ePayments in Trouble

How to verify your ePayments account

Latest update:

On 27 May 2021, I got another email from ePayments stating that my documentation for verification to my account was received and “accepted”.  But it’s the sort of “accepted” that they still need to conduct some final checks on my account before they re-open it for my refund. in the email, they said,

“Depending on how you used your account previously, the nature of our final checks will differ, so this means that some customers are getting refunds slightly sooner than others. Please don’t worry, we know you are waiting and we are urgently working around the clock to get your account opened for a refund.”

I think it boils down to if you are money laundering and/or doing something fishy, then we can’t just let you have it.  If your account activities look like any normal users, then we can say to the regulatory authority that your account is clean and ok.  Is money involved in the adult industry considered clean? We will see.


On 18 Jan 2021, I received an app notification that I should log in to ePayments and update my personal details. This is supposed to be necessary to re-activate my ePayments account so that I can transfer my fund again.  This is what they said in the email:

Hi,

We are pleased to announce that we are starting the process of gradually remediating customer accounts in order to grant access to funds.

This process will include requesting you to provide additional information with regards to the purpose of your ePayments account usage and passing through our updated verification process. We appreciate you completing the process within 7 days.

Please log into your ePayments account from the website or Mobile application and follow the instructions which our system shows you.

Once you complete the process, we might require some additional information from you. In that case we will contact you via the ticket system.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with ePayments support team.

Important information: we will not be able to immediately grant access to funds once you complete the remediation process as we have to undergo a number of checks and balances to make sure we’ve done everything correctly. We will notify you separately by email once we will be able to invite you and make a refund.

How to re-activate and verify my existing ePayments account?

  1. Login to ePayments via the web or phone app (if you log in via the web, you need the phone app to confirm the login session)
  2. You will be shown the verification page.
  3. Have your identification documents ready, be it passport or other types of ID documents.
  4. Have a phone that can take a selfie with. (It is possible to do it with the webcam of your laptop if your phone camera is not working)
  5. Click Start to start the process.
  6. Check and verify the personal details are all correct and click Confirm.
  7. You will need to scan the QR code provided to go to a site called Veriff.com to take pictures of your ID document and yourself, during which background video and audio will be recorded to allow ePayments to check that the document and selfie are really taken live and real (if they want to check).  You will be notified when the recording session is going to start.
  8. Take a picture of your ID document.
  9. Take a selfie of yourself in a well-lit environment
  10. Click submit and you should receive a confirmation on the screen. Your verification using Veriff is finished.
  11. Subject to your account, when you go back to ePayments’ page, you may be asked to provide more proof, for example, proof of address and etc.

After you’ve submitted everything they asked for, you won’t be able to access your fund right away. I presume ePayments will need to check them manually and approve them one by one. And we will be notified if more information needs to be provided or whether we will get full access to our account.

Good luck everyone!


In April 2020, all users of ePayments were asked to install their app so that it can be used for a second factor to confirm the login.


ePayments in Trouble? More like clients in trouble

Here we go again. Years ago we have ePassporte closed down all of a sudden. I lost some money from that and never get it back. FirstChoicePay got shut in 2018 and the liquidators were busy auditing and distributing money to the creditors.  (Update: I didn’t get back all my earnings till the end of 2020). Now, Feb 2020, we heard that ePayments has found a weakness in preventing money laundering and all clients’ accounts activities will be suspended.

What happened to ePayments?

On 12 Feb 2020, I received this email from them:

We write to inform you that in accordance with paragraph 12.1 (j) of our standard terms and conditions, we have unfortunately taken the hard decision to suspend activity on customer accounts, effective from today. During the course of this suspension customers will be unable to transfer, deal, withdraw or deposit funds and will be unable to use their ePayments cards.

Following a review by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’) of ePayments Systems Limited’s (‘ePayments’) anti-money laundering systems and controls, a number of weaknesses have been identified which require urgent remediation to ensure that our customers can enjoy a safe and secure platform.

Following discussions with the FCA, ePayments has agreed to suspend activity on customer accounts until remedial action has been undertaken to the satisfaction of the FCA.

We know this will be a very frustrating time for our customers. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and are working tirelessly with the FCA to ensure improvements are made and accounts can be reactivated as soon as possible.

During this improvement process, we want to assure customers that their funds are being safeguarded as normal.

Should you have any questions in connection with this letter please contact our support.

So, despite the fact that they always ask for the purposes of the money transfer, apparently, it is not good enough. It still doesn’t meet the FCA’s requirements. I suppose it does look suspicious when some camgirls can earn a 5 digit income a period, and there can be many transfers like that. It does make it look like a money-laundering haven.

Suspicious – a month ago

Now I think of it, about one to two months ago, some cam sites have claimed that ePayments was not dealing with porn sites and they can no longer pay the models or affiliates with ePayments and request us to change to another payment method. I suppose this is step one of ePayments to try to “clean up” and hope this act can remove the dodginess. However, there are still plenty of adult sites, including cam sites who are experienced with this and managed to set up innocent-looking, mainstream companies to deal with this problem. Camcontacts and Bongacams are one of those. After ePayments claimed that they are not dealing with adult businesses, I continue to receive payments from these two, and I presume there are many more.

Now what?

ePayments is in trouble now.

But it’s more like – ePayments’ clients are in trouble now.

What’s the Impact?

Many online businesses rely on ePayments for payout to business partners and affiliates. By freezing account activities on ePayment, money becomes not accessible. Not all business has a good cash flow to allow them to pay with a different channel. One of the biggest client sectors of ePayments, of course, is from porn-related sites like cam sites. Lots of cam sites use it to pay the models and affiliates. Without payment, or payment being held, it is definitely not a happy partnership.  Not to mention there are plenty of cam models who rely on the payout to pay their bills. And that’s why some cam sites like Chaturbate even offer payout-on-request, not bound by pay period for their models.

What will happen?

As expected, after this incident, if ePayments managed to reopen to all customers, everyone will withdraw their money and run. Not to mention during this period, everyone will be looking for alternatives.  And that’s nearly the end of ePayments!

If you have any more news about this or thoughts would like to share, please comment below.  We need to work together to get our hard-earned money back.

 

2 thoughts on “ePayments in Trouble”

  1. On 2 Apr 2020, ePayments has sent an email to everyone stating that ePayments customers should all install their app so that they can use a second factor to validate and authorize our logins.

    This authentication is available starting from 6th April 2020.

    There are 2 ways to set up for this 2-factor authentication:

    1. Recommended – via the ePayments app. You sign in to ePayments with your username and password and authorize the device. You have to prove your identity by either SMS, Google Authenticator or Push notification. Once your have successsfully logged in, you have to confirm that this is your trusted device to carry out transactions with ePayments.

    2. You can also use the web browser. Go to the ePayments website and the system will generate a QR code. You still need to use the ePayments app to scan the QR code and confirm your trusted device.

    So, either way, YOU HAVE TO INSTALL EPAYMENTS APP, starting 6 Apr.

    All ePayments customers, install the app now so there is no delaying of accessing your account when they are back.

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