile Checkout is a simple payment mechanism for consumers on-the-go and merchants with online storefronts. From www.mobile.paypal.com, consumers click “Buy Something” where they then can find products they want to buy, see featured products, browse mobile stores, or find mobile storefronts over the mobile internet.

GPShopper has the only proven solution for enabling consumers to search and share products and promotions straight from their cell phone. Scaled to handle billions of products listed at millions of locations for millions of users any where in the world makes GPShopper a fantastic fit for PayPal.

Earlier this month Sprint and GPShopper announced the launch of Slifter, the first mobile local product search application that employs GPS technology to find products at neighboring retail locations.

PayPal earns its money by charging a transaction fee of 30 cents per transaction and up to 4.9 percent of the payment amount. With nearly 7,000 employees worldwide and plans to hire around 600 more this year PayPal is leading the way with stats like these:

• PayPal had 143 million accounts in March and expects to keep growing.
• PayPal accounted for $439 million of eBay’s $1.77 billion in just the last quarter.
• PayPal handled 177 million transactions worth $11.36 billion during the first quarter.

Source: 5W Public Relations

e-gold

Lesser known online payment options for US players are now becoming popular. How long will it last? No one knows, but here is the second US method I have seen this month. The first ‘work around’ was also a prepaid card.

The newly popular option for US players is the PayTru prepaid Visa® card. This gaming deposit method is NOT an e-wallet, it is a prepaid Visa® card. It does not appear to be the kind of massive billion dollar operation like the ones singled out by the anti-gambling folks. Besides the Visa® logo, there does not seem to be any direct connection to US banking. Does the Island of Antigua ring a bell for payment processing?

PayTru handles the issuance of Visa® branded prepaid debit cards to consumers worldwide. The PayTru prepaid Visa® card is good at merchants anywhere in the world which display the Visa® or PLUS® logo. Additionally, the PayTru prepaid Visa® Cards work at almost one million ATMs worldwide.

PayTru, the debit card company, operates its proprietary debit card-based electronic transaction processing system (www.paytrucard.com) using the Internet for sales and marketing.

IQ-Ludorum PLC seems to steer the ship. They acquired a 33% minority interest in PayTru Card Services Ltd (’PayTru’) in May of 2006. IQ-L integrates the underwriting and issuance of the prepaid debit cards in real time directly from gaming web site. Its really a smooth integrated operation.

PayTru is co-owned by Gateway Payment Solutions AG Deutsche Bank and Global Bank of Commerce who sponsors and guarantee the PayTru transactions with VISA and MasterCard.

About the operation:

IQ-L’s current compliance procedures exceed the anti money laundering regulations imposed on domestic banks in the US and all payment products subscribe to the ‘Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard’. All transactions are coded in strict accordance with VISA and MasterCard international guidelines. IQ-L has consulted with the Antiguan government on what additional controls they would like to see in place and is currently working closely with authorities with the intent to maintain their e-commerce transactions at the fore front of international compliance. IQ-L performs extensive due diligence on all of its customers and will only deal with companies that are fully licensed in the jurisdiction that they operate.

If you happen to try this method, please let us know your experience.

Separating fact from fiction.

Here is what Chris says about the current e-gold situation. Based on his post, I’m assuming that he heard this from the 1mdc admin.

“The USA government has 3 us officials (investigators) constantly filling out paperwork, to 100% freeze e-gold accounts that have had dirty money or dodgy transactions in them. This could be from as little as investing in a hyip! E-gold is getting into trouble with the US government because it is effectively breaking the law by allowing … and fraudulent activities to commerce anonymously… and they aren’t trying to crack down - which is why the fbi started raiding their offices quite frequently).”

First, I’m only aware of the one government visit to e-gold in December of 2005. That visit was pretty well documented in Businessweek. A public response from e-gold is also available here. Finally, in late January of 2006 Dr. Jackson wrote a public letter explaining the situation from his angle and you can view it here. I’d like to also say that the government’s only allegation during that time was that G&SR had operated as a currency exchange without the proper license. As far as we know, that was the extent of the case.

Second, these charges or allegations have been dismissed or dropped and they no longer exist. There seems to now be a civil action in their place. We may hear more about that in April.

There is no public information or proof of any other visits, so they are NOT being frequently raided. It is public knowledge that e-gold often receives court orders for information and fully complies with the agencies including the FBI, the Securities & Exchange Commission, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. They are all seeking customer information.

Its also important to understand that the combined package of e-gold’s cutting edge unregulated Internet business and ten years of continuous operation under their belt, its no surprise that mixed in with all that big money international business there are some bad apples(crooks).

This is a brand new financial invention developed by the creative mind and driving force of Dr. Jackson. Its the first of its kind and ground breaking. With a decade of new experiences now behind them, I’m sure they have adapted a lot since that first gram moved from one account to another back in 1996. I see these recent months as more of adaptation to the changing financial landscape of the Internet. Its not a bad thing. Its expected.

Chris seems to be warning users of the potential surveillance on their e-gold accounts. It sounds like a warning directed towards those who may be attempting to misuse the e-gold system… ‘beware all of these events took place and now they are watching the accounts’. The unfortunate thing, is that this ‘warning’ has gained an audience across the Internet. Regular users are now concerned with the future of their assets as often evidenced from email lists and forum posts. Here are a few examples from a December 2006 post entitled, What Does The Future Hold For e-Gold? .

The two questions Chris’s post bring to light are:

1. What has happened in the past 14 months between e-gold and law enforcement?
2. Where are they now headed? (fast growth? closing? becoming more regulated? just biz as usual?)

Read more

PayPal online payment systems is pitching in to help the City of New Orleans recovery. PayPal Mobile, their SMS mobile payment service is now working with the 2007 Mardi Gras Sponsorship & Support Program, Enabling Donations to the Critical ‘City Services

The City of New Orleans and MediaBuys, LLC, its agency-of-record for the 2007 New Orleans Mardi Gras Sponsorship & Support Program has just announced a special 2007 Sponsorship & Support Program which will allow cellular phone users to contribute directly to the “City Services Fund” which covers the building costs for critical elements of New Orleans’ municipal services. This is a great move by PayPal to assist the City in its recovery from Hurricane Katrina’s widespread damage.

Starting on February 8th, the first day of the Mardi Gras parade season and for the entire next year, people can use PayPal mobile from any cell phone can donate directly to the city’s restoration.

PayPal’s newest service venture, PayPal Mobile, allows cell phone customers to send digital money, purchase items or make charitable donations from their mobile devices. To use PayPal Mobile, customers first activate their telephones by logging into their PayPal accounts at http://www.paypal.com/mobile, or going to the PayPal website on their mobile browser. In addition, customers can activate by proceeding through a PayPal Mobile checkout on a web-enabled phone.

This is a great public relations campaign for PayPal and a super way to help others in need. In my opinion, it would not hurt other digital currencies to visibly contribute to or helpful causes or set up operations which facilitate public contributions using their product.

Source: PRNewswire